The roads in Elo are laid out in a grid fashion to allow access to each of the sixteen fourty acre parcels in a section of land. Ownership of a fourty acre parcel gave each farmer a quarter of a mile of gravel road frontage. At that time all of the roads in Elo were of the gravel covered variety. Each farm was unique and distinctive by clearings, woodlots, or fences. Distance could be arrived at by counting four farms to the mile. When a Finnish person acquired land he would immeadiately build a Sauna on it. It gave the family a place to live and bathe while they built thier home. In most cases, the land had to be cleared and the stumps removed before the land could be farmed. In addition to store bought tractors, horses and home made tractors called "Jokers" were used to work the farms.
A Joker was made out of an old car or truck. The body and fenders of a vehicle would be removed and the frame
would be shortened so the driver would be sitting, almost over the rear axle. If a Joker was made out of an old car a rear axle from a truck would be used. A picture of Jack Storm skidding logs with his Joker is on the right side. My father liked horses but we also had a Joker. Our Joker was made out of an old truck, It had two transmissions in line to lower the gear ratio.
My father liked to train and work with draw horses. A large horse pulling a heavy load is an awesome sight. One such incident is still etched in my mind. My father was pulling a truck out of a mudhole near a sawmill we had on our farm with our horse Barney. Barney was on higher dry ground for the pull. As Barney realized that it was not going to be an easy pull he literally hunched down, and his hooves dug deep into the hard earth as he strained against his harness. From that day on I had a new respect for horses. A picture of Barney and my father is to the left.
The Rural Electric Association(REA) brought electricity to the area in the 1930's. However, very few families had telephones to the time I graduated from High School in 1950. We had electricity but no telephone. Friends and neighbors would just drop in on each other to visit. Crime was nonexistant so there was no reason to lock our doors. It was customary to prop a broom across the outside of your door to let visiters know that you were not at home.
As children, our elders wanted us to learn Finnish ways as they did. We had an old schoolhouse in Elo that was used as a community hall. The hall was used for meetings, funerals, adult craft classes, and as children, we went there with our Finnish alphabet textbooks to learn the Finnish language. I also attended my first funeral service there. I must have been around ten years old and the funeral service was for a boy younger than I was. I will never forget it. Most funeral services in those days were conducted in the deceased persons home. If a person died during the winter, it was not unheard of to keep the body in an unheated outbuilding untill the ground thawed enough for burial.
At the present time there is a Finnish Homestead Museum in Askel, Michigan, Askel borders Elo to the East and the Finnish Homestead Museum is in Baraga County while Elo is in Houghton County. The Homestead Farm is kept as it was in the 1920's. The farm is six miles West of Highway US41 on Arnheim Road. Arnheim Road is approximately ten miles North of Baraga, Michigan along Highway US41. A picture of the farmhouse is below.
A "Heikki Lunta" snow dance is performed by anyone in the Copper Country who decides that the area needs more snow. The Heikki Lunta snow dance is usually reserved to get more snow for snowmobilers and skiers. Our local newspaper, The Daily Mining Gazette,which is published in Houghton, Michigan, reported that a large Heikki Lunta snow dance was performed in early December of 1999. I took the picture of the Finnish Homestead Museum farmhouse, above, right after the Heikki Lunta snow dance was performed. As you can see, It was snowing when I took the picture. Heikki Lunta translated from Finnish to English becomes Hank Snow.
Hancock, Michigan, which is approximately twenty miles North of Elo, is known as a focal point for Finnish/Americans in the United States. The street names in Hancock are in English and Finnish. Suomi College, which is located in Hancock, was established by the Finnish people in 1886. The name of Suomi College was officially changed to Finlandia University on July 1, 2000. Hancock is also home for the Finnish American Heritage Center, which has a museum, a theater, an art gallery, and the Finnish/American historical archives.
The Finnish American Reporter, which is an English language monthly journal published to serve Finns and Finnish Americans in North America, is published in Hancock, Michigan.
The newspaper has a circulation of approximately 3000 copies monthly. Yearly subscription rates, as of November 2000, are $20.00 in the United States and $30.00 in Canada, Finland, and other countries.
The Finnish American Reporter also has a section called "Tracing Our Roots" in which letters from people searching for information about thier ancestors are published.
The address of The Finnish American Reporter is: P.O. Box 479, Hancock, MI 49930.
Click on the following link, which will take you to a website in Finland, to learn more about Finnish Customs and Ways. You can even learn some Finnish words by clicking on the " A chance to speak Finnish" link at the bottom of the Languages section. If you are a Finnish/American, or perhaps even just know one, you will be able to relate to many of the Customs and Manners delineated on the website.
http://virtual.finland.fi/finfo/english/guide.html
