The Sheep Farming Station

During World War II, the residents of Godthåb had sheep farming in Nuuk, where the Health Assistant School and Queen Ingrid’s Hospital are located today.

Shortly after the war, these sheep and their leader, the famous Sigurt Stefanson, were moved to Qooqqut in 1947 to establish the experimental sheep farming station, Korkut.

As the capital needed to expand, it was decided to move this sheep farm to Korkut, and build: a stable for about 500 sheep, a crew barracks, a foreman’s house, and a manager’s residence.

Additionally, a shed was built near the harbor, a stone building for sick sheep, a greenhouse, a potato cellar, and other small buildings.

However, Stefanson first built a traditional Icelandic home, dug into the hill, where he lived for the first two years until the manager’s residence was completed.

The crew house was built first, followed by the foreman’s house, the stable, and finally the manager’s residence, where he moved in 1949.

The house was equipped with central heating, an accumulator in the basement with accompanying batteries, and a 12V electrical system for lighting. It also had a toilet with a vent system, and a bathroom with both hot and cold water.

This was unheard-of luxury in a world where the academic Danish upper class in Godthåb had to live with well water, a tiled stove, and an outhouse.

By comparison, something similar wasn’t built in Godthåb until the mid-late 1950s.

Thus, it was not without envy that the local authorities in the city looked at Stefanson and his wife living such a free life.

It is said about Stefanson that whenever a ship or boat with an engine arrived (which in those days could take half an hour from the moment it rounded the point to when the visitors set foot on shore), he would go inside, change into his best clothes, and then go down to greet the guests. Every time.

This also says something about how few visitors actually came to Qooqqut at that time.

Another thing about Stefanson was that he had a strict division of the day:

He would rise early and work on all the things that needed to be taken care of, but at 4:00 PM, he would take a bath, pour himself a drink on the terrace in front of his house, and take the evening off.

“If you don’t stick to strict routines, you’ll end up eating straight from the pot,” he was quoted as saying.

During the construction phase, Danish craftsmen were used with a work team of local women doing the heavy work.

In the operation of the station, individuals who had been convicted of minor crimes, thefts, etc., were used.

In the early 1950s, a Greenlandic fishing family also arrived and built the small green house that sits alone near the mountain.

Stefanson and his wife had three children in Qooqqut, all of whom lived and grew up at the station during the 1950s until they reached school age.

The mother, who was a trained nurse, then had to move to Godthåb, where she worked at the hospital for a period while the children went to school.

But this was, in fact, a separation, where Stefanson had to remain at the station due to his contract with KGH, and the mother later chose to move back to Denmark with the three children.

Their daughter Edda recalls:

“I had a safe and wonderful upbringing in Qooqqut, which came to an abrupt end when we had to go to school. I found myself like a plum in an egg among the 10-20 criminals serving their sentences at the station. There was never, and I mean never, any of the prisoners who made me feel unsafe in any way; on the contrary.”

She returned to Qooqqut in the summer of 1966 when the station was closed, and her father was moved to another station, this time in South Greenland, to Upernaviarsuk, where they experimented with plants, crops, and trees.

As can be seen, the 20 years the sheep farming station existed were not particularly successful:

It was originally established to, like in South Greenland, try to get locals to start sheep farming so that the country would eventually become self-sufficient in food in a world marked by the Cold War. The Greenlandic Government realized how quickly supplies from Denmark could become an issue, and therefore it was a priority to work on this.

A pure breeding station was also established in Itinera, about 15 km from Qooqqut, with reindeer imported from Northern Norway, and a few Sami were brought in to manage them.

But during this same period, the cod fishing adventure was at its peak, also in the Godthåb fjord, so no locals saw the benefit in running up valleys and down fjords after sheep when they could take their sailing boats, row just 30 meters from the shore, fill their boat with fish, and sell the catch to make ends meet much easier than taking on a large responsibility and risk.

One must credit the Greenland Ministry for letting the project run for 20 years before they realized the hopelessness of their endeavor, but they also had the passionate Stefanson to drive it.

When the station was closed in 1966, it wasn’t simply abandoned and left behind. They hired a supervisor, who, it turned out, was also full of ideas on how to make the place function.

The man’s name was Jørgen Østergaard, and together with his wife and four sons, they took over the station.

The first thing he did was convert the sheep stable into a henhouse, where he intended to produce eggs for the town.

It worked at first, but when the ice winter came, the chickens died in large numbers, the eggs froze and burst, and the last remaining chickens were evacuated to the basement of the manager’s residence.

This was also the winter when supplies were unloaded on the ice at the mouth of the fjord, and Jørgen would then drive the old Furgerson tractor out to fetch the provisions, which were likely already frozen solid.

After the number of hens could no longer supply more than the daily household, Jørgen turned to try growing beets, but as this didn’t provide the desired result, and the boys were getting ready for school (in fact, the two oldest boys were already in the town and living at the student home while attending school), Jørgen had to throw in the towel and move to town.