This paper concerns the question how the Norrbottnic railway navvy has been used inNorrbottnic newspapers in order to deal with contemporary issues of a political and economicnature. The time period covered is 1951-2004 and 36 newspaper articles have been used. Thepaper shows that there is no obvious connection between the newspapers political affiliationand the components from the navvies lives one otherwise would expect the newspaper topresent. Ideological use of history is not always present. There are other uses of history to, inthe articles. On the other hand the results of this investigation shows all newspapers wants topreserve the navvies accomplishments for later generations. There is no clear connectionbetween a decision to preserve and important events in the surrounding contemporary society.A commitment to preserve is taken independently of important contemporary events.