Between two lakes just north of Filipstad is one of Sweden's best preserved mining environments, with a rare mineral richness and more than 400 years of industrial history. The story is seated between mines and foundry, mining pits, monumental piles of waste rock and in John Ericssongården's lush garden at the shore of Hyttsjön. Welcome to the mining district Bergslagen in Värmland!
This is where John Ericsson was born in the early 1800s, the greatest celebrity of the time. He was an inventor who constantly wanted to improve things and realized early that he had to travel the world to places where industrialism had come further than in Sweden. He designed the Novelty steam engine, invented the steam pumper fire engine and improved the propeller. This ingenuity took him to America where his ironclad warship monitor, was to determine the outcome of the American Civil War.
After his death John Ericsson was brought to Sweden with great honours and is buried in Filipstad. From Långban i Värmland to New York in America and back again.
Read more about his brother Nils and why his name is not on the memorial stone and about their big sister Anna Karolina who was at least as talented as her brothers.