Detroit Finnish Co-operative Summer Camp

Established in 1925, when Detroit's Finnish population was growing rapidly as a result of the city's burgeoning industries, especially automobiles, the Detroit Finnish Co-operative Summer Camp was the first, and is today the only, summertime campground and social, cultural, and recreational place for people of Finnish ancestry in southeastern Michigan.

The Detroit Finnish Co-operative Summer Camp occupies a roughly rectangular tract of about seventy-six acres obtained in 1925. The formerly rural area with its hills, lakes, and woods has become substantially built up with suburban development in recent years. The summer camp stands on undulating ground, much of it retaining a natural forest cover, and totally encompasses one lake and has frontage on another. Loon Lake Road passes at an angle through the camp's western section, separating two camp complexes containing in all 114 camps of simple gable-roof form, generally twelve by eighteen feet in ground dimensions. Lyonia, a side road off Loon Lake Road along the north edge of the property, provides access to the main part of the camp, passing a caretaker's house and garage near the Loon Lake intersection. A simple log pole gate on Lyonia - displaying the message "tervetuloa" (Finnish for ''welcome") on the street side and "nakemiin" ("see you") on the back - marks the entrance to the main part containing a dance hall with stage, kitchen building, covered outdoor dining pavilion, and open lawn area containing a baseball diamond and basketball court. A second log pole entrance farther east on Lyonia - this one displaying a sign, "sauna-ranta" ("sauna-beach") -provides access to a sauna building and a beach on Sun Lake with fishing dock and diving tower. While some buildings and structures, such as the sauna and diving tower, have been replaced over the years, the replacements stand on the original locations and house the same functions.