They are thrifty and industrious - Finns in Copper Country

The last place on Earth for many Finns has been Copper Country, Michigan. There they found their living after immigration. This "The Last Place on Earth" you will find three miles north of Calumet, in Phillipsville, at US Highway 41.

I found this short article about Copper Country Finns in the Ironwood News Record. It was published on August 1, 1896. I retyped this, a little bit blurry text, with some comments:

A Industrious People

Twenty years ago there were not over 100 Finnish residents in Houghton County [1]. Today there are estimated to be over 7 000, or more than any other nationality other than Americans. The largest immigration of Finns was between the years of 1885 and 1886. The great majority of those coming to this country belong to the peasant class, very few coming from the cities of their native land. The chief occupation of the Finns in the Copper Country is mining, but quite a number have taken up farming on a small scale. They are also fast becoming a prominent factor in business circles; and they compare favorably in sobriety with any other nationality. The American News (Amerikan Uutiset)[2], published in Calumet, has the largest circulation of any Finnish weekly paper published in America. The Suomi Society, a Finnish fraternal organization, has the largest membership of any society in Calumet. There is also a Woman’s league, which devotes itself to philanthropic and educational purposes. In religion, the Finnish people are Lutherans, divided into two sects – the Apostolic Lutheran and the Evangelical Lutheran. In politics, they are mostly Republican, with a scattering of Prohibitionists. Most of the Finns own the houses they live in, and are considered as a rule to be thrifty and industrious. The population of the farming towns of New York Mills and Cokato, Minn., principally comprises Finns who formerly lived in in Houghton County, where they sayed the means with which tp purchase their farms. The immigration of Finns to Houghton is now on the average ten per day.

[1] Actually the Finnish immigration started ten years earlier, at first from Northern Norway.

[2] Amerikan Uutiset was started in Minneapolis with the name Työmies. When in Calumet published Amerikan Suomalainen Lehti ceased publication, Työmies was moved to Calumet in 1894 and it's name was changed to Amerikan Uutiset.