Can we sit on the bench together?
A Review of Takka Portage Sauna in Hancock, Michigan
Takka Portage is a brave new venture. It is a modern concept for a community sauna built on the edge of the canal in Hancock, Michigan. It is founded on the tangible heritage of Finnish sauna and, at the same time, embraces something new–sauna as a gathering place for health and community benefits in the center of an urban area. In this region of Finnish America where sauna has long been a traditional gathering place for family and neighbors, I believe that the time is right to reinterpret sauna for a more diverse urban community. The question is, can we sit on the bench together?
I thought about this question as we drove from the Twin Cities to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in October. The scenery was beautiful as the highway wound through trees painted in gold and orange-red colors. We also noted the lawn signs. Just weeks away from elections, the low level of civil discourse was disgustingly clear: dozens of aggressively large signs, flags and banners with political messaging that did not just state the name of a preferred candidate but threw insults at opponents with f-bombs and more. Maybe it is time to step out from behind our signs and slogans. Sauna may be just the place to relax and have better conversations.
An important public conversation occurred in February of this year at National Sauna Week in Hancock, Michigan. My husband Jack Steinmann was invited to speak and to make the case for having a public sauna in Hancock. His interest was as a marketing professional, sauna enthusiast and regular tourist to the area who, through friendly conversations with tourism officials in the Upper Peninsula, was encouraged to open a discussion. At the time, Takka Portage Sauna was in the works but had not finalized and announced plans. It was surprising and promising to see that Takka Sauna and opened its venture so soon after the event.
We were also pleased to be able to attend the opening event for Takka Portage Sauna on October 19. There was music, food and a few short speeches. Finishing touches were being added to a colorful mural as folks tried out the saunas. It was an unseasonably warm day but overcast as owners Jason and Lynn Makela spoke with excitement and emotion, thanking the many partners and participants who contributed. The Makelas are owners of Fresh Coast Cabins near Copper Harbor and the amazing sauna reviewed in July 2024 now rebranded as Takka Superior. Lynn told us that they hope to serve the community in the Houghton area as well as boost tourism. She mentioned future plans to include a cold plunge floating dock much like one we experienced at Cedar and Stone Nordic Sauna in Duluth.
Local civic leaders and boosters for Finnish-American culture, Jim and Debbie Kurtti were on hand to wish the project good luck. What could be more Finnish than Debbie sheltering from a light rain beneath a Marimekko umbrella and Jim, the honorary consul for Finland in the UP, saying a few words of welcome to the crowd and applauding the correct pronunciation of sauna? A big compliment from a Finnish speaker! We were happy to see the Kurttis and are forever grateful for the kind hospitality they offered when Jack traveled to the area for Sauna Week which included a session in their beautifully restored century-old UP sauna. It represents the other end of the spectrum from Takka’s public sauna. I have heard it said many times that local Finnish Americans see no need for a public sauna because they all have one in their own backyard.
Takka sauna offers more than a backyard view. It takes advantage of a splendid vista from the Portage Canal waterfront. The canal is a broad water-filled cleavage that runs across the Keweenaw Peninsula. Bordered by steep bluffs, it’s the natural result of an ancient geological fault. Long used as a portage by Native people–keweenaw is an Anishinaabe word for portage–it was dredged into a canal for shipping copper and lumber in the 19th Century. Today, the deep and broad waterway lies between the cities of Houghton and Hancock which are joined by the Portage Lake Lift Bridge. The portion of the Keweenaw Peninsula that is now fully surrounded by the waters of Lake Superior is sometimes called Copper Island.
More like a sauna park than a single structure, Takka includes several buildings: one, a dressing room with exterior cold showers and three small sauna huts. There are a couple of fire rings and ample seating on contemporary Loll furniture . I sampled each of the three small saunas. They are designed by Cedar and Stone in Duluth which is emerging as a leader in the design of public saunas. We recently toured their manufacturing facility in Duluth and were impressed with the design and materials, especially the use of mass timber, a product that looks good and seems well suited for building durable, well insulated saunas.
Each sauna building at Takka offers a different stove. I most enjoyed the middle sauna with a small wood fired Iki stove that produced pleasantly sharp heat. (Small world note: We met Samuli Kerrman, owner of IKI-Kiuas this summer. He has a distribution point down the street from us in St. Paul). Each sauna features a full picture window and is arranged at a slightly different angle for a variety of views across the canal. I loved the expanse of sky above the water that served as foreground to the city, gorgeous in fall colors. To the east, the tall steeple of Saint Ignatius Loyola Church rose behind the pale blue of the lift bridge. I can imagine some fabulous views after dark when city lights come on and stars come out.
The Hancock canalside itself has not fully shed its historic industrial character but is increasingly accessible thanks to developments like green spaces, boardwalks, condos and some restaurants. The sauna is a perfect addition to this special place where history is still so evident. Jack and I strolled the neighborhood and thought it was on point that just a block away is Vollwerth’s, a century-old sausage company where makkara, sauna sausage, is made. Takka Portage is also situated near Porvoo Park with the boardwalk on one side and on the other, the Hancock-Calumet Trail (multi-use so, in addition to an occasional bicycle, a party of ATV’s came roaring by). There is a lively sense of public space developing.
Friendly guides were on hand at the event, welcoming sauna goers by handing them a towel and having them sign a waiver–a reminder that common sense is required: be careful with löyly (steam), stay hydrated with beverages (there were sweet, slightly salty teas on offer) and please sit on a towel when on the bench. This last one to me is quite important and I did note that a party of three I shared a bench with did not sit on their towels. At one point, one person propped a sweaty bare foot on the wall. It brought back memories of a sauna in a vacation rental years back. I was looking forward to a solitary sweat in the home’s sauna on a winter day. I heated it up and slipped in there after a shower. After a few minutes I sensed the presence of someone else. Someone who had left behind a strong, sweaty odor, a highly personal reminder that the bench had been used by a bare butt.
One reason I subscribe to Finnish sauna practices is that they ensure a pretty clean and pleasant-smelling experience. I once belonged to a gym where the sauna in the women’s locker room was used variously as a) a drying room for damp, sweaty shoes and gym clothes after a workout, b) a place to warm up on a cold winter day. Women would sometimes enter fully dressed, slushy boots and all. c) a spot for a coffee klatch. Once, a lovely mother and daughter entered the sauna with their thermos of coffee and cups. The small space quickly filled with the swirling fragrance of Arabica. We keep our backyard Bad Sauna clean, aired out and lightly scented with essential oils from the forest.
Sharing the bench with others takes tolerance. Will Takka attract the local Finnish-Americans? Will tourists flock to it? Will old and young, right and left, people of diverse opinions be able to meet there and have civil conversations? There is a lesson from Finland; it’s called sauna diplomacy. Urho Kekkonen, the President of Finland, 1956 to 1982, famously navigated the Cold War years by conducting high-level meetings with politicians while in the sauna. The essence of it is that the sauna is a disarming setting where people strip down naked or nearly. In a bathing suit or towel, it’s still true that when we enter the shared space of a sauna we feel more humble, less defensive and more aware of our essential equality as human beings. Let’s start there.
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