History of Øvereidet

Garden Fjellet – or Kvastenbukt as it is called in old registers – is first mentioned in 1667. But the garden is much older, and may have had a different name before that time. The garden was originally crown property and has always been a tenant garden. It was included in the large property transfer in 1666, when the Danish king deeded almost all the land in Nordland and Troms to the financier Jocum Irgens. It later became part of the Angellgodset on Helgeland, and was among the farms in Bindal that Christian Holst on Sømnes sold to Julius Jakhelln in 1873. It thus became one of the forest properties that formed the basis of Risøbruket, where Frithjof Plahte joined a little later as co-owner.

After Risøbruket was closed in 1885, Plahte became the sole owner of the estate. Today, Fjellet is part of Plahte’s Eiendommer. Garden is located in Bindal, but borders Bronnøy municipality to the north and west. In our time, this farm would be described as very remote.

In older times – that is, until 1913-14 when the road through Velfjord to Lande was completed – Fjellet was the farm in Vassbygda that had the easiest access to the lake through Fjellvatn and Eidevatn. This was Vassbygda’s old road when they were going out of the Bindalsfjord to church, trading post, etc. There was no trade in Lande until approx. in 1900, and the chapel there was built in 1891.

Fjellet, like all the other farms in Vassbygda, had little infield area. Most of the winter fodder was collected in the open fields. But this farm had an advantage over most others, it was year-round frost proof here. It is said that in the infamous stormy year of 1811, the farm Fjellet and the farm Vassbotn in Velfjord were the only places where the grain did not freeze. At the time, the Garden also had very fishy waters close by, and the distance to the sea and sea fishing was also reasonable. The mountain was therefore probably an attractive place to live in ancient times. A disadvantage of the place was that it was exposed to storms, with heavy downpours from the steep Harangsfjellet.

At the census in 1875, there were 8 people living in Kvastenbukt, but in any case three of them were probably lodgers and worked for Risøbruket. Among them a Johannes mason from Kristiania.

The last user in Fjellet was Albert Johansen from Hongbarstad. He married Jenny, the daughter on the farm, and first moved here in the 1930s. In addition to running the small farm, Albert worked in the forest during the winters, and for many years he was the flute player for Bindalsbruk. He was known for his superpowers. In Vassbygda, and not least for the people in Fjellet, the water beds were the easiest roads to travel in both summer and winter. The ice on the lake could often be unsafe and dangerous, and over time they have claimed many human lives. The family that last lived in Fjellet was also affected, and they lost two children in particularly tragic accidents. Albert Johansen and his family moved from Fjellet in the autumn of 1949. They then started as cottagers at Tjennesmyra by Kalbekkvika. Shortly after they had moved, the old barn in Fjellet was almost crushed by some powerful storms. The mountain has since been deserted. The houses were not demolished, they have only rotted down, and as we can see today there is nothing left to find but the foundation wall of the rather large living room.

It can be mentioned that one of the very last bears to be felled in Vassbygda was shot on this property around the turn of the century. The hunter was Hans Ingebrigtsen from Govassli. He got no benefit from that pursuit. When the bear was mortally wounded, it jumped into the steeply deep Møllevatn north of the farm here and searched for itself. It was not found.