Tinden was an important meeting point for the western parts of the Øksnes District as it was a place to sell fish, make purchases at the general store and use postal services. Tinden came into single ownership in 1850 and the last private owner was Skjalg Halmøy (1914-2002) who was its proprietor for 50 years. He was born further south at Hamarøy and came to Tinden as a shop assistant in 1937. He did not have any experience of the sea and fishing, but learnt quickly on his feet. When the then owner Johan Jensen retired from running the post office in 1946, he offered the trading post to Skjalg Halmøy and his wife. In the following years there were much activity and several employees at Tinden in spite of the general development of centralization and withering away of the fishing communities along the coast. For many years Tinden was the only place that would buy in fish during the summer season. Eventually they stopped taking deliveries of fish and the trade at the general store also diminished. The last fisherman to use Tinden as base stopped in 1981.