Celebrate Sauna Day today

My grandpa Ivar, grandma Anna Kaisa and their children are all enjoying saunas in the great beyond. And we should too.

 

Happy Sauna Day!

Still only Saturdays in 1932

On a page of the “Bigfork Times” (from about 1932 in Bigfork, Minnesota) I discovered this notice for a public sauna. When they got paid, lumberjacks would go to visit the town of Craigville.

While I had always heard that liquor and female company were in large supply in Craigville (which was NOT true in a lumber camp), this ad confirms that there was a healthy alternative. And it was probably lots less expensive.

The sauna was called a “steam bath,” possibly to appeal to a wider demographic. John Welsh does not seem like a Finnish name, but how would I know. Once-a-week Saturday saunas were when everybody else took theirs.

Nikki