Museum of local history and culture in Kuusamo

Transcription

1 Museum of local history and culture in Kuusamo The early stages of the museum The idea of establishing an old homestead museum was first brought up in the 1950 s by the local history association Kuusamo-Seura. In the beginning, the association collected aged artefacts which were placed to premises rented from the parish, situated in the church basement. At the early stages of the museum, a very significant collector of artefacts was the Pohjois-Pohjalainen Student Nation from Helsinki. At that time their regional expeditions were directed towards Kuusamo. The project took a step forward after the parish leased out a piece of land in the Kitroninpuisto Park. The association began to plan an outdoors museum, with a farmyard typical of Kuusamo, and to look for suitable buildings to be moved on the land. They searched different areas in the region to find farmhouses, granaries, storehouses, byres and a smithy. The goal was reached little by little during the 1960 s and 1970 s. The first building came from Käylä, called the Rävä house. The last building moved to the museum area was the main building, the Pulkkanen house, in the beginning of the 1970 s. The museum was taken care of on voluntary basis mostly by the Kuusamo-Seura until 1978, when the ownership of the museum was transferred to the municipality of Kuusamo. Thanks to the transfer of ownership and thus a new source of means, extensive repairs of the museum were carried out in the 1980 s.

2 The farmyard The goal was to create a typical, fully functional farmyard. The old farmyards in Kuusamo were rectangular with buildings usually on all four sides. There were 5-6 meters wide passages between the buildings. This style remained until the beginning of the 20 th century, when people started building the houses further from each other in order to avoid fire damages. The buildings here are organized in the more recent style, and layout was designed by a surveyor called Ove Planting. The farmyard buildings included a drying barn, a byre, the small quarters and the main house. The rectangular courtyard, or manor, consisted of the residential building, the barn on its opposite side, and the stables, opposite which could be an old cabin or some other building, or no building at all. Roofs The roofs of the buildings in the museum are made of either birch bark or planks. Roofs made of birch bark were quite common up to the first decades of the 20 th century. However, shingle roofs were not common. A plank roof had water ruts and was covered with tar. The roof of the Pulkkanen house was changed from a birch bark roof to a shingle roof in Painting of the buildings The buildings were not usually painted. Most of the houses were built of pine wood that turned gray in the course of time. The use of paint, red ochre or yellow ochre started relatively late in Kuusamo. Up until the war most of the houses were gray and unpainted. After the war people started to paint window frames white. White paint also became common inside houses after the war. The collection The collection of the museum consists of ca artefacts. They are linked to various sources of livelihood of a backwoods peasant, such as field cultivation, hunting, fishing and reindeer husbandry, as well as the ménage of his family. The main building of the museum is decorated in the 1930 s style. The other buildings support this basic theme.

3 THE BUILDINGS 1. THE MAIN BUILDING (the Pulkkanen house) The main building was built in the end of the 19 th century by a farm-owner called Mikko Heikki Pulkkanen ( ). Its original location was in the village Kuolio. It stood there until the beginning of the 1970 s. It was inhabited by a large family up to the mid-sixties. The appearance of the building has remained almost exactly the same for almost a century. Only the veranda has changed a little, its place was changed in the 1920 s. It used to be closer to the living room, and the entrance led straight into the room. The current porch was originally a bedroom. The living room The living room was the centre of life in the house. It was used for dwelling, working, eating and sleeping. The opposite sides of the living room had different purposes; the side with the door was for men s work and the side with the oven for women s work. The corners of the room were called door -, oven -, and pen corners. The word pen derives from the time when the livestock inhabited the same building with people, especially during cold weather. The room was dominated by a big oven, with a stove in one corner. Fire in the oven, together with burning splinter wood, a candle or an oil lamp served as sources of light. Bread, splinter wood and material for woodwork were stored in lengthwise beams near the roof. On the men s side, fairly low down, was a beam for hanging the seine or fyke when they needed repairing. Under the beam was usually a table for knitting nets.

4 Furniture was usually scarce. There were benches against the walls, and in addition to a table and chairs there were pull-out beds in both back corners. It was customary to sleep on the floor on straw mattresses as well. In the corner on the men s side there was a carpenter s bench, and on the women s side a spinning-wheel and a handloom. Above the dining table there was an oil lamp. Rag rugs were not used, except in the chamber which was used as a guest chamber when needed. Other textiles were also scarce; there might have been short semi-curtains on the windows. In addition to the beams, another place for storage was on the top of the oven. Clothes, shoes and lumber were often dried there. The kitchen Between the living room and the kitchen chamber is the kitchen, which can be entered either from the living room or straight through the porch. The kitchen walls are limed white, as well as the roof. Shingles and an oil lamp were the sources of light. The whitewashed walls gave some extra light to the dim room. The kitchen furniture was barren, and there were no textiles. There were no rugs on the floors and the curtains were missing as well. The kitchen was there for cooking, but the dining took place in the living room around the big dining table. There was a so called milk corner in the kitchen, where the dairying took place. There was a separator, a churn and the milk barrels. The kitchen chamber Up to the 1930 s, the walls of the kitchen chamber were covered with newspapers; they were white and brought light to the room. The roof of the kitchen chamber was whitewashed as the roof of the kitchen. The chamber had semi-curtains and there were a few rugs on the floor, but there were no other textiles. The kitchen chamber was where the grandparents of a big family would sleep, and other family members as well, if needed.

5 The porch chamber The walls of the porch chamber were papered, and it was the most representative room in other ways as well. There were long curtains on the windows and rugs on the floor. The parents and small children lived in the porch chamber. In addition, the master of the house had his writing-desk and adjoining equipment in the porch chamber. The inhabitants In the beginning of the 20 th century it was typical that the families were very large. This also had its advantages; it gave protection to the individuals in the family, and also ensured that there was enough labour force to cope with the workload. This house was inhabited by a family of people, maybe even 20 people. The farm was quite big by today s standards, about hectares. The economy of the farm was a so called mixed economy. In addition to dairy farming and agriculture, fishing hunting and reindeer husbandry were also practiced. These subsidiary trades had a great significance in the 1930 s. 2. THE SMALL QUARTERS (the Rävä house, built around 1880) This building served as living quarters, or the small quarters, already in its original location in the village of Käylä (owner: Aarne Kurtti). It was where the dairying, for example the souring of the milk, took place. In the summer the house was used for entertaining guests. It was used as living quarters mainly in the summer. 3. THE BYRE (built in the 1940 s) The byre (owner: Arvo Lehto), moved from a farm called Lehto in the Koskenkylä village, is a shovelling byre typical of farms in Kuusamo. Adjoining the byre is a hut for heating water, among other things. The most important domestic animals were cows, horses and sheep. 4. THE STABLE/STOREHOUSE (built around 1880) This building (owner: Eino Törmänen), moved from Törmäsenvaara, is a rarity in Kuusamo due to its through passage. The first floor of the building has the stables and some storage room; the upstairs was used as storage and a sleeping place in the summertime. 5. THE SMITHY (built in 1890) The smithy, moved from Kilpivaara in the village Käylä, was owned by Armas Kilpivaara. Households in Kuusamo often had so called domestic blacksmiths. Necessary items were often produced without outside help, in their own smithy. There were also so called travelling smiths who went from house to house. Usually the blacksmith was a notable person in the village, with whom people needed to be in good terms in order to get a decent blade on their scythe.

6 6. THE LITTLE STOREHOUSE (built in the beginning of 17 th century) This building was moved from Rukajärvi (owner: Väinö Kela). According to tradition, it was used as a refuge in Eskonkorvenaho during the war against Russia. Now it is used to store fishing equipment, for example fykes and nets, as well as some hunting equipment. 7. THE GRANARY (built around 1890) The building is originally from the village called Vuotunki (owner: Kalle Pohjola). It was equipped with so called mice stakes, which prevented mice from getting into the granary. 8. THE SEINE SHELTER The shelter was built in 1978 for the filming of the movie Juha. 9. THE SMOKE SAUNA This is a traditional Finnish chimneyless sauna. The smoke is let out of a window just before bathing. The water was heated by putting a sauna oven stone into the water barrel. 10. THE BIG STOREHOUSE (built in the 17 th century) This building was moved from Kurtinvaara in the village Käylä, from a farm called Kilpivaara. It was used to store grain, flower and bread. In one corner there is a hand mill typical of Eastern Finland. 11. THE WATER MILL (built in the 16 th century) The original location of this mill was in Vuotunki, where it was common property of the whole village. A mill of this kind has been quite common in the rapids and creeks of Kuusamo. The water revolves the vertical boom, which again revolves the upper stone. Both the stone and the boom revolve in the same pace, defined by the force of the water. 12. THE DRYING BARN (built around 1900) This building was moved from Hanhela in Tolpanniemi (owner: Verneri Vanttaja). Threshing was mainly women s work. The crop shocks were first stuffed on the loft to dry out. The barn was heated for 1-2 days to dry the crop. The dry shocks were spread out on the barn floor, and beaten with flails until the grains came loose of the cobs. The litter was threshed once more, and the grain was separated from the husks by winnowing. The best grains flew the furthest. They were put in a sack. The rest were fanned or sieved. Finally, the grain were sacked and taken to the granary. 13. THE HAYBARN The original location of this building was in Kuusamo (owner: A. Rajala). The timberwork of the building is of the simplest kind, where the poles are round (in Finnish, the timberwork is called the dog collar type). The floor planking is interlocked.

7 14. THE WIND MILL The wind mill is from Repovaara in the village of Kuolio. Wind mills have been rare in Kuusamo and to our knowledge; they have all been of the same type as this one. Other constructions THE BEAR TRAP The trap was built by voluntary work organized by the Game Management Association of Kuusamo. The heavy girder has been set high. On top of it is a pile of timber as weight. When a bear walks in to get the bait, the girder and the timber falls and the bear gets trapped. THE LEAF STACK Made by voluntary work in the summer of THE HUT In the hut, there is a pot where water was heated. The hut was there to protect the pot and the fire underneath it. THE WELL A draw well, with a curb made of wood. Repaired in the summer of THE SHINGLE MACHINE A shingle machine from the Raatesalmi farm. Moved to the museum area in the spring of 1990.