Power companies once wanted to dam Kuusamo rapids
Beer used as business lubricant
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By Tapio Mainio
Kuusamo would not have nearly as much summer tourism as it does now if the power companies had had their way in the 1950s, and the rapids had been converted into reservoirs for hydroelectric power.
"Nor would [the winter ski resort] Ruka ever have been built", says Vesa Rinne, the son of the late author Reino Rinne. Rinne, who was long the editor-in-chief of the regional newspaper Koillissanomat, helped make sure that the planned power plants of Jyrävä and Keljänkoski were never built.
A condition for the building permit was that the power companies Imatran Voima and Pohjolan Voima would have to buy portions of the rapids belonging to local people. To help get the signatures, the companies sent a small army of about 50 buyers who would offer cash on the spot to those willing to sign their shares over to either of the companies.
At one meeting, Pohjolan Voima had 1,208 bottles of full-strength beer on hand to lubricate the locals in hopes of sparking a selling frenzy.
Imatran Voima, meanwhile, used a helicopter - a rare sight in Finland at the time - to drop leaflets on remote areas. Ten four-wheel-drive vehicles were also used in the operation.
The helicopter also brought sweets to schoolchildren living in remote villages, coffee to their mothers, and cigarettes to the fathers.
At night the people of Kuusamo villages would wake to the sound of the helicopter. The noise was followed by the dropping of leaflets informing residents that the company was buying shares in the rapids. The leaflets also reported the new prices of the rapids shares, which were double the amount that had been offered before, wrote Helsingin Sanomat in the spring of 1955.
"The price offered for the shares was not very high, although some people managed to sell their shares twice - to both companies. Some had more land along the waterway. Antti Vuorijärvi, who lived in Kitka, used his money to buy a car - the first American-made Hudson in the area. As he was driving it home, he crashed into the side of a bridge."
The power companies never got the majority of shares that they would have needed.
"Keeping the rapids free was secured in the law on the protection of rapids in 1981", says Matti Ahde, who was the Minister of the Environment at the time.
"After the decision I went to the Rinne summer cottage in the village. It was a moving occasion", Ahde recalls.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 23.5.2005
More on this subject:
 White-water rafting tours are a major source of income in Kuusamo
Kuusamo gets over a million tourists each year
TAPIO MAINIO / Helsingin Sanomat
tapio.mainio@hs.fi
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