Want to connect with Finnish heritage around the Big Lake? Here are just a few resources in your region:
Michigan
The Finlandia Foundation National in Hancock – “fiercely Finnish since 1953” – is likely to oversee the Finnish American Heritage Center and The Finnish American Reporter on the former campus of Finlandia University. The Knights of Ladies of Kaleva, sort of the Finnish Freemasons, says Jim Kurtti, will be holding their first Grand Lodge convention since COVID in the heritage center in 2024.
Minnesota
Kaleva Hall, the Virginia chapter of the Knights of Kaleva, a Finnish American fraternal society founded in Belt, Montana, in 1898 by John Stone, a Finnish immigrant from Oulu – the Oulu in Finland, not the one in Wisconsin.
Sisu Heritage Inc. in Embarrass oversees the Hanka Homestead, Nelimark Homestead, Pyhala homestead and the Seitaniemi housebarn.
Salolampi in Bemidji is the Finnish language village at Concordia College.
Mesaba Co-op Park near Hibbing, is one of several Finnish organizational camps in the region.
Ontario
Thunder Bay Finnish Canadian Historical Society, founded in 1974 and dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of the history of Finnish Canadians in Northwestern Ontario.
Finlandia Co-operative of Thunder Bay which operated the famed Hoito Restaurant, where Finnish was the spoken language by the cooks in the kitchen. Since the burning of the Finnish Labor Temple, the restaurant offerings can now be found at the Thunder Bay Market.
Wisconsin
Oulu Cultural & Heritage Center, operated by the Oulu Historical Society, celebrates the history of the small town where 75% of the European settlers were Finnish, starting in 1889.
Little Finland, a cultural center in Hurley.