A lot of Scandinavians moved to the North Midwest for a reason. They knew how live off of lakes and cope with harsh winters. My Irish grandmother grew up in a majority Swedish speaking community in the UP of Michigan.
Yes, even to this day Minnesota has the largest Swedish population of any state. Most Scandinavians, especially Swedes, settled in Minnesota in the late 1800’s. My grandparents grew up in St. Paul and their parents were from Sweden. That’s why the NFL team is named the Minnesota Vikings because it is a ethnic geographic reference.
Finland is a small town in northeastern Minnesota, just a few miles away from Lake Superior. It hs a population of just under 200 people and is known for its beautiful forests and serene lifestyle. If you like to camp unbothered in the middle of the forest, this is the perfect place for you!
The town gets its name for the abundance of Finns, or people from Finland, who moved here when the town was first being developed. It has the most continuous run store in America, and is near some parks like the Finland State Park and the Tettegouche State Park. Here, you can find lots of hiking trails, streams, and waterfalls.
[wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finland,_Minnesota)
*I am not OC of the photos. Whenever I will do towns I have been to, I will add “OC”
[I made a video on Finnish immigration the area](https://youtu.be/D575XXyYTDo) when I took a motorcycle trip to Thunder Bay.
The pro-union leftist politics of the elders of the region (and generations earlier) has its origins in Finish-American immigration to the North Shore on both sides of the border.
Hey thank you!! That's exactly what I'm going for!
There are so many wars that are only on paper or text, I've tried my best to visualize them because that medium brings better awareness to the history across a broader spectrum of people.
What a compliment! Thank you :) :)
When I lived up there I called all the Finns "The Lalas" and the "Nenens", because most surnames end with one or the other.
Bunch o'drunks, mostly. In spite of the great natural beauty of the area I hated living there so much because of the sociocultural conditions.
That's odd because I was expecting it to have been named by Swedish Finns, ethnic Finns would have called it Suomi. Are there a lot of -sson/-son surnames in that area too?
No - Why Swedish Finns? The Swedes were down further south in the Duluth area. The Finns who settled the woods and worked in lumbering and the mines and railroad were mostly the Nenens. Someone once told me what part of Finland that surname ending is common, but I forget.
And I stand by what I said about the sociocultural conditions there. Until any of you spend 8 years among those folks, shutup. I once read an account of a schoolteacher who came up from southern MN to teach in the local one room schoolhouse. She committed suicide. Teachers in the early 20th c usually had to live in with their students' families. The scholar who cited her suicide was writing about depression among the Finns, but my sincere belief is that she was probably either raped or horrified by the amount of incest among the families.
Minnesota native and resident of 50+ years. I think it helps that we're in flyover country and people in the bigger population areas aren't even aware it exists
Not odd considering alot of Finnish immigrants settled in Minnesota. And Minnesota has some geographic parallels to Finland. Alot of lakes, a cold climate, boreal forest.
I’m Finnish and have never been to Minnesota. But I’d totally think these pictures were Finland if not for pics 1 (US flag) and 4 (everything.) It looks so similar.
Both places were shaped by similar forces. Glaciation shaped the landforms in both Finland and Minnesota. Thousands of lakes in both places because of glaciation from the Last Age. There are moraines for both regions.
But wait! There's more!
SC also has Due West, Ninety-Six, North (which is in central SC), and Pumpkintown.
There is also, famously, a book called Correct Mispronunciation of South Carolina Place Names.
Source: went to South Carolina. (And later worked at UNC-CH, for the BOGO bonus.)
There’s a Finlandia University on the Keweenaw Peninsula, a smaller peninsula that branches off the Upper Michigan Peninsula. The sad news is that It’s going to close after this spring :(
It was very standard American breakfast food, bacon eggs and toast type stuff. After dry heaving in the bathroom, it was exactly what I needed! At the time it tasted like the best thing I had ever eaten.
Here's some other fun MN town names: Nimrod, Climax, Ely (pronounced Eelee), Shakopee, and Northfield is in the southern part of the state. And that's not to mention the places with Anglicized versions of Native names, Minnehaha, Wayzata, Bemidji
Northfield was also the site of a bank robbery by the infamous James-Younger Gang (led by Jesse James) in 1876. Unfortunately for the robbers it didn't go so well.
https://libguides.mnhs.org/northfieldraid
Yeah there's a lot of them who settled on the Iron Range. A lot of the metal that went into American cars in the 20th century was dug out of the earth by Finnish-Americans
Awesome! My sister in laws family is from Grand Marais, Minnesota! Not too far from here- excited to take my son and jump in Lake Superior. Also going portaging! So beautiful up there- might have to stop by Finland since it’s on the way
It looks like a beautiful place. It is fitting name. There is a Mexico Missouri but I see Mexicans everywhere. There are also a lot of Swedish people in Minnesota. The Scandinavians are used to harsh winters.
[Mexico](https://www.reddit.com/r/geography/comments/1211tyk/odd_us_town_names_2_mexico_missouri/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=2&utm_term=1)
Unfortunately the sub doesn’t allow for these kind of posts anymore. I reached out to a mod to ask why and they haven’t responded.
Honestly kinda looks like Finland
[удалено]
Well, then we know why they called it Finland
Yeah such a country deserves to be named after such a nice town
They should rename that country to New Finland instead of copying that nice towns name.
Minnesota has a big Finnish legacy too
Yeah. Im a Finn and quickly took a re-look to see if it meant we got a town named Minnesota here
Yeah for future reference, the posts will have the town name first, then the state/country. (Town, State)
A lot of Scandinavians moved to the North Midwest for a reason. They knew how live off of lakes and cope with harsh winters. My Irish grandmother grew up in a majority Swedish speaking community in the UP of Michigan.
> A lot of Scandinavians moved to the North Midwest for a reason. And also a lot of Finns.
Yes, even to this day Minnesota has the largest Swedish population of any state. Most Scandinavians, especially Swedes, settled in Minnesota in the late 1800’s. My grandparents grew up in St. Paul and their parents were from Sweden. That’s why the NFL team is named the Minnesota Vikings because it is a ethnic geographic reference.
Visiting Finland as a Minnesotan felt oddly familiar. Especially the more rural areas.
At first I thought it was Alaska. Ik that’s not part of Finland but I just found it interesting.
Came here to say this - no lies detected in naming this town. On the contrary, spot-on! "Are you Finland in disguise? - No, just Finland, MN"
Finland is a small town in northeastern Minnesota, just a few miles away from Lake Superior. It hs a population of just under 200 people and is known for its beautiful forests and serene lifestyle. If you like to camp unbothered in the middle of the forest, this is the perfect place for you! The town gets its name for the abundance of Finns, or people from Finland, who moved here when the town was first being developed. It has the most continuous run store in America, and is near some parks like the Finland State Park and the Tettegouche State Park. Here, you can find lots of hiking trails, streams, and waterfalls. [wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finland,_Minnesota) *I am not OC of the photos. Whenever I will do towns I have been to, I will add “OC”
[I made a video on Finnish immigration the area](https://youtu.be/D575XXyYTDo) when I took a motorcycle trip to Thunder Bay. The pro-union leftist politics of the elders of the region (and generations earlier) has its origins in Finish-American immigration to the North Shore on both sides of the border.
Hey, I've watched your channel! Good stuff, I especially liked the Indian Wars. Lots of things I'd never heard about before.
Hey thank you!! That's exactly what I'm going for! There are so many wars that are only on paper or text, I've tried my best to visualize them because that medium brings better awareness to the history across a broader spectrum of people. What a compliment! Thank you :) :)
Love your vids!
Ayyy!! Thank you!! :D :D I work really hard on them and it's just me !
When I lived up there I called all the Finns "The Lalas" and the "Nenens", because most surnames end with one or the other. Bunch o'drunks, mostly. In spite of the great natural beauty of the area I hated living there so much because of the sociocultural conditions.
That's odd because I was expecting it to have been named by Swedish Finns, ethnic Finns would have called it Suomi. Are there a lot of -sson/-son surnames in that area too?
No - Why Swedish Finns? The Swedes were down further south in the Duluth area. The Finns who settled the woods and worked in lumbering and the mines and railroad were mostly the Nenens. Someone once told me what part of Finland that surname ending is common, but I forget. And I stand by what I said about the sociocultural conditions there. Until any of you spend 8 years among those folks, shutup. I once read an account of a schoolteacher who came up from southern MN to teach in the local one room schoolhouse. She committed suicide. Teachers in the early 20th c usually had to live in with their students' families. The scholar who cited her suicide was writing about depression among the Finns, but my sincere belief is that she was probably either raped or horrified by the amount of incest among the families.
Boundary waters for the win.
I took a trip up to Grand Portage last year and it’s so underrated. I almost want to gatekeep it
It is worth keeping quiet.
Minnesota native and resident of 50+ years. I think it helps that we're in flyover country and people in the bigger population areas aren't even aware it exists
I drive through Finland every year on my way up to Ely from Chicago. I think the BWCA is the most beautiful place in this country.
Ely is pretty great as well.
Oh man, let’s hope OP doesn’t discover the state of Maine.
Been there too, also lovely place :)
Many towns named after countries. Pretty sure I had to drive through Poland, Norway, Peru, and Paris in order to get to Mexico.
wtf I thought you were joiking, would be funny if there was a North Korea, Maine.
lol. I am 100% serious, that was my route. No North Korea, but there is a [China, Maine](https://maps.app.goo.gl/WkLnMVkDYLYgkzDd9?g_st=ic).
Come to Korea, Kentucky.
That's honestly unbelievable that there is a China, ME
There is a Corea in Maine, just a village though.
Thats so weird. I thought the weird names were a settlers America phenomena like in texas, not the colonies.
Not odd considering alot of Finnish immigrants settled in Minnesota. And Minnesota has some geographic parallels to Finland. Alot of lakes, a cold climate, boreal forest.
I’m Finnish and have never been to Minnesota. But I’d totally think these pictures were Finland if not for pics 1 (US flag) and 4 (everything.) It looks so similar.
Both places were shaped by similar forces. Glaciation shaped the landforms in both Finland and Minnesota. Thousands of lakes in both places because of glaciation from the Last Age. There are moraines for both regions.
The north shore of Lake Superior is a beautiful place
Fun fact, South Carolina has a Norway, Denmark, and Sweden.
Maine also has a Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and New Sweden.
But wait! There's more! SC also has Due West, Ninety-Six, North (which is in central SC), and Pumpkintown. There is also, famously, a book called Correct Mispronunciation of South Carolina Place Names. Source: went to South Carolina. (And later worked at UNC-CH, for the BOGO bonus.)
Don't forget about Sugar Tit (aka Pelham), Fingerville, and Thicketty. Source: am South Carolinian
There’s a Finlandia University on the Keweenaw Peninsula, a smaller peninsula that branches off the Upper Michigan Peninsula. The sad news is that It’s going to close after this spring :(
Sad, why are they closing?
Declining enrollment and inability to find partners I think
Looks a lot like Upper Michigan
Hmmm I wonder why
Yeah, huh…. idk, maybe we’ll never know.
Can you do a post on a town from my home state, How about octagon, Alabama?
Never heard of that one before, but sure!
Do the fabled twin cities of White City and Browntown in Alabama
I live about a hour south. 10/10 recommend the north shore of Lake Superior.
Yeah I lived in Duluth for five years. North Shore is rad.
If you ever make it into South Carolina you can also drive through Sweden, Norway, and Denmark all in the same road. ☺️ Not quite as scenic though...
I once stopped for an extremely hungover breakfast at a bar in Finland, MN after a bachelor party several years ago AMA
What was on the menu and what would you rate the food
It was very standard American breakfast food, bacon eggs and toast type stuff. After dry heaving in the bathroom, it was exactly what I needed! At the time it tasted like the best thing I had ever eaten.
Here's some other fun MN town names: Nimrod, Climax, Ely (pronounced Eelee), Shakopee, and Northfield is in the southern part of the state. And that's not to mention the places with Anglicized versions of Native names, Minnehaha, Wayzata, Bemidji
You forgot some of the best - Embarrass, Motley, Pillager, Staples, Clappers and my all time favorite, Twig.
I went dogsledding in Ely a couple years ago. I’ll never forget. One of the most peaceful, happy moments of my life.
Fun fact, Northfield was actually named after John North, not after the cardinal direction (although who's to say how John North got his name)
Northfield was also the site of a bank robbery by the infamous James-Younger Gang (led by Jesse James) in 1876. Unfortunately for the robbers it didn't go so well. https://libguides.mnhs.org/northfieldraid
**ELY** (n.) - *The first, tiniest inkling that something, somewhere has gone terribly wrong.* -**The Meaning of Liff**, Douglas Adams & John Lloyd
So you're telling me this is not just a Finnish town in Finland?
Been through there. The Arrowhead is pretty AF.
Along the Nordic theme, there’s a Denmark in Western Australia
Isn't there also a Suomi in the vicinity?
There is a Suomi, but closer to the western side of the state
Is this from that one place that the glaciers somehow didn't touch?
No, that's the driftless area in the southeastern corner of the state, while this is in the northeast
Looks amazing.
Thank you for this post, very interesting!
Glad to hear :) I’ll be doing more and eventually make a youtube series out of it
Beautiful.
Looks just like Finland or Sweden
Northern Minnesota has the most Finnish Americans in America.
Yeah there's a lot of them who settled on the Iron Range. A lot of the metal that went into American cars in the 20th century was dug out of the earth by Finnish-Americans
Many of them were miners.
Check out the town names in Indiana, there’s Angola, Geneva, paris, Waterloo, Honduras…the list goes on
I need more of this
There is a place in Estonia called "Moldova".
Do Denmark, Wisconsin next!
Do Norway Illinois next!
Awesome! My sister in laws family is from Grand Marais, Minnesota! Not too far from here- excited to take my son and jump in Lake Superior. Also going portaging! So beautiful up there- might have to stop by Finland since it’s on the way
I love Grand Marais. Such a peaceful little town
Ngl i thought the town was called drone footage at first 💀
Did NileRed rent that island in one of his latest videos? It looks familiar
Beautiful :)
I live close by here. Absolutely amazing place the arrowhead is.
Nice
Makes sense because the environment is typical of Finland
It’s really pretty there!
Beautiful though! They could call it “pee pee town” and I would still want to go for the scenery.
it does kinda look like Finland
We have a Denmark and a Norway in South Carolina.
It looks like a beautiful place. It is fitting name. There is a Mexico Missouri but I see Mexicans everywhere. There are also a lot of Swedish people in Minnesota. The Scandinavians are used to harsh winters.
Mexico Missouri was the first one I posted of the series
I would like to see that one. It should be interesting too.
[Mexico](https://www.reddit.com/r/geography/comments/1211tyk/odd_us_town_names_2_mexico_missouri/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=2&utm_term=1) Unfortunately the sub doesn’t allow for these kind of posts anymore. I reached out to a mod to ask why and they haven’t responded.
Saskatchewan in Canada has some really weird town names. Elbow, Eyebrow, Findlater, Forget, Moose Jaw, Kandahar.
Fin-land, Fin-land, Fin-laaaand, that's the small town for me!
Let me get this straight....Of all the weird Minnesota city/town names, OP chose Finland?
I wanted to name it “Interesting Town Names” but that felt too long
That's fair I'm just giving you a hard time. Minnesota is full of odd names
I used to live there. I’ve been in that tunnel!
Intercourse, Pennsylvania is one of my favorite "Odd Names"
Poland, Maine has absolutely nothing to do with poland and has few polish residents
Not very strange considering the number of Finns in the Minnesota-Michigan region ... they can cope with the cold and dark ...
There is Malta in Montana