History of Oulanka National Park
OULANKA - From Turbulence to National Park
Located in the municipalities of Kuusamo and Salla, Oulanka National Park was established in 1956 along with six other Finnish national parks. It had already become a popular destination for hikers and researchers long before this important designation. Numerous researchers had surveyed Oulanka, whose diverse nature contributed to its future status as a national park. The opening of the Karhunkierros Hiking Trail in 1954 also strengthened the area's position as a recreational destination and a new national park.
Today, Oulanka National Park is visited annually by more than 175,000 people, and various development measures have been implemented to ensure that future generations can also enjoy Oulanka's valuable and diverse nature as well as its magnificent scenery.
Metaphorically speaking, Oulanka has risen from turbulence to the status of national park. The park is intersected by two free-flowing rivers, whose most famous rapids, Kiutaköngäs in the Oulankajoki River and Jyrävä in the Kitkajoki River, form a part of unique Finnish nature. The most turbulent times in Oulanka were the early 1950s, when a controversy broke out over the ownership and harnessing of Kuusamo's rapids. Around the same time, the general parcelling out of land, which took quite a while to complete, drew a clear line between state and private land ownership. After this, Oulanka was on its way to becoming one of the most widely known national parks in Finland.
Dreaming of a National Park
The work for the establishment of Oulanka National Park began in the late 19th century. The first fairly extensive plans date from 1917, when an expedition financed by chocolate maker Karl Fazer explored the Oulanka area. In the 1920s, Professor Kaarlo Linkola, a famous botanist and conservationist, surveyed Oulanka and Juuma (Kitkanniemi) for the purposes of state nature conservation. However, Oulanka National Park was not established among the first Finnish national parks in 1938, as the time was not ripe yet due to unclear land ownership issues and the prevailing political climate. The wars between 1939 and 1945 also delayed the project. The marking of the Karhunkierros Trail in the terrain of Oulanka in 1954 started the boom of hiking and tourism. Oulanka's nature attracted both fishermen and local boy scouts.
Traces Left by People in Oulanka
The history of Oulanka National Park is filled with northeastern Finnish cultural features. The encounter between Finnish farmers and the Sami people has left its mark in the local names, for example. In the Sami language, ‘kiutaköngäs' means ‘large rapids in a deep gully'. ‘Oulanka' comes from a Finnish word ‘oula' or ‘oulu', meaning ‘floodwater'.
The flood meadows of Oulanka are an indication of the creativity of the local people in obtaining valuable natural hay for livestock. Another feature of the area's history is the time of the ‘logging fever', during which loggers floated down the Oulankajoki River while standing on logs.
Slash-and-burn clearings where trees have been cut down to feed reindeer represent an exceptional feature of Finnish forest history. In the late 19th century, the Finnish paper industry became interested in the same spruce trees, and would gladly have bought spruces from Metsähallitus, the body in charge of supervising and managing Finnish state-owned land.
Additional Information
- A book on the history of Oulanka, "Oulanka - kuohujen keskeltä kansallispuistoksi", will be published in september 2006.