The huge task of clearing land began. Dynamite was available for this task, but not the money to buy it. Every tree had to be cut and stumps grubbed out by hand. Once the land was cleared and home built, horses and cows were added, and the low land around Finn Creek proved to be valuable in dry years as both pasture and cropland.

The Tapios originally made their home in a small, temporary log shelter, where they remained long enough to have their first five children. In 1900, they paid $3 per acre to purchase the Finn Creek land and build their permanent home. With the help of neighbors, logs were cut from the surrounding woods and peeled and notched at the site, since there were no horses to drag the logs. Built with ropes to hoist the logs to higher levels, work progressed steadily and the house was completed in 1901. The items inside the house were also hand built: furniture and utensils were made by Siffert, and Wilhelmina wove rugs and stuffed mattresses with straw and pillows with feathers. Siding was placed over the log walls in 1917 and an addition was built to complete the structure as it looks today, more than 100 years later.

In a sad twist for the Tapio family, a portion of that addition would later be partitioned off to provide a solitary home for their daughter Helga, who spent the final years of her life quarantined in a tiny room, approximately 6’ x 15’ after she contracted tuberculosis. Helga passed away in 1927 at the age of 21.

Despite this hardship, Siffert and Wilhelmina were indeed happy with their selection of this land, and their hard work and perseverance in making it their own serve as a perfect historic example of sisu.

The sauna is another integral part of Finnish culture. The tradition is so strong that Finnish immigrants often built a sauna before a house. The savusauna or smoke sauna at Finn Creek does not have a chimney, thus as wood is burned smoke fills the room. After the sauna reaches the appropriate temperature, the fire is put out and the room ventilated while it retains enough heat for the length of the sauna.

With the sauna, house, and period buildings, The Finn Creek Open Air Museum exists as a living testament to the immigrants who settled in this area of Minnesota.

Finn Creek is a Non-profit organization and functions as Chapter 13 of the Minnesota Finnish American Historical Society. For information on hours and events, visit their website at: https://www.finncreek.org, or their facebook page: Finn Creek Museum.