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Hancock artist searching for old saunas

Scott Viau
/
Daily Mining Gazette

HANCOCK, MI--   Mary Wright is on the hunt for historic saunas and a place in which to permanently display them. 

The Daily Mining Gazette reports that the artist from Hancock is collecting the old structures.  They first came with immigrants from Finland, where sauna use is a national pastime.

Wright is collecting them for FinnFest USA 2013, a national heritage festival coming to the area from June 19-23. She also aims to create an outdoor sauna museum.

She says it would be the second such museum in world following the first in Finland. An exact location hasn't been determined.

Organizers say about 30 percent of residents in the Copper Country claim Finnish descent.

Nicole was born near Detroit but has lived in the U.P. most of her life. She graduated from Marquette Senior High School and attended Michigan State and Northern Michigan Universities, graduating from NMU in 1993 with a degree in English.