Finn Creek Open Air Museum is located 6 miles southeast of New York Mills. Appropriately named, the museum lies on a quiet country road, nestled on the banks of the meandering stream it was named after: Finn Creek.

Here, you can see the lifestyles of early immigrants displayed, including a hand built log home, charming church, schoolhouse, sauna, town hall, and more. The original bandstand, which was formerly located in the heart of Central Park in New York Mills, now graces the Finn Creek grounds. Gifts imported from Finland fill the shelves of the country store (still in operation today), and guests can visit the grave site of the legendary St. Urho near the creek’s grassy bank.

Each August, the annual Finn Creek Festival is held, offering visitors a taste of a working Finnish farmstead of the 1800s, with grain threshing, lumber sawing, blacksmithing and rug weaving. Festival attendees can explore the beautiful grounds, take in musical and theater entertainment, feast on home-cooked meals and tasty Finnish staples including pulla bread, Christmas tarts, pannukakku (Finnish pancakes) and more, and learn about the history, traditions, character and lifestyle of the Finnish immigrants who settled in this region.

What brought these brave people to a new land, striking out into the unknown?

Sisu – for some it is the most valuable resource Finnish immigrants brought to America. It can’t be seen, touched or even adequately defined. It can, however, be understood.

Sisu is a Finnish characteristic. Translated into English it may include words like stamina, courage, stubbornness, perseverance, heart, guts, or grit. Sisu sustained Finnish immigrants on the difficult journey to America and through brutal blizzards and scorching summers while clawing out what they dreamed would be a new and better life for themselves and their children.

Finn Creek Museum exudes sisu. It includes the restored early 1900s home of Finnish immigrants Siffert and Wilhelmina Tapio, a smoke sauna and several period buildings and structures, including a Finnish-style well. In 1981, project director Darrel Nicholson said, “we’re not trying to recreate history; we’re just trying to create a semblance of what was here so people can reflect on what we have now.” Sisu remains strong.

The story of Finnish immigrants Siffert and Wilhelmina Tapio serves as an interesting part of Finn Creek’s history. In 1874, the Tapios were among the first homesteaders near Finn Creek, where the level land situated near water made the perfect spot to build a farm.