Tolga, Norway

Tolga is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Østerdalen. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Tolga. The municipality is bordered in the east by the municipality of Tynset, in the south by Rendalen, and in the east by Engerdal and Os, all in Innlandet county.

The 1123 km2 municipality is the 99th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Tolga is the 300th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 1,555. The municipality's population density is 1.4 PD/km2 and its population has decreased by 7.5% over the previous 10-year period.

General information
The parish of Tolgen was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). On 1 January 1911, the new municipality of Engerdal was established. The southeastern portion of Tolga (population: 201) was separated from Tolga and merged with portions of neighboring Øvre Rendal, Ytre Rendal, and Trysil to create this new municipality. On 1 July 1926, the northern parish of Os (population: 1,936) was separated to become the new municipality of Os. This left Tolga with 1,917 residents. In 1927, a small part of Tolga (population: 18) was transferred to the neighboring municipality of Os.

During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1966, the neighboring municipalities of Tolga (population: 1,944) and Os (population: 2,015) were merged to form the new municipality of Tolga-Os. This merger was not well received by the residents and soon after the merger, they began working towards separating once again. On 1 January 1976, the municipality of Tolga-Os was divided into the municipalities of Tolga (population: 1,865) and Os (population: 1,859), using their historic borders from before 1966.

Name
The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Tolga farm since the first Tolga Church was built there (in 1688). The name comes from the small river which flows through the area (now known as the river Tolja). The name of the river may come from the word (þǫll which means "young pine tree". Historically, the name of the municipality was spelled Tolgen. On 3 November 1917, a royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to Tolga.

Coat of arms
The coat of arms was granted on 14 July 1989. The official blazon is "Gules, a bell Or" (I rødt ei gull klokke). This means the arms have a red field (background) and the charge is a bell. The bell has a tincture of Or which means it is commonly colored yellow, but if it is made out of metal, then gold is used. Tolga was home to the smeltehytte (a smelting hut) from 1666 to 1871. The bell represents the old bell from Amsterdam that was in a building in the village square since 1708. The smeltery was important because of the prevalence of mining in the area. The arms were designed by Jarle Skuseth. The municipal flag has the same design as the coat of arms.

Churches
The Church of Norway has four parishes (sokn) within the municipality of Tolga. It is part of the Nord-Østerdal prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Hamar.

Government
Tolga Municipality is responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services, senior citizen services, welfare and other social services, zoning, economic development, and municipal roads and utilities. The municipality is governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor is indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council. The municipality is under the jurisdiction of the Østre Innlandet District Court and the Eidsivating Court of Appeal.

Municipal council
The municipal council (Kommunestyre) of Tolga is made up of 15 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The tables below show the current and historical composition of the council by political party.

Mayors
The mayors (ordfører) of Tolga:


 * 1838-1839: Svend Stenersen
 * 1840-1843: John Simensen Grue
 * 1843-1847: Thore N. Røe
 * 1847-1855: John Simensen Grue
 * 1855-1859: Thore N. Røe
 * 1859-1863: John Simensen Grue
 * 1863-1867: Thore N. Røe
 * 1867-1879: J. Estensen
 * 1879-1893: O.I. Strand
 * 1893-1896: Elias Gjelten
 * 1896-1899: Martinus Gjelten
 * 1899-1902: Iver O. Sagbakken
 * 1902-1908: Anders Urset
 * 1908-1914: Iver O. Sagbakken
 * 1914-1926: Tore Hummelvoll
 * 1926-1931: Per Aaseng
 * 1932-1934: O.I. Sagbakken
 * 1935-1937: Embret Nygård
 * 1938-1941: Nils Bakken
 * 1941-1944: Lars Eide (NS)
 * 1945-1945: Esten P. Moen
 * 1946-1948: Erling Aas-Eng, Sr. (Bp)
 * 1949-1951: Jon Hulbækdal
 * 1952-1965: Erling Aas-Eng, Sr. (Bp)
 * (1966-1975: Part of Tolga-Os Municipality)
 * 1976–1985: Anders Johnsgård (Sp)
 * 1985–1986: Jon Vingelen (Sp)
 * 1986–1999: Lars Buttingsrud (Sp)
 * 1999–2007: Marit Gilleberg (Ap)
 * 2007–2011: Erling Aas-Eng (Sp)
 * 2011–2019: Ragnhild Aashaug (Sp)
 * 2019–present: Bjørnar Tollan Jordet (SV)

Geography
Tolga lies in the northeastern part of Innlandet county. The river Glåma runs through the municipality. The mountains Håmmålsfjellet and Elgspiggen both lie on the municipal boundaries. The lake Langsjøen is located just south of the village of Øversjødalen in the southeastern part of the municipality.

Notable people

 * Kaleb Nytrøen (1905 in Tolga – 1994), a police officer who helped develop the Norwegian Police Security Service
 * Egil Storbekken (1911 in Tolga – 2002), a folk musician and composer
 * Arnljot Eggen (1923 in Tolga – 2009), a journalist and teacher who wrote poetry, plays and children's books
 * Olav Jordet (born 1939 in Tolga), a former Norwegian biathlete, bronze medallist at the 1964 Summer Olympics, and team silver medallist in the 1968 Summer Olympics
 * Hans Fredrik Jacobsen (born 1954), a Norwegian musician and composer who is based in Tolga
 * Tone Hulbækmo (born 1957 in Tolga), a Norwegian singer and musician
 * Olav Viksmo-Slettan (born 1965 in Tolga), a Norwegian radio and TV reporter for the NBC
 * Hans Hulbækmo (born 1989 in Tolga), a composer and musician on drums and percussion
 * Alf Hulbækmo (born 1992 in Tolga), a composer, singer, and musician on piano, keyboards, harmonica and saxophone