Editing Kiruna (section)

=== Early history ===
[[File:Kiruna befolkningsutveckling 1900–2000.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Population development in Kiruna town]]
[[File:Aurora 3 in Kiruna.JPG|right|thumb|250px|Aurora taken from the suburbs of Kiruna]]

Before the design for the settlement had been accepted, houses were built in a disorganized manner with illegal [[slum]]s similar to those in the other mining town, [[Malmberget]], {{convert|80|km}} south of Kiruna. Also, provisional buildings served as a church, a school, a hospital, a hotel and a police station. However, official residences were built at a high pace, and when the king opened the railway in 1903, all illegal residences and most other provisional buildings had been demolished and replaced. The very first building, ''B:1'', is preserved and can be seen at ''Hjalmar Lundbohmsgården''. In 1899, 18 people were registered as living in soon-to-be Kiruna. This increased to 222 in 1900, 7,438 in 1910 and 12,884 in 1930.

The residences did not fully keep up with this rapid growth; by 1910, there were 1,877 official rooms and some unrecognised residences, which meant that an average of three to four people lived in a single room; this density decreased steadily during the decades to follow. Kiruna became a municipalsamhälle (a community within a municipality) in 1908. This caused unhappiness in local organisations, such as ''Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara Arbetareförening'', that had hoped for status as [[köping]], which would have kept more of the mining income inside the locality. In return, the mining company LKAB paid for a hospital, fire station, sewerage, roads, a church (opened 1912) and the priest's home.<ref name="kirunakommun" /><ref name="kiruna100gruv" /><ref name="kiruna100early" />

[[File:Church of Kiruna 2011.jpg|thumb|left|[[Kiruna Church]]]]
In April 1907, a [[tram]] began operation in Kiruna, the northernmost in the world. This meant miners would no longer have to walk several kilometres through the sub-arctic cold, nor would they need to climb a hundred meters up the mining hill. The network consisted of three lines: ''bergbanan'' ([[funicular]]), ''stadsspårvägen'' (city tramway) and ''gruvspårvägen'' (mine tramway). The funicular closed in 1955 after a road up the mine was built 1949. The city line had a maximum length of {{convert|8|km}} and was unique due to the [[narrow gauge|1-meter gauge]], double-glazed windows and heated wagons. It closed in 1958 after gradually being replaced by buses. Between 1941 and 1964, a tram was used inside the mine, with wagons bought from closed tramlines throughout Sweden.<ref name="kiruna100komm" />

The iron ore industry was good in the early 20th century. Before the start of the work, Hjalmar Lundbohm worried whether the Kiruna winter would allow for working outside at all, but despite early research into underground mining, [[mountaintop removal mining]] was the primary method in the early years. Mechanisation was attempted early using [[steam power]]ed excavators, but the cold climate led to considerable difficulties and only when electrical machinery became available in the 1910s, significant mechanisation was achieved. The peak of [[Kiirunavaara]], ''Statsrådet'', was {{convert|247.7|m}} above [[Luossajärvi]] until it was spectacularly blown off in 1910.<ref name="lkab" /><ref name="kiruna100gruv" />

A general strike hit Sweden in 1909 and Kiruna was no exception. Hoping for a better future, thousands of people left Kiruna, including a group of 500 inhabitants emigrating to Brazil. Most of them returned, disappointed that life in [[Latin America]] was not what they had hoped it to be. Hjalmar Lundbohm personally lent money for the trip home to some of the emigrants.<ref name="lkab" /><ref name="kiruna100gruv" />

During [[World War I]], iron ore production dropped to the lowest level in LKAB's history, and when exports increased again, a successful three-month strike in 1920 led to a 20% increase in salaries for the miners. Production dropped to a minimum in 1922 and a three-day work week was introduced, but during the ''fabulous twenties'', it increased to a record nine million tonnes in 1927.<ref name="kiruna100gruv" />

In 1921, mining started at Kiruna's other hill, [[Luossavaara]]. However, the total amount of ore that could be mined in [[open pit mining]] here was small compared to Kiirunavaara, and LKAB preferred to concentrate resources in one place. Nevertheless, mining here continued until 1974 and later it became a research mine.<ref name="lkab" /><ref name="kiruna100gruv" /> While 19th-century mining in Kiruna had focused on Luossavaara the large-scale operation of LKAB focused on the Kiruna ore proper because it was both larger and not subject to legal restrictions that mandate Luossavaara ore to be refined in Sweden.<ref name=Hansson2015-212>Hansson 2015, p. 212.</ref>

During the first decades of Kiruna's existence, no road connected it to the outside world. The only connection was by railway or, as in the time before the railway, by boat (in summer) via the [[Torne (Finnish and Swedish river)|Torne]] and [[Kalix river|Kalix]] rivers to [[Jukkasjärvi]] and Håmojåkk and then proceeding by foot. A road from Kiruna was built to Tuolluvaara in 1901, Poikkijärvi in 1909, Alttajärvi in 1913 and connected to [[Svappavaara]] in 1926, from where roads already connected via [[Vittangi]] to [[Pajala]] and via Lappesuando to [[Gällivare]] and further south.<ref name="kiruna100komm" />

The [[Great Depression]] led to a 70% drop in ore production, a drop that would turn into a dramatic increase on the eve of [[World War II]].<ref name="kiruna100gruv" />

Although some tourists had already started coming to the area in the 19th century, the completion of the railway line truly made tourism possible. Tourists came for the rivers and the mountains, but also geologists and entire classes of students came to see the mine. Additionally, a yearly winter sports festival was started, which attracted people from a wide area. The Sami population was already a tourist attraction in the early days of Kiruna's existence.<ref name="kiruna100turism">{{cite book |title=Kiruna 100-årsboken |chapter=Näringsliv och forskning – Turismen |last=Barck |first=Åke |date=27 April 2000|publisher=[[Kiruna municipality|Kiruna kommun]] |location=Kiruna |isbn=91-630-9371-5 |pages=60–74 |language=sv}}</ref>

In the early 1920s a movement that became known as "Kirunasvenskarna" (the [[Kiruna Swedes]]) decided to emigrate to [[Soviet Russia]], the land where they hoped for better working conditions and higher wages and general standards. They were the last Swedes who emigrated in groups. Most of these emigrants lived in Kiruna prior to their move.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.levandehistoria.se/kirunasvenskarna/vilka-var-kirunasvenskarna | title=Vilka var Kirunasvenskarna? }}</ref>