The Seven Croft Trail is a 8.2 km long hiking trail in the border country between Sweden and Norway. Lekvattnet in Torsby municipality and Varaldskogen in Kongsvinger municipality meet here. As the name implies, the trail leads past seven crofts, all with forest Finn origins.
Lebiko was one of the last Finnish crofts built in Finnskogen. There was no habitation here when Gottlund passed this way, but the farm was included in the large-scale agricultural census carried out in 1865. Lebiko was probably inhabited from 1840, and is a typical croft from that period. Crofts were small and many, which made people seek for new places to live.
A Swedish interpretation is that the word "Lebiko" means Alhult, or Alder grove. "Lebi" is a corruption of "leppi", which is the Finnish word for the alder tree. The suffix “-ko” is Finnish, and means small woodland or grove.
Today, Statskog (the Norwegian state forestry organisation) owns Lebiko, as well as the majority of the Varald Forest. The last people to live on the farm were Ole and Lina Lebiko, who moved to Varaldgrenda in 1969.
Lebiko is today run by the Finnskogen Tourist Association. The Association tries to keep the lands in cultivation by hay making every year in early Au-gust. A Lebiko festival is arranged at the same time, with an open house, and food is served. Sometimes Lebiko is also open at the weekends, with simple food and drink, a shop and the opportunity to obtain information about the tourist association and Finnskogen.
You can stay at Lebiko, but you need a key; contact Torsby Tourist Office or Finnskogen Tourist Association.