Emmer-Compascuum: Where Two Peat Colonies Met
The name tells the story: Emmer-Compascuum formed where the peat digging operations of Emmen and the older Compascuum settlement overlapped. The result is a linear village stretched along canals and straight roads cut through former bogland. About 8,130 residents live here, in the southeast corner of Drenthe, close to the German border. The village belongs to the gemeente Emmen.
Peat extraction continued here later than in many other colonies, with some operations active into the 1960s. The Bargerveen nature reserve, one of the last remaining raised bogs in the Netherlands, lies just south. Boardwalks allow visitors to walk through a landscape that once covered vast stretches of the Drenthe-German borderland. Emmen's centre is about 10 kilometres west.
The German border runs less than 5 kilometres to the east. Grocery shopping across the border in Twist or Meppen is routine for many residents, and the cultural exchange flows in both directions through the Low German dialect spoken on both sides.
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The name tells the story: Emmer-Compascuum formed where the peat digging operations of Emmen and the older Compascuum settlement overlapped. The result is a linear village stretched along canals and straight roads cut through former bogland. About 8,130 residents live here, in the southeast corner of Drenthe, close to the German border. The village belongs to the gemeente Emmen.
Peat extraction continued here later than in many other colonies, with some operations active into the 1960s. The Bargerveen nature reserve, one of the last remaining raised bogs in the Netherlands, lies just south. Boardwalks allow visitors to walk through a landscape that once covered vast stretches of the Drenthe-German borderland. Emmen's centre is about 10 kilometres west.
The German border runs less than 5 kilometres to the east. Grocery shopping across the border in Twist or Meppen is routine for many residents, and the cultural exchange flows in both directions through the Low German dialect spoken on both sides.
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