Skutskär

Skutskär is a bimunicipal locality and the seat of Älvkarleby Municipality in Uppsala County, Sweden with 6,075 inhabitants in 2010. According to the census of 2000 6,003 people lived in Skutskär, most of them in Älvkarleby Municipality, but a minor part in Gävle Municipality in Gävleborg County.

==History== Originally Skutskär was the area south and south-east from the industries located there. The first record of Skutskär (Ship Reef) is done 1741 and describes an anchoring point for the industries of Harnäs. The industries in question are iron smelting furnaces in Harnäs (shut down in the 1910s) and later the saw mill and wood pulp mill Skutskärsverken owned by Stora Enso which is still one of the largest in the world. This mill and its subcontractors remains by far the largest employer in Skutskär and the surrounding area. Skutskär back then had a large percentage of laborers and their families, which led to the building of all the facilities needed in a small town, including schools, shops, a fire brigade, ambulance and police. Even a public bath (shut down and demolished in the 1970s) and other facilities that must have been a luxury for the working class was built, often with support from the pulp mill.