The municipality was established on 1 January 1905 when the municipality of Skjerstad was divided into Skjerstad in the west and Fauske in the east. The municipal borders haven't changed since that time. In 1998, the municipality declared township for its administrative centre.
Name
The municipality is named after the old Fauske farm, since the first Fauske Church was built there. The name is the plural form of fauskr which means "old and rotten tree".
Coat of arms
The coat of arms was granted in 1988. The arms show a red reef knot on a gray background. It was chosen to represent Fauske as a center of commerce and transportation for the region.
Several marblequarries are located in the municipality. The marble is exported to many countries, where it can be observed in many monumental buildings, among them the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. There are also dolomite quarries in Fauske, as well as some agriculture. Salten Kraftsamband and Fauske Lysverk are important employers in Fauske. The town is a commercial centre for parts of the inland areas of Salten, and has hotel and camping facilities. FK Fauske/Sprint is the local soccer team. Historically, mining in Sulitjelma was very important.
The municipal council of Fauske is made up of 27 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The party breakdown of the council is as follows:
The Nordland Line passes through the municipality, reaching Bodø west of Fauske. Travellers going further north usually leave the train in Fauske, and travel by express bus to Narvik or further, using European route E6 which goes through the center of Fauske. The E6 from Mo i Rana north to Fauske crosses over the Saltfjellet mountains, and the E6 further north to Narvik also goes through very rugged terrain; these are among the most scenic drives in Norway, although there are many tunnels in the Sørfold area. The Norwegian national roadRv 80 to Bodø, about to the west, departs from E6 in the centre of Fauske. The Norwegian County Road 830 runs from the town of Fauske to the east to the village of Sulitjelma. The road passes through several tunnels: Grønnlifjell Tunnel, Hårskolten Tunnel, Sjønståfjell Tunnel, and Stokkviknakken Tunnel. The road follows the old Sulitjelma Line railroad.
Fauske is located inside the Arctic circle and has 24 hours of daylight from early May to the beginning of August, with midnight sun from the beginning of June to the second week of July. The area nearly has polar night for part of December because it has sunrise at 11 am and sunset before noon. Average 24-hour temperatures in Fauske is below freezing from mid-November to the last part of March, but the ice-free Skjerstad Fjord moderates winter temperatures. Summer starts in June with moderate summer temperatures lasting until early September. Precipitation is heaviest from September to December ; average annual precipitation is. Daytime temperatures are usually significantly warmer than the 24-hr average from March to September, while there is very little diurnal temperature variation from November to early February as the sun is very low or below the horizon all day. However, temperatures varies considerably with the weather; there might be cool westerly winds with temperatures of and rain both night and day in July, and the next day might be sunny with daytime temperature reaching. Southwesterly winds can bring thaws anytime in winter, but not in the mountains, which usually get large amounts of snow in winter—the main reason for the large glaciers and the hydropower in the area.
