It’s SOW-na, thank you! This is the sauna building I grew up with. I don’t know its exact building date except that it was before 1919. As with so many Finnish immigrant families, it provided living space until a house could be built. My Grandfather and Grandmother lived in this building for several months before moving up to the new domicile. Besides a temporary residency these buildings played many other important roles in Finnish society. In addition to its intended function of providing a method of bathing, it also served many times as a birthing station, part of the remedy prescription for many ailments (sweating it out) and also as a social gathering place — not only for family but for neighbors as well. This particular sauna also served people who would come and stay at my Grandparent’s resort.
My earliest memories include the kerosene lantern that lit both the dressing room and the steam room through a little window that separated the two compartments. The clean smell that came from it cannot be replicated by any other place I’ve ever been. Braided rugs on the dressing room floor and a green Prell bottle with a pearl in it that sat ready for use, decorated the entryway. The steam room had three benches. A claw foot tub sat to the left of the door when you entered. When we were young, we took baths in the tub instead of climbing to the highest position on the benches. As one grew older you graduated to the lower bench, the middle bench and so on. Two little doors called “luuku” opened up to the outside to let the moisture escape after bathing was done. They also provided relief when, as teenagers, Kelly Schjenken and I would try to cook each other out and put our faces up to a luuku for relief! Several galvanized buckets were scattered around the floor and benches to carry water and to soak your feet. When done you would rinse off with a refreshing pail full of cold lake water! Water thrown onto the hot rocks would pop and hiss as steam rushed to the ceiling and spread to anyone on the top bench with enough force to take your breath away. Unlike most saunas, these walls were plaster instead of wood and got very hot to the touch. The hot water tank worked on a gravity system with a pipe that wound its way around the fire box. Water would circulate making a bubbling noise. A clank could occasionally be heard as the metal expanded and contracted. A pitcher pump sat against the lakeside wall to pump water directly from Snaptail Lake. We did not use the birch switch “vihta” although I knew many who did. Later in life I gradually moved to using them, pleasantly surprised at how good they felt and how well they helped clean.
As we were growing up Grandpa would heat the sauna at least twice a week — on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The middle of the week and the early afternoon on Saturday were for the resort guests and called “bathhouse” instead of sauna. Our family time was Saturday evening. As I got old enough to heat it myself I would heat it more, especially in the summertime.
Balsam was primarily a Finnish community at this time, and most of the original families had their sauna. We didn’t partake in many others when I was young but we did enjoy Uncle Otto’s on occasion. I’ve only been in a “savu sauna” twice. This is a “smoke” sauna where an open fire was built inside under a cairn of rocks. When the rocks were sufficiently hot the fire would be put out, the luuku opened to let the smoke clear and then was ready for bathers to come in to use. It was easy to identify a savu sauna by the thick smoky smell and the sooty walls. If you weren’t careful you could come out dirtier than when you went in! I think the one I was in when young was at Willie Erkkila’s — but I couldn’t be sure. I did use one when I was an adult on the shores of Bear Island Lake. That one was built into a hillside and had earthen walls. When in high school many of us would gather at Johnson’s place on Lake 30 and use their sauna. We would go as soon as the ice would leave the lake. There was a giant white pine with a swinging rope out over the water. We would take as much steam as we could handle, run out the door, grab the rope and pendulum over the water and let go! Once committed, we could only grit our teeth and wait for our skin to feel like it was being pricked by thousands of needles as we hit the water that only hours before was covered with ice!
Saunas have become very popular. They’ve changed a lot, with most being inside with electric stoves. It’s a lot better than not having anything, but not like the experience of the old time wood sauna. Do yourself a favor and if you have a chance, take in an opportunity to take some “löyly”, or steam, in a real sauna!
One more thing — there is a word in the Finnish language that is pronounced “sana”. It means “word” but is not the WORD for sauna!
Originally posted on Snotty Moose’s Facebook page.