The municipality of Eresfjord og Vistdal was established on 1 January 1890 when it was split off from Nesset Municipality. Eresfjord og Vistdal had an initial population of 2,155. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, the municipality was reunited with Nesset Municipality. Prior to the merger, Eresfjord og Vistdal had a population of 1,289.[4]
Name
The municipality (originally the parish) is named Eresfjord og Vistdal, a compound name meaning "Eresfjord and Vistdal", referring to the local Eresfjorden (fjord) and Vistdalen valley. The first part is Eresfjord (Old Norse: Œyrisfjǫrðr). The first element of this part comes from the old name of the local river Aura (Œyrir). This name comes from the word aurr which means "gravel" or "coarse sand". The last element of this part is fjǫrðr which means "fjord". The second part of the name is Vistdal or Vistdalen (Old Norse: Vistardalr). The first element of this part is the genitive case of the word vistr which means "calm" or "quiet one", referring to the main river running through the valley. The lower part of the river is a particularly quiet and gentle river. The last element of this part is dalr which means "valley" or "dale".[5] Historically, the name of the municipality was spelled Eresfjord og Vistdalen. On 3 November 1917, a royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to Eresfjord og Vistdal, removing the definite form ending -en.[6]
The municipal council(Herredsstyre) of Eresfjord og Vistdal was made up of 17 representatives that were elected to four-year terms. The party breakdown of the final municipal council was as follows: