Kaleva statistics. Compare Kaleva to see how it stacks up with the rest of the country!
Where is Kaleva?
More help in
figuring out where Kaleva is.
Themes from the Kalevala. Above, The Forging of the Sampo; below, Lemminkäinen's Mother. By Aleksi Galen-Kallela.
Wild turkey was introduced to the Kaleva area in the mid 1980s. Fowl and game hunting attract many people and have contributed to the growth of Kaleva (and property values).
Marvin's Laaksonen Centennial Tree Farm Application, a 71-page historical documentation of the Kaleva property. Mail-order copies can be purchased for $79.95.
Otto was a good tax-paying later-to be American, at least most of the time...
But not all the time. Yrjö paid delinquent taxes from 1939 and 1940, $47.26 in all, on 6 Dec 1941, the day before Pearl Harbor.
Kaleva ruins, early 1940s
Kaleva barn dismantled, circa 1946. The lumber, piled where the barn once
stood, was sold. The granary before being remodeled into a second house.
Kaleva house, shanty and shed, in it's "heyday" in the 1970s.
Six of eight members of the Laaksonen fourth generation in Kaleva, June 1971. David, Karen, Christine, Alan, Mike and Kathy.
Yrjö and Hilja, Aug 1977. The creek is down the hill in the background, obscured by brush.
Hilja's main mode of transportation. Early 1980s.
The Kaleva house was the object of vandals on many occasions. This is the worst example, in 1994. They got caught.
The shanty and shed being burned down (practice for the Kaleva Fire Dept). Eva is in the foreground.
The outhouse in 1999, before the fire department burnt it down. It was a two-seater.
Introduction. Although we had some idea of the history
of Kaleva, Pentti Yli-jokipii made it a lot easier to summarize the
history of Kaleva. He prepared his PhD thesis on "The cultural
geography of Kaleva, a Finnish Immigrant Community in Michigan", Acta
Geographica 22, Societas Geographica Fenniae, Helsinki, 1971, pp 1-24. For
a less historical account of Kaleva past and present, check out the
Kaleva
Home Page - you can also read about the bottle house
there. For more numerical data, check out the link
on the left. From that you can see that present-day Kaleva still isn't
exactly prosperous, although the population is larger than ever before.
The
Kaleva property was turned over by the US Government to the State of
Michigan on 16 Aug 1862. Lower Peninsula Michigan was covered by vast
evergreen forests. During periods of rapid growth in the late 19nth
century, the forests were devastated by the state lumber companies. To get
rid of the wasteland, the lumber companies hired Jaakko Saari, editor of
the Siirtolainen, a Finish-language newspaper, to sell the land in Maple
Grove to Finns. Jaakko Saari changed the name of Maple Grove to
"Kaleva" to draw allusion to the famous Finnish national epic
Kalevala. The streets were given names from the Kalevala.
Jaakko
Saari sold the land to poor Finnish immigrants from his office in Manistee,
telling them that they should buy immediately before the land is all
bought up. Most immigrants bought the land sight unseen, spending their
lifesavings. The stump-ridden land was infertile and mainly sand, and upon
seeing their purchases, the Finns "sat down on stumps and had a good cry, then
... went to work". Most of the immigrants moved to Kaleva in the
early 1900s, although growth continued until about 1920. The Finnish
immigrants cultivated mainly cucumbers, potatoes and string beans, which
were well suited to the infertile soil. Through hard work and
determination (i.e. the not easily defined word sisu)
the immigrants survived. The survival of Kaleva was also helped immensely
by the fact that it was at the site of a significant railroad crossing.
The Kaleva area had 800-1000 inhabitants during this period.
Almost
all the inhabitants were Finnish immigrants. School was taught in English,
but reading and writing in Finnish was taught in Sunday school. Sermons
were given in Finnish.
From
1921-1940 the immigrants began switching to dairy farming. The population
of Kaleva remained stable. According to Yli-Jokipii, Kaleva had adopted
many of the social ideals of Finland. They also took care of their own
poor and disadvantaged, and apparently few collected welfare during the
great depression. Many young left Kaleva during this time period, but the
outflux was balanced by an influx of new inhabitants, many of whom were
non-Finns.
From
1941-1960 the migration of young people to mainly Chicago and Detroit
increased, partly because of lack of opportunities for skilled labor or
for skilled professions. Although the population of the Kaleva area fell
under 700, the influx of older Finns returning to Kaleva kept the Kaleva
area from dwindling away. Dairy farming declined markedly, replaced by
strawberry and Christmas tree cultivation. The population of Kaleva has in
the past couple decades increased, presently over 1700 people. The
peaceful rural environment, relatively low cost of living and ideal
conditions for pursuits like hunting has attracted both new residents and
visitors. The
railroad is no longer functioning, but Kaleva still has a few stores, a
well-equipped hardware store, car distributorships and the like.
Although
non-Finns have moved into the area, most of the inhabitants are of Finnish
descent. Already by 1940 English had started to become the dominant
language, and assimilation has continued to the present. Most of the
elderly know Finnish, although they prefer to speak English, and most of
the young cannot understand Finnish at all.
The (unofficial) Laaksonen Family Coat of Arms
For more information of the Laaksonen Centennial Farm and all the documents relating to transfers of titles from the State to Saari and across the Laaksonen generations and much more, see the very extensive documentation compiled by Marvin for the Laaksonen Centennial Farm application.
The first generation. Otto Laaksonen purchased the Kaleva farmland on 9 July 1903, and the family settled down in Kaleva in the same year. The main farmhouse was built after the first house burned down in 1903. Even though the land was far from fertile (much of it is actually sand), farming was at least somewhat profitable for Otto, because Otto continued it until the 20’s or 30’s. Otto also shifted at least partly to dairy farming in the 1920s, and had 3-4 cows, a couple of horses and chickens. Otto never owned a tractor, hence the horses. Ida inherited the Upper Peninsula Smokey Lake property from her sister, and Otto and Ida left Kaleva for Smokey Lake before the Depression.
The second generation. The Kaleva property title was transferred to Yrjö Laaksonen on 8 May 1942, and the mineral rights in 1954, upon the death of Ida. Yrjö never farmed the land, but he did plant many acres of various species of pine trees, with the intent of selling the wood later. The current Kaleva property consists of 100 acres. The house sits on a 20-acre lot contiguous with the 20 acres behind the creek. The other 60 acres on nearby lots that are not directly contiguous with the main lot. After active farming ended, the barn became run down. Yrjö tore down the barn and silo, and made the granary into two-story sleeping quarters (what we called the shanty). The sauna by the creek fell apart, and Yrjö built the sauna in its current location.
The third generation. Yrjö and Hilja transferred the property to their children Donald Larson, Helen Montesi and Marvin Larson on 25 July 1973. The third generation of Laaksonens almost became oil millionaires in the 1970s, when oil companies leased land looking for oil. Unfortunately, fate was not to have it that way, and the Laaksonen family members were forced to toil for their dollars.
The Kaleva homestead has not always been the countryside manor with all the modern amenities that it is today. The shanty and shed fell into disrepair in the mid 1980's, when Hilja and Yrjö stopped spending summers in Kaleva. The main house also fell into disrepair, and the whole place became a target for vandalism.
Cousins Alan and David made some minor repairs in 1992-1993 in an effort to save the main house and sauna from water damage, but it was not until the late 1990s that Alan (fourth generation owner, after Helen transferred her share on 12 Oct 1998), Marvin and Donald decided that renovation of the farm would be worthwhile (Alan had the property evaluated and found that the value of the main house was about $10,000. The first phase of renovation has cost about $40,000, increasing the value of the house to about $65,000.
Marvin has been Chief Construction Engineer, Architect, Treasurer and Real Estate Broker of the Laaksonen Farm Salvage Project. The most important phases of renovation have been completed. The project has been funded in part by sales of pine (once thought to be worthless and the source of cynical jokes).
Sales of part of the land are planned to further finance renovation and upkeep. The Laaksonen farm owners accepted the offering price of $19,500, for the southernmost part of the property, a little less than 10 acres (property value has just about doubled in the last five years). Although no oil has been found yet, oil companies are sure that oil is in the region, and plans are being made to lease mineral rights to the highest bidder.
The farm will soon fulfill 100 years as an active farm (it's been a Tree Farm for decades, although Yrjö was the only one to know it until recently). Marvin is taking care of the applications necessary for the farm to get its due recognition as a historical landmark.
Marvin at the very beginning of renovation. The main house, mainly finnished. Partial renovation of the sauna. Laaksonen Tree Farm in the Larson front window in Rochester Hills, MI.
Renovated interior of the Laaksonen Farm main (now only) house. That's a ryijy hanging on the wall. Renovation hasn't been without it's hazards and problems. A bee attack was fended off. A raccoon mother decided that the sauna roof space would be a nice place to nurture her young. Alan smoked them out, and Marvin picked them off with a .22 cal. rifle. Please, no reports to animal rights activists. The Laaksonen Centennial Farm Pillow Case. The Kaleva Days committee wanted old locals to depict on a pillowcase a representation of their families.
Pentti Ylijokipii's thesis
Kaleva Home Page
Jaakko Saari
What the new settlers faced. Sisu is the kind of determination they needed to get by.
Downtown Kaleva
Kaleva was for the most part a peaceful town. The Kaleva Bank Robbery in 1933 was an exception.
Totem pole of characters from the Finnish national epic Kalevala, made by high school students for the Kaleva Centennial.
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Kaleva house around 1910
By the creek in Kaleva around 1910
Laaksonen Farm lots
Otto and daughter Edith in front of the porch of the main house.
Otto and Ida visiting Kaleva, later years
Laaksonen Tree Farm in its beginnings
Red Pine in 1959.
First sale of pine, $4,200 for thinning.
Centennial Farm Program
Niles and Carey pay a visit to Kaleva in winter 2002. Kaleva's full of fun for everyone.