By Jerry Mevissen
Driving south a few hundred miles on US 71 from the Minnesota-Canada border to Mexico, you'll pass through Menahga, a name derived from the Ojibwa word for blueberries aplenty. It's not a big town (current pop. 1,374) so stay alert, because on your left is a larger-than-life statue of St. Urho, pitchfork held high with grasshopper impaled.
Who is St. Urho? Why, he's the patron saint of Finnish grape workers, credited with salvaging the grape crop by driving grasshoppers out of Finland. Fantasy or fiction, who cares? It's cause for an annual celebration the day before St. Patrick's Day. Get the idea there might be a hint of competition going on?
Behind St. Urho, shrouded in spruce, is the Menahga Historical Museum. The statue appropriately predates the museum, giving its construction divine guidance. Plans for the museum began in late 1986. Fund raising kicked in in 1986, and the building plan for a 40- by 80-foot concrete structure was approved in 1987. By Midsummer Celebration Days in mid-July 1990, the interior was completed, artifacts were donated, displays were organized, and the doors swung open to the public. In 2012, a 54 by 120 feet of exhibit space was added.
Today, Museum membership hovers around 100. It's a 501(c)3 organization with funding derived from donations, grants, and support from Wadena County. Volunteers staff the museum, which opens on Memorial Day and closes Labor Day. The Museum also serves as an event center.
A brief history of the area: Finnish migration to America began in mid-19th century and reached its peak between 1870 and 1929, when an estimated 350,000 Finns emigrated and settled in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Economic hardship coaxed them to make the perilous journey, and the promise of land and relative prosperity cemented the decision. Imagine days, weeks on the stormy Atlantic with meager food and comfort. Imagine landing in New York, then boarding a train to Minnesota. Imagine detraining in New York Mills, Minnesota, after seeing (and expecting) New York City.
The new Americans walked or hitched a ride through untamed wilderness with the local mail delivery man to their 160-acre homestead. Imagine the challenge of clearing 160 acres of red and white pine, and waiting to be cut for a cabin and land waiting to be cleared for farming. Imagine the new stove and hardware. And imagine a Minnesota winter approaching.
Enough pioneers arrived and survived so that in 1892, the town of Menahga was incorporated.