The Sauna at Twelve-Foot

In The Sauna at Twelve-Foot, Marlene Mattila Stoehr’s poems and prose pieces capture Minnesota following the peak of Finnish immigration into the state, with evocative descriptions of the close-knit immigrant community of Sebeka, Minnesota.

In a landscape of alfalfa fields, blueberry woods, and corn stubble, a parade of neighbors assembles each Saturday evening to “take sauna.” They gather on the banks of the Red Eye River, at the deep spot known simply as Twelve-Foot. In wintertime, children race down frozen cow-manure piles on hand-carved wooden skis. A party-line telephone rings to deliver news of a hard loss.

The collection includes the author’s Finnish ancestral emigration stories and is an important contribution to Minnesota’s women’s and immigrant history. In a desperate search for food during devastating famine, a family skied 400 miles along frozen rivers to reach the Arctic Ocean. Other stories tell of emigration from Finnish-speaking communities in Norway to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and attempts to unravel mystery surrounding the death of a great-grandparent in Michigan’s 1895 Osceola mine fire.

Get the Book

You can order The Sauna at Twelve-Foot here, or at any online or physical bookstore.

The book is also available at New York Mills Regional Cultural Center, 24 N. Main Avenue, New York Mills, MN 56567.

Book Details

Title: The Sauna at Twelve-Foot: Collected Writings
Author: Marlene Mattila Stoehr
ISBN: 9798989499120
$15.00
Copyright 2024
Publisher: River Box Press
Paperback: 118 pages
Dimensions: 6 x 0.32 x 9 inches
Distributor: Ingram
Available at bookstores and online retailers

About the Author

Marlene Mattila Stoehr was in her seventies when she first submitted a poem for publication. That act led to a body of work that focuses on the Finnish-American immigrant community of Sebeka, Minnesota.