Between the lake Espedalsvatnet and the lake Breidsjøen in the middle of the valley lies "Verksodden".

In a few periods from 1846 to 1878 nickel was found in the valley. During these periods there was a small "town" situated at Verksodden. It included a school, church, gathering house, office, apartments for the workers, a smelting hut, a mill and sawmill amongst other. There where up to 700- 1000 workersin the valley at that time.

In choosing the place to build a smelting house there were several factors to consider. The starting point was the availability of copper ore, but access to large forests of timber and the availability of water power were also decisive in the production of copper.

Primarily it was important to find a situation that required the least amount of transport. Firstly, the ore had to be transported from the mines to the smelting house, which could be several kilometres away. Secondly, the operation of the smelters relied on the availability of charcoal and firewood.

Another deciding factor for the operation of the smelting plant was a stable supply of water-power. The smelting houses therefore had to be situated by a flowing river that did not freeze over in the winter months and had sufficient power to drive the bellows that forced air into the smelting furnaces.

Some of the "left over's" of this is still to be found between the lake Espedalsvatnet and the lake Breidsjøen. The smelting oven itself (the old norwgian name was "masovn") is partly restored and stands as a monument for peoples work and strive in this mountain valley.

Today we only see the walls and water channel. From the smelting oven itself and down to Breidsjøen lies large amounts of slag - which was the waist from the smelting process.