A FAMILY LEGACY
I don’t remember taking my first sauna. Kind of like I don’t remember learning how to ice skate. Doesn’t everyone sauna and ice skate?
I do remember my first sauna. It was in a refurnished log cabin built by my great grandfather Akkala in Chatham, Michigan. The same log cabin where my grandmother, Ailie Wilhemena Akkala (O’Leary), and her seven siblings were born.
Saturday was sauna day. That’s when the O’Leary clan would pile into our van and make the trek from our camp (Camp Sisu) on Shelter Bay, down Rock River Road, to Uncle Reino’s and Aunt Helen’s home in the old log cabin.
The Akkala’s would greet us at the door, faces rosy with sauna bloom. We’d exchange reserved and awkward handshakes and hugs consistent with their Finnish reserve, and totally inconsistent with the warmth and dry humor in their eyes and home.
Sometimes the men and boys would sauna first. Sometimes the women and girls. Sometimes couples with young kids. No one ever considered clothing for modesty.
The sauna was in the mudroom added on to the original log cabin. It was made of aromatic white cedar planks fired by a handmade wood sauna heater. There was a small dressing room between the mudroom and the sauna. Inside the sauna there was a large tray of Lake Superior stones on top of the heater, and a tank of water next to the heater with a ladle for pouring water onto the rocks. Two benches (I was usually on the bottom bench as a boy), and a shower. We’d visit, earn our sauna bloom, shower, and cool down outside on benches overlooking the vegetable garden.
After sauna Aunt Helen would set out a marvelous feast with rutabaga, beans and greens from the garden, some sort of beast, cowboy coffee made with egg shells, and desert. I can’t recall a single conversation. I’m just left with impressions of feeling well fed, well loved, squeaky clean, and that life is good.
This story is our inspiration for Akkala Sauna.
While we are well aware of the health benefits of saunas and cold plunges (something I take great advantage of after a long day making wood or exercising in the gym), it seems to me that the real sauna magic is in the culture it fosters. Taking time to light the fire. Inviting family and friends into your sauna, and around your table. Letting go. Reconnecting. Sweating out worries. Earning a sauna bloom. Remembering that today wasn’t so bad and tomorrow promises to be beautiful.
- Mark O’Leary, Founder