There is one story I’ve never been able to forget since I heard it the first time. It’s the story of Mats Israelsson, called Fet-Mats. The name he was known by, Fat-Mats, means Fat-Mats. Allegedly, he had been given this name due to his strength and large body frame. Fet-Mats lived in the Swedish county of Dalarna, where he, presumably from an early age, worked in the local copper mine, “Falu Koppar Gruva”, which in itself has an exceedingly long history. The mine, which was in operation from around 800 AD until 1992, had a number of well-known people to visit over those +1000 years such as Queen Christina, botanist Carl von Linné and scientist Christopher Polhem, among others. But that’s for another story; back to Fet-Mats.

Entering the shaft for the first time in decades, the miners discovered a collapsed part, and among the rubble, the body of a young man. Immediately he was brought up to the surface. The odd thing was that no one recognised him. The mystery remained until an old woman, Margareta Olsdotter, Fet-Mats one-time fiancé, claimed it was Fet-Mats, just by looking at him. The man who had been missing for almost half a century had been found. It turned out that the particular conditions in the mine, like the presence of copper sulphate, had preserved the body. Fet-Mats looked like the same as the day he died. Allegedly, even the snuff in his snuffbox was as if new.

Fet-Mats disappeared in 1677. Searches resulted in nothing, and not least his fiancé was devastated. Friends and family assumed that he had just left the region, maybe due to some personal conflict. Perhaps he didn’t want to marry the girl he had promised to do just that. Life in the villages and the mining community continued, and slowly, the memory of Fet-Mats faded. That is, until that day in 1719. Forty-four years had passed since Fet-Mats disappeared, and it feels safe to say that no one was thinking about him at this point. The mine was failing to produce the expected amount of copper, and decisions had to be made. One of those decisions was to open up areas of it that had been closed for a long time. One of the shafts re-opened was Mårdskinnsschaktet, the “Marten skin shaft”.

One can only wish that this would be the end of Fet-Mats’s story. He had been found, and it was time to put him to rest. However, this would not be the case. For the next 30 years, Fet-Mats would be on display due to the condition of his body. When he started to deteriorate, he was buried in the Stora Kopparberg church in 1749. But this was not the end of it. In the early 1860s, renovations of the church started, and Fet-Mats was “found” again. This time, his remains were placed in a box.

In 1930, 253 years after his death and 211 years after he was found the first time, Fet-Mats Israelsson was given a final resting place in the churchyard of Stora Kopparberg Church, where he remains.

Sources:

Fet-Mats : en gruvdrängs hemska öde 

Fet-Mats, den förstenade gruvdrängen – Bo G Jansson

Svenskt biografiskt lexikon

Images: Creative Commons