Our Story
First a little history
We are the oldest tourism business in Lapland. But before the business was started, our family's ancestors lived in the wilderness of Lapland for uncountable generations over many centuries. They were firstly nomadic during the summers and somewhat sedentary during the winters, establishing camps and bases during the coldest months. In 1733 they decided to permanantly settle in this particular part of Lapland when they found a suitable spot to build a fixed home on the northern shore of the Nampa lake. They took Nampa as their family name as was customary in those days.
People often used the rivers to travel in summer and Nampa was some 75 kms up-stream from the trading post at Rovaniemi. Back then, Rovaniemi consisted of around 50 houses and a church. These were mostly built on a small peninsula just south of the confluence of the Ounasjoki river with the Kemijoki river, which is Finland's longest river. Because of it's favourable position, it had been a popular place to live even in the stone age and by the mid-1500's a small population of about 200 lived there, made up of people from different indigenous Finnic tribes.
From Rovaniemi, the Kemijoki continues another 120km down to the town of Kemi on the Gulf of Bothnia, which had already established itself as a settlement in the 1200's.
By 1839, a road weaving inland from Kemi, following the Kemijoki river up to Rovaniemi, was finally completed. As a result, the timber, salmon and fur trade increased greatly. Kemi's town had prospered since the early Middle Ages because of it's position on the coastal road around the Gulf of Bothnia, which was an important trading route. Now it was Rovaniemi's turn to prosper. Since there were no actual shops in Rovaniemi yet, merchants and peddlers from Kemi and beyond would visit to tout their wares. Ten years on and encouraged by the trade and the abundant natural resources further north, the road building continued upwards from Rovaniemi.
First, it made its way north-east towards lake Vikajärvi, then around the lake's southern shore and eastwards to lake Kemijärvi. Later, the road building resumed from Vikajärvi northwards, eventually reaching Seppo's great-grandparents in Ylinampa. From here, the road continued onwards to another old settlement called Sodankylä, closely following the rivers that cut through the wilderness. The roads took decades to build as they relied on compensation to employ farmers when crops failed. After Sodankylä, the road continued further north and eventually reached Petsamo and the Arctic Ocean in 1920. It now became known as the Arctic Ocean or "Ice Sea" Road.
Korvala was originally established as a crown forest croft in 1889, 12 km north of Ylinampa near Käyrästunturi fell. It was the first property established here, in what later became our village, right next to the northbound road where it meets the Raudanjoki river. A small hill provided the ideal location for the house and farm, which were protected from summer-time frosts by having a lake on one side and the river on the other side. The name Korvala derives from the combination of "korva" and "la". A "korva" is a part of the river where the water can be heard flowing over rocks, like small rapids; the "la" denotes the place of something, like a house. There are four korvas along the stretch of river running past the length of our property, so Korvala means
"the house where flowing water can be heard"!
​
The job of crofters was primarily to look after the new road, but the distance from Ylinampa meant that Korvala was also an ideal place for travellers to stop for a rest along the way. As such, the croft also functioned as an inn and gave safe refuge for intrepid voyagers, lumberjacks and government officials alike. In those days, inns in the north were located approximately 10 kms apart and if they didn't walk or ski, travellers rode in horse-drawn sleighs or carts. In the 1920's Korvala became part of a nationwide network of inns that signed contracts to ensure an agreed standard of accommodation, food and horse-drawn transport to travellers. These were called kestkikievari in Finnish, from the Swedish word gästgiveri, meaning "guest-giver". Another task of the innkeepers was to ensure that mail, as well as customers, could get to the next inn, and a driver always had to be ready and available. Korvala is the oldest inn in Lapland that has stayed in operation since those early days, welcoming guests and giving food, as well as a place to sleep, to those on their travels. Seppo recalls sitting with his grandmother, Hanna, (born in 1885), while she smoked her pipe on the porch steps and watched their horses work down in the fields alongside their latest acquisition - a Fordson Super Major tractor. She would reminisce about the early innkeeping days and how she helped prepare the horses that took their guests on to the next inn... how things had changed in her lifetime... and how things were before the modern world caught up with the people living in this remote corner of Europe...
Seppo's grandparents had taken over the croft in 1911 after the tragic death of the previous crofter's wife. Seppo's mother, the family's youngest, was born there in early 1919, just over a year after Finland declared independence from Russian rule during the chaos of the Bolshevik revolution. In the spirit of optimism and prosperity, a new law was passed in 1922 which allowed crofters to take full ownership of their property. Seppo's grandfather, Juho Pekka Nampa, who was listed as Korvala's innkeeper in the 1923 population records, applied for this independent status for Korvala. The summer of 1927 was spent with officials measuring out the land. After their assessment, it was decided that since his family had lived at Korvala and managed the road well for many years, Juho-Pekka only needed to pay 1/8 of its value. It was calculated that the property could easily support their 10 cows and two horses. 105 hectares were declared suitable for timber growth. The number of valuable trees (those which were over 18cm wide at 6 meters) was calculated to be 3071, of which it was considered that 766 would be enough for any future building work, heating, and the re-seeding of the forest. The buildings, in addition to the land, were scrutinized to arrive at the croft's value. The price for these, which included the main house, the guest house, the sauna, dairies, stables, hay barns, granary and equiment shed was set at 795,- mk. The hay fields, crop fields, meadows, lakes, river frontage and the rest of the land were set at 4 085,88 mk, and the 766 trees at 3 386,- mk, making 8 266,88 mk all together. The greatest value, however, was in the remaining (over 2300) trees, coming to 21 306,50 mk. This brought the final total to 29 573,- mk. Juho-Pekka, now 50 yrs old, duly paid and Korvala was granted independent status on 31st October 1927.
Sadly, all the buildings at Korvala were burnt to the ground due to the scorched earth policy used during the Lapland war that raged for seven months from 15.9.1944 to 27.4.1995. The roadside properties north from the Arctic Circle were the worse hit, with over 90% of buildings and almost all infrastructure destroyed by the retreating German troops, so as to leave nothing behind for an expected Russian occupation. Since the locals had been warned about the advancing threat, a massive evacuation of over 100 000 people from Lapland ensued. Seppo's parents drove their young children and their elderly grandparents with their most precious possesions to his father's old family home in Karunki on the Swedish border, while their milkmaid Tilma, along with their other farmhands, walked the cows and horses the 210km to get them there to safety too.
After the war ended, over 70 000 landmines were found and cleared during the first summer as people returned, however, stray mines still caused many civilian casualties. Gradually, the hundreds of bridges, 9500km of roads, 500km of railways and countless homes were rebuilt. Seppo's father and grandfather returned first to start rebuilding Korvala, and once it was safe, his mother, siblings and Tilma returned with the surviving cows and horses. Soon they were also able to give travellers a place to stay and rest again.
Just as tourism in Lapland started to recover (especially after Eleanor Roosevelt's visit to the Arctic Circle in 1950), another disaster struck. Their new main house burnt down a second time: on Good Friday in 1951 the chimney set fire to the wooden roof whilst Karelian pies were being baked for Easter.
So once more, a new house was built. The construction was completed in record time, ready for the many tourists that visited Finland for the summer olympics in Helsinki in 1952.
Seppo, also the youngest of his siblings, was 20 years old when he took over the business in 1977. He first built a new café and an amenities building for the campsite, which operated during the summer months. He then ventured into the forest to cut down some trees, shape them into logs and build a row of cabins with south-facing views over the lake. Finally, he built a new sauna next to the site of the original sauna, which had been built at the end of the 1800s. The flow of visitors continued through the years.
​
During the 1980s, Lapland saw a growing interest in winter tourism: the founders of Lapland Safaris visited us in 1982 soon after Seppo had finished building the cabins to talk about developing winter products, and in 1984 Concord brought the first group of British families to Rovaniemi for Christmas. By 1992 Santa's Post Office and the Santa Claus Office had been established at the Arctic Circle and in 1994, we extended and insulated our cabins so they could be used during the winter season as well.
​
From 1995 to 1999, we carefully moved and renovated an old house from our neighbouring village, which Seppo’s grandfather had visited often as a child. Originally built in the mid-1800s, we restored and furnished it with the family belongings and furniture that had survived the WWII evacuation. This house became our main building and the hub of our activities, housing our reception and restaurant in a traditional and historic setting. We entertained a lot of people, and for a few years during the Christmas period, we hosted groups of around 200, who flew in for fun-filled day trips, including the secret charity groups funded by George Michael.
​
Guests visiting us in winter were offered full or half board, along with various activities such as horse-drawn sleigh rides, husky sledding and snowmobile tours, as well as visits to our corral with a local reindeer herder, his children, and their reindeer. We also provided cross-country skis and ski tracks, snowshoes, ice skates, and ice fishing equipment for free.
We worked closely with our villagers to create a genuine winter product, utilising their skills to produce authentic clothing and traditional activities and souvenirs, so that our guests could have a unique, cultural experience while visiting us.
​
Watch a documentary video here from the year 2000.
It is about the cooperation with our village community and how we created a unique product based on our family's kestikievari cultural heritage.
(Suomenkielinen versio tässä)​​
​
For most of the time, however, we hosted back-to-back groups of 50-60 international Erasmus Exchange students studying at Scandinavian and Baltic universities. These students stayed with us on action-packed holidays throughout the winter season. For two and a half decades, we were also kept very busy with raising a family, in addition to running the restaurant, managing the cabins, organizing activities and operating our kennel of around 80 Siberian huskies. But that wasn't all: the winter tours and activities only ran from mid-November to mid-April, so during the summer's long polar days the campsite was open 24/7 from mid-May to mid-September. Then from mid-September onwards, we'd train our huskies in preparation for the next winter season. Our days were always full of activity :)
Nowadays...
Then Covid-19 struck. Well, our business and our kennel survived and even though it was tough, things have been worse in the past. Through thick and thin, the family has always persevered. We still live here at Korvala year-round but things are a bit quieter these days. The accommodation is still in the cosy, log cabins built by Seppo, and our guests are mostly young families and couples. We have scaled down a little and we are only open in winter, with the maximum number of guests now at 36. Many of our outdoor activities and tours are still available though, provided on site to fill those snowy winter days: without any extra cost, guests can still go cross-country skiing, snowshoe hiking, ice-skating and ice-fishing whenever they want. For those who feel adventurous, our beautiful Siberian huskies will enthusiastically take our guests through the forest on sledding tours. And what better way to finish off the day than with a sauna and a swim in the lake, or by the fireside enjoying a traditional candlelit dinner in our relaxed, rustic restaurant! Finally, during the night, it's always a good idea to keep a look out for those elusive northern lights...!
We hope you enjoy finding out more about all these winter activities on the various pages here on our website!
We wish you warmly welcome!
Jaana and Seppo
