Döda Fallet

Döda fallet (The dead fall) is a former whitewater rapid in Ragunda Municipality in the eastern part of the province of Jämtland in Sweden.

The Indalsälven river previously flowed through the 25 km (16 mi) long lake Ragundasjön and then immediately over a high waterfall known then as Gedungsen or Storforsen (The great whitewater rapid). It was one of the most impressive waterfalls in Sweden with a total fall height of about 35 meters (115 feet) and a large water discharge. However, in a flood in 1796, the entire river rerouted itself through a small canal constructed to bypass the falls, draining the lake and drying up the former rapids.

The Indalsälven flows through a valley between mountains in Jämtland province of Sweden. In one place its course before the Ice Age went south of a high rock spur with a round mountain in its end sticking out of the valley's north side. In the Ice Age its course past that spur was filled with glacial and periglacial deposit, and after the ice retreated the river flowed further north, over the neck of the spur, causing Storforsen.

In the late 18th century, logging emerged as a major industry in the heavily forested region of Jämtland. The rivers were used as fast and relatively easy transportation of the timber to the coastal sawmills. The whitewater rapid Storforsen however was a major obstacle as it damaged or destroyed much of the timber, forcing use of land transportation (portaging) past the waterfall. Another issue was that salmon could not swim upstream through Storforsen, and this made the fishing downstream good, but poor upstream.

Because of this, a man named Magnus Huss, also known as Vildhussen (the Wild Huss), was in 1793 appointed to solve the problem by constructing a canal to bypass the waterfall. During 1794 and 1795 preliminary work such as clearing forest was carried out, but work on the canal channel did not begin until 1796, partly due to sabotage by locals who were skeptical or did not want to lose their paid work portaging the timber.

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