made their cottages year-round dwellings, and many others plan to do so. One local resident, Veikko Elmer Dale (Alanko) died during World War II in a German PW camp.

Keewatin

Between Nashwauk and Hibbing lies a mining town, Keewatin, which was still largely forest in 1905 and 1906, when `streets' for a new community were hacked through the woods : one mine had already been opened there, the St. Paul, and Finns were beginning to move in. One of the first of them was Manu Järvi, from Kuru, Finland; he kept a boarding house and steered fresh Finnish immigrants to work in the mines. In later years, the young men who had lived in Järvi's house set up their own, cooperative venture, Toijala, which remained active until the 1920s.

The Finnish settlement of Keewatin grew rapidly, for the Finns found jobs readily in the mines. This growth made Finnish organizations inevitable, and the first was a workers' society, established in 1910, with some 30 members at that time. A hall was built the following year, and the society continued to grow, even after it had become an IWW supporter after the schism. Especially successful here, too, were the dramatics sponsored by the society. In 1957 the hall was still there but, with members grown old, activity had practically come to a halt.

The only other organized activity in the early years was a Finnish orchestra, started by Victor Taipale. Then, during World War II, and in connection with Finnish relief activities, a bowling club, under the enthusiastic leadership of Jack and Louis Kleimola and Hjalmar Nuorala, developed into a more permanent and formal organization attracting second and third generation Finnish Americans. After the war this was transferred to Virginia as the Finnish Bowling Association.

There was no congregation in Keewatin, but Methodist pastor Matti Lehtonen came occasionally from Chisholm to hold services, perform marriages, etc.

The number of Finns in Keewatin was somewhere between 200 and 300 at the peak. The younger generation has, by and large, moved away to other communities altogether, and there are but a few of the old guard left. The oldest of them, Kalle Tolvanen, was 84 in 1956.

Turning to Finnish businessmen, an outstanding career was that of Frank V. Wakkinen, the son of a New York Mills farmer. He worked for 46 years in the First National Bank, beginning as

617