The Fins came to Minnesota

[VikingsGuy]

For @Big Fin:

Why did Finnish immigrants come to Minnesota? (And no, they're not Scandinavian)

Minnesota boasts more residents of Finnish ancestry than any other state. The story of how Finns arrived here is distinct from Swedes and Norwegians in several ways.

www.startribune.com

 

[westbranch]

Our family was always big on Finnish history in MN, I grew up near Kalevala on the map in the article. My dad would always complain (jokingly) about how our family came to late and got stuck with the crappy farm land similar to northern Finland. Our last name is not Finnish since great-grandparents changed it to avoid getting blacklisted from jobs at mines or factories. My dad was born in 1943 and learned Finnish before English at home.
We had a wood fired sauna in the basement that is still there. Knew several families that had indoor and outdoor saunas.

Bought a barrel sauna kit for our house in Idaho in 2019. Pic from last winter:



My younger brother and his wife moved into a new to them house in MN this fall, luckily the sellers already had an outdoor sauna:

 

[EastTNHunter]

Darn paywall. This kind of thing is fascinating to me