Calla Curman´s 

  struggle for the rocks

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The first time Calla Curman visited Lysekil, at that time with her maiden name of Lundström, was in the summer of 1864. Together with her mother acquainted the only 13-year-old Calla Lysekil for a few weeks. She was enchanted by the atmosphere of Bohuslän; the sea, islands and rocks.

Bathing and the health resort business in the former market town was still in its infancy. The granite cliffs at Stångehuvud were  at this time completely untouched by quarrying . After the visit in 1864 it would take until 1877 before Calla returned to Lysekil, following one of several visits to Norway. She came as the guest of Professor Carl Curman and the following year, 1878, she married Carl, who already in 1859 had become a health resort doctor in Lysekil. 1878-1880 Carl and Calla Curman built the houses that even today are a characteristic feature of the Lysekil townscape. After this the Curmans visited Lysekil faithfully every summer for many years. Calla took often walks in Lysekil and especially Stångehuvud. Over the years, she had come to know every corner of Stångehuvud and became more and more fond of the area.

Calla Curman in her youth.

On many evenings she would sit in the sunset at Valhall or "Vindarnas grotta" and in the twilight hours would sweep  her eyes over the yet untouched round polished granite cliffs. After a while she took her walking stick and returned to Lysekil while darkness was falling. 

Already in the early 1870s stone quarriyng had begun in Stångehuvud. Summer after summer during the last decades of the 1800s and the beginning of the 1900s Calla Curman saw that the area was becoming more and more scarred. The rapid increase of the stone industry worried her seriously. Many evenings she walked and wondered what she could do to stop the stone quarrying. But this would not be an easy task.

Several hectares of the area in Stångehuvud were owned by stone quarrying companies. These companies were hardly interested in surrendering land where a good income could be expected from granite. Moreover, the stone quarrying provided bread-and-butter income to many families in Lysekil.

1913 Carl Curman passed away. The following year Calla thought about  what she could do to honour the memory of her husband. In 1914 the First World War broke out and this came to affect the situation for the granite districts in Sweden. During the course of 1915 the unemployment increased among the stonemasons, with orders failing as a consequence of the war. The export of granite almost ceased, and the value of the granite rocks in Stångehuvud declined. 

At this moment Calla Curman saw her chance. She decided to purchase  the area, bit-by-bit. During September and October 1916 she bought a major part of Stångehuvud, from Pinnevik to just north of Hästevik. In the following years she bought some more parts. She had to negotiate with 17 different owners of land plots altogether.By the autumn of 1920 she had finished her indefatigable work and had obtained about 160 000 square metres of Stångehuvud for the total price of nearly 55 000 Swedish crowns.

The memory stone of Calla Curman – the savior of Stångehuvud – was raised in 1997 near Pinnevik.