The Rebirth of Sauna Culture? In Minnesota, It Never Went Away

Sauna culture is having a moment, with press reporting a sauna "renaissance" that began during the pandemic. Many of these media pieces -- in publications ranging from the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and AP News to regional, local, and industry outlets -- identify Minnesota as ground zero for this rebirth. While much of today's sauna culture, along with many of its innovations, can be traced back to the Bold North, the fact is that in Minnesota, our love for sauna never really went away. It's just that folks are starting to notice it again.

Sauna was brought to Minnesota by Scandinavian immigrants, primarily Finns, for whom sauna was a crucial thread in their social, familial, and cultural fabric. Many would even construct a sauna before they built homes, so they could use them to bathe and relax after working on their homesteads or, in the case of the Iron Range, after a long day at the mine.

What is believed to be the first sauna in the Land of 10,000 Lakes (and possibly the first in the United States) was a shared sauna constructed by three Finnish families in what is now the town of Cokato. The Barberg–Selvälä–Salmonson savu sauna was built in 1868. Moved several times and preserved, the historic log structure was restored in 2008 and remains intact, along with other historic buildings, on Temperance Corner in Cokato.

The state's first public sauna opened in downtown Virginia, Minnesota, in 1912, to serve the Finnish immigrants who had flocked to the Iron Range to work in the then-booming iron mines. Downtown Virginia still looks like a town frozen in the mid-20th century, and the building that used to be the Finnish Sauna still stands on the easternmost end of south First Street, just a block off the main commercial district along Chestnut. Now a privately-owned residence, the Finnish Sauna building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 for its representation of Finnish culture on the Iron Range. Another historic Finnish sauna on the Iron Range, built around 1930, is preserved at the Nelimark Homestead Museum, located about half an hour northeast of Virginia, near Embarrass.

The oldest public sauna still operating in Minnesota is also in mining country. The Ely Steam Sauna opened in 1915 and has been serving the community ever since. Offering both public and private sessions, the venerable bathhouse continues to attract a loyal following to this day. In the North Country, sauna is a way of life, and you'll still find decades-old, wooden and log saunas in backyards and on lakeshores throughout the region (and in suburban homes and yards across the state).

While sauna culture is almost as old as Minnesota statehood, what is really seeing a revival in the Land of 10,000 Lakes these days is public sauna and the community and camaraderie it offers. Spearheaded by small businesses and community operations, gorgeous entrants like Sisu and Löyly in Grand Marais and Cedar and Stone's floating sauna in Duluth have helped introduce the culture to a new generation of bathers and aficionados. (Cedar and Stone is renowned as the maker of some of the best saunas in the United States.)

Another popular form of community sauna, particularly in the Twin Cities, is pop up sauna villages and camps. The Market at Malcolm Yards has hosted a sauna village as part of The Great Northern Festival, an annual Twin Cities event that takes place in January and February, over the last couple of years.

Sauna Camp is another example of the burgeoning popularity of the culture in Minnesota. In 2023, Sophie and Danny Strauss opened Sauna Camp on Lake Minnewashta in Excelsior. The couple met when they were campers at Camp du Nord in Ely, where they were introduced to the culture in a decades-old Finnish sauna, with sessions followed by cold plunges in Burntside Lake. Wishing to replicate the combination of summer camp and sauna, the couple launched their seasonal Sauna Camp on the property of Camp Fire Minnesota.

Sophie told me that wood fires with cold plunges in natural water and wild ice were essential for their operation, key ingredients about which the Strausses would not compromise -- regardless of the extra work it entails.

When I visited, Sophie was hand-cutting ice for the cold plunge and hauling stacks of wood to stoke the fires for that evening's sessions. And the couple's efforts certainly seem to be appreciated by eager sauna seekers. Sophie said that they'd had 4,000 visitors in their inaugural 2023–24 season; this season, which lasts until April, they'd already surpassed that number by the time I stopped by at the end of January. Sauna Camp is likely one of the largest sauna resorts in the U.S.

You can even find an upscale version of a sauna getaway at Cedar and Stone's Guided Sauna Experience at the Four Seasons Hotel Minneapolis. This is just another example of the wide variety of sauna experiences now available in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

No, sauna culture in Minnesota is not a new phenomenon, and it never really went away; but if there's one thing that the newfound popularity of sauna makes clear, it's that, in Minnesota, sauna culture is here to stay.