After visiting the old Askel fire tower, we decided to continue on down the road and make a stop at the old Hanka homestead. This forty acre farm was settled by Finish immigrant Herman Hanka in 1896, and continued to be home to the family for another 75 years – up until 1966. During that time the farm was left relatively untouched from it’s 1920′s appearance, and exists as a living time capsule from a time when people made a life for themselves living off of the land.
The farm features an eclectic group of eight buildings, all built by hand in the old-world style commonly used to build such structures back in Finland. The buildings seen here include the Hanka’s sauna on the left, and the dairy house in the foreground. The dairy house features a hole in it’s floor that allows milk to be suspended in the stream that flows underneath it, to keep it from spoiling in the summer months.
Here’s a closer look at the sauna, one of the first out buildings built by the Hanka’s when the land was first settled.
Next door to the sauna sits a small barn, used primarily for storage.
Also found in the collection of structure is this root cellar, used to store perishable goods and keep them cool. It’s basically just a glorified hole in the ground with a door.
Further along we come to the house itself, a two story structure built out of hand sewn logs cultivated from the neighboring forest. The front entranceway was a later addition.
Here’s a closer look at the home’s humble structural form. They sure don’t make them like this anymore, which is a shame considering this guy is still standing after a century.
The Hanka homestead also has the distinction of having never been hooked up to electric power. Because of this water had to be drawn up out of the well the old fashion way. In this case the old bucket and rope was replaced by the interesting contraption seen here.
Another small building sits nearby, one used to store and mill the family’s grain. The black tar paper seen along its facade is one of the farm’s rare later improvements.
The last large building at the old homestead is – of course – the barn. This barn is rather large, consisting of a hodgepodge of several structures all joined together under one roof.
One side of the barn features this small one story structure joined together with a lean-to on it’s backside.
The other end of the barn features a more robust two story wing that probably served to house the Hanka’s cow. You can see the second floor joists protruding through the outside wall.
One last look of the old barn before we move one, this one showcasing that back lean-to. What’s most amazing about this old homestead is the old world charm these buildings have, it’s almost like traveling across the pond and taking a walk around the scandinavian countryside. Only it it’s right here in the copper country.
The Hanka Homestead is a Keweenaw Historical Park cooperating site and open for tours in the summer.
The dovetailed timbers in the corners of the house seem rather unique to me. In most pictures I’ve seen of old timber buildings the corners were “overlapped” like you see in the pictures of the barn. Maybe dovetailing was more common than I think, or perhaps it’s something coming from the Finnish tradition.
Dale, there are some other cabins that I’ve seen on old farmsteads up here which have similarly dovetailed corners. You might be right about the Finnish tradition…
The dovetailed technique was fairly common for houses. Many of the the “company” log houses were built that way as in the one along US41/M26 in Ahmeek. The first section of the Long home (German Hotel) in Eagle River is a 2 1/2 story log house with the dovetailed corners. This was a higher level of craftsmanship, note the squared logs, making a much tighter structure. It also made the houses easier to cover with clapboard siding at a later date. The round log, overlapped technique was a much faster and cheaper method. Some of the buildings pictured here show a transitional method with squared logs and overlapped corners. Looks like the purpose of the building determined the effort in building it.
You know, with all of the time I’ve spent in the CC over the years, I’ve never managed to take the time to visit the Hanka farm. I’ll plan on it for the next visit up north.
I love these old hewn log buildings. From what I’ve read, houses of hewn logs rather than round logs are typical of settlers that came to this country early in it’s history. Sometimes they may have built a round log house for an outbuilding or a temporary shelter. But for a permanent home they took time to hew the sides of their logs. This exposes the heartwood which is more durable to the weather than the sapwood that’s left on a round log. And often they used hardwoods, which is very uncommon of modern log homes. The logs were squared with an axe that has a single bevel and a blade about 6-8 inches long called a broadaxe. After some years the logs would shrink and the chinking (the caulking between the logs) would become lose and these buildings were often covered with tar paper and clapboard siding, or shingles to keep out the drafts.
Could someone tell me where this place is located? I’ll have to go see it someday!