11th Finglish trip August 2011 #37 Kip Peltoniemi lives in Minneapolis. His grandparents had a homestead in New York Mills and he spent his youth in nearby Wadena, Minnesota. Kip is a folk musician who has performed at Finnish events in Minnesota and at venues from the West Coast to Florida. He began to play music in the 1970s. The idols of his early years were the Beatles and Bob Dylan. Kip Peltoniemi’s instruments are the guitar, bass and accordion. He has also been a vocal

11th Finglish trip August 2011 #36 Marianne Wargelin´s family traces itself to the early Astoria, Oregon Finnish fishing community, mining towns of Upper Michigan and Minnesota, the urban Finntowns of Brooklyn, New York, Worcester, Massachusetts and Waukegan, Illinois, and the industrial villages along Lake Erie. Marianne was raised within the Finnish American communities of Berkeley, California, Hancock, Michigan, and Fairport Harbor, Ohio, with Finnish as her first language

11th Finglish trip August 2011 #32 Isak Parpa (later Barberg) came to Cokato, Minnesota, from Ylitornio, Northern Finland, in 1866.The previous year, Mathias Kärjenaho, Elias Peltoperä, Olaf Westerberg and John Wiinikka had arrived to Mooer´s Prairie. Each of them chose an 80-acre homestead near Lake Cokato. Isak Parpa built his first house in 1868 and Harvey Barberg still lives there. Five generations of Barbergs have lived there. The house is the oldest built by Finnish pi

11th Finglish trip August 2011 #31 Aliina Charging Hawk studies chemistry and American Indian subjects at the University of Duluth. She misses, however, the Deer River and the nearby Leech Lake Indian Reservation, where her children are waiting for her. She worked for eight years in a casino, but went on to study, because she wants to become a pharmacist. She also wants to help the people of the reservation. She is a Finndian; her father is Sioux-Lakota and her mother is of F

11th Finglish trip August 2011 #30 Arne Vainio is a Finndian. He was born in Chisholm, Minnesota to a full-blood Ojibwe mother and a Finnish father. He completed his undergraduate studies in 1990 at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, entered the University of Minnesota Medical School – Duluth and graduated in 1994.  He completed his Family Practice Residency Program at the Seattle Indian Health Board and Providence Hospital in Seattle, Washington in 1997. Dr. Arne Vainio is

11th Finglish trip August 2011 #28 The Esko Volunteer Fire Department was founded in 1949 by a very dedicated bunch of local men who knew very little about forming and operating a fire department.  However, they all had the desire and knowledge to protect lives and property of thier neighbors from the perils of fire. Jeff Juntunen has worked 36 years as chief of the Esko Volunteer Fire Department. Most of the Esko residents are descendants of Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish im

11thFinglish trip August 2011 #27 Tiina Watts teaches Finnish in the Salolampi Finnish Language Village at Concordia College, where Minnesota Finns maintain and teach the Finnish language and Finnish culture. The design of main lodge, with the Finnish name Jyringin Talo, was influenced by the Jyväskylä railway station in Finland. "From floor hockey (sähly), to warm cardamom bread (pulla), language learning and quiet reflection by the lake sauna, you’ll enjoy every moment at S

11th Finglish trip July 2011 #20 The Rolla-Rocklake community in Rolette and Towner Counties, initially settled in 1896, evolved into North Dakota's largest Finnish colony. Alfred Juntunen´s grandfather Sakari Juntunen with three of his brothers from Suomussalmi were among the early homesteaders with Josef Carlson from Kuusamo, where he was Jooseppi Luukkonen, and Abel and Ivar Pyykkönen from Suomussalmi. Alfred and Hazel Juntunen take good care of the Towner County Finnish C

11th Finglish trip July 2011 #14 Annette Oppedahl née Salmon (Salmu) comes from Custer Peak, near the mining town of Lead. The old homestead is still owned by relatives and Annette's family has a cabin there, where she spends the summer together with her husband Dick. She recalls attending Sunday school in Custer Peak together with other Finnish children, and how she would tend livestock. Annette is a trained teacher, but she mostly remained at home, first looking after her c

11th Finglish trip July 2011 #12 The Finnish communities Hanna and Elmo of the coal-mining areas have fallen silent. In 1903, there was a mine accident involving 215 men, of whom only 46 survived. The majority of the victims were Finns and African Americans. The local cemetery did not have enough room for such a large number of victims and a new one was founded a few miles away on the prairie. Seventy Finnish names can be easily counted among the headstones on this barren hil

11th Finglish trip July 2011 #10 Suzanne is the descendant of Swedish immigrants, and Arthur Koski comes from Drummond Island, Michigan. Arthur’s grandparents on his mother's side, Miina and Johan Laakso, were given a 160-acre homestead on the island in 1906. They had come from Luvia, Finland to the Kreetan community via Finntown in Brooklyn. Arthur Koski, however, wanted to travel and give up his role as the only son in his family. He signed on an iron ore freighter sailing

11th Finglish trip July 2011 #3 Cheryl’s husband Duane is interested in genealogy and has researched his wife’s Finnish roots. Cheryl’s mother, Sandra Palo-Williams, is Finnish. Cheryl’s Finnish roots go back to the Palo family of Lumijoki and Tyrnävä near Oulu, the Heikkilä family of Alastaro and the Moilanens of Paltamo. Duane wants his daughters Raili and Miranda to be aware of their Finnish background. The Paloheimo El Rancho de las Golondrinas Santa Fe New Mexico USA #C

10th Finglish trip July 2010 #9 On March 16, 1999 in Kaleva, Michigan a large metal sculpture of a grasshopper was dedicated in honor of St. Urho's day, which is celebrated on 16th of March. Kaleva is a community settled by Finnish immigrants in 1900. The legend of Saint Urho was the invention of a Finnish-American named Richard Mattson, who worked at Ketola's Department Store in Virginia, Minnesota in the spring of 1956. Mattson later recounted that he invented St. Urho when

9th Finglish trip October 2009 #6 The Adjustment Bureau is a 2011 American romantic science fiction thriller film loosely based on the Philip K. Dick short story "Adjustment Team". The film was written and directed by George Nolfi, produced by Chris Moore and stars Matt Damon and Emily Blunt. One of the scenes was filmed at the New York County Courthouse, at 60 Centre Street on Foley Square, Manhattan. Actor Matt Damon’s mother, Nancy Carlsson-Paige, has both Finnish and Swed

8th Finglish trip June 2009 #39 The Winlock Egg was listed as the world's largest egg by Ripley's Believe It or Not! in 1989. The current structure is the fourth reincarnation of the original egg. The first egg was built for a celebration of the opening of the Pacific Highway Bridge over the Columbia River between Washington and Oregon. The idea of an egg came from John G. Lawrence, the manager of the newly formed egg and poultry co-op as a way to represent the growing indust

8th Finglish trip June 2009 #38 Liisa Penner is an Archivist at Clatsop County Historical Society in Astoria, Oregon. The Clatsop County Historical Society is an educational organization dedicated to preserving and presenting the history of Clatsop County Oregon and the surrounding area. Built in 1904 the former Astoria's City Hall is now home to the Clatsop County Historical Society's regional museum. The bridge across the mouth of the Columbia River from Oregon to Washingto

8th Finglish trip June 2009 #37 Eric Bergland makes handcrafted Finnish Puukko knives. He lives with his wife in Blue River, Oregon. His father Oscar Bergland was a gunsmith. As a young boy Eric helped in his father's workshop by arranging tools in their own places and at the same time learning how to use them. At age 15 he made his first Puukko. After retiring from an archeologist's work, he started making Puukko knives. Eric is partly Sámi on his father's side. Eric says ab

8th Finglish trip May 2009 #6 St. Michael’s Cathedral, the Orthodox church of Sitka, was built by Finnish carpenters in 1848. The church burned down in 1966 and was rebuilt. Sitka was the centre of Russian Alaska, and two of its governors were originally born in Finland, Arvid Etholén (governor from 1840 to 1845) and Hampus Furuhjelm (in office from 1849 to 1864). Of all the Russian American settlers, the Finns were among those that traveled the furthest from their homes to s

8th Finglish trip May 2009 #3 One of the speakers on the FinnFest USA cruise to Alaska is Don Bibeau. He’s a Finndian, as Finnish-Americans say, half Chippewa and half Finnish. His grandmother’s surname was Muhonen; she had come from Finland to North Dakota, where his mother, Lempi Mathilda, was born. The mother was in close contact with her own Finnish family. The Finnish community, however, did not accept Don Bibeau’s family, and for this reason it was only towards retireme

7th Finglish trip October 2008 #44 Dave and Fred Orrik were born into an Estonian Finnish family, their father was Estonian and their mother was Finnish. Grandparents came from Ostrobothnia to Massachusetts. Mother Aina was born in Gardner, Massachusetts. Family moved to New York City and Dave and Fred were born in Bronx, New York. During summers their father sent the boys to hike in the National Park near their mothers birthplace in Gardner, Massachusetts. In the Bronx they