The municipality of Steigen was established on 1 January 1838 (see
formannskapsdistrikt law). The southern part of Steigen Municipality was separated on 1 September 1900 to form the new
Ledingen Municipality. This left 2,216 residents in Steigen Municipality. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the
Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, a major municipal merger took place. A new Steigen Municipality was created by the merging the following areas: • all of Steigen Municipality (population: 1,829) • all of
Leiranger Municipality (population: 1,397) • most of
Nordfold Municipality except the
Mørsvikbotn area (population: 1,212) • the small
Brennsund area of
Kjerringøy Municipality (population: 30) • the part of
Hamarøy Municipality that was south of the Sagfjorden and between the lake
Storvatnet and the
Veggfjellan mountain area (population: 77) Prior to the merger, the population of Steigen Municipality was 1,843, and after the merger, the new municipality had 4,545 residents.
Name The municipality (originally the
parish) is named after the old
Steigen farm () since the first
Steigen Church was built there. The name is derived from the verb which means "mount" or "rise". This is referring to the high and steep mountain Steigtinden (
-tinden means "the peak") behind the farm.
Coat of arms The
coat of arms was granted on 12 October 1988, but they were not formally approved by the government until 11 January 1991. The official
blazon is
"Or three axe blades sable in bend" (). This means the arms have a
field (background) that has a
tincture of
Or which means it is commonly colored yellow, but if it is made out of metal, then gold is used. The
charge is three
axe heads from the
Viking Age that are lined up diagonally. The design was chosen to represent the
Viking history of the municipality. There are three axe heads to represent that three municipalities were merged in 1964 to form the present municipality. The arms were designed by Henry Tømmerås, the municipal cultural secretary at the time.
Churches The
Church of Norway has three parishes () within Steigen Municipality. It is part of the
Salten prosti (
deanery) in the
Diocese of Sør-Hålogaland. Ask og brygge.JPG|Part of the old garden at Løvøy Sagaspill Vakter-hagbart-er-tatt.jpg|
Steigen Sagaspill (historical play), based on an old tale Løvøy gamle handelssted med Engeløya.JPG|
Løvøy old trading centre in Steigen ==Geography==