Orkanger

History

Historically, the village area that preceded the town of Orkanger was known as Orkdalsøra. The area made up of the village of Orkdalsøra and the port of Thamshavn was established as Orkanger Municipality on 1 July 1920 when the large Orkdal Municipality was divided into three smaller municipalities: the northern urban port area (population: 1,715) became Orkanger Municipality, the southern part (population: 1,760) became Orkland Municipality, and the central area (population: 3,045) remained as Orkdal Municipality. Orkanger Municipality encompassed the urban area and some of the surrounding countryside. It included an important port, but it did not have the designation of a town at that time. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1963, Orkanger Municipality (population: 2,874) was merged with Orkdal Municipality (population: 4,152), Orkland Municipality (population: 1,707), and Geitastrand Municipality (population: 559) to form a new, larger Orkdal Municipality.