Dragsö (Eriksberg)

The island of Dragsö near Eriksberg (not to be confused with Dragsö in Karlskrona) covers 70 hectares in a landscape created by the Ice Age more than 13,000 years ago. When the ice was at its thickest, Blekinge was covered with ice three kilometres deep. If, on its way south, the ice caught a crack in the rock, the rock sheered straight off. Dragsö was the site of the biggest stone quarries in Eriksberg and many of the crofters worked here. The German quarry owner F.A. Wolff opened the first quarry on Dragsö in 1853 and it ran between 1850-1930 with some interruptions. Wolff had his own boats for exporting fine-cut granite, including to Prussia in Germany. He employed more than 100 quarrymen a day and the daily pay could be as much as 4 kronor. In 1860 36,000 cubic feet of fine-cut granite were quarried on Dragsö and Tjärö, 30,000 of which were transported to Prussia. Source: Eriksberg Vilt & Natur