Kuusamo

Sister cities

• Hørning Municipality
• Avesta Municipality
• Loukhsky District
• Askøy Municipality

History

Until the 17th century, the area of Kuusamo was inhabited by the semi-nomadic Sami. During the cold season they lived in the villages Maanselkä and Kitka. In spring they moved to the rivers and in summer, after the melting of the ice, to the lakes; there they fished and gathered berries and mushrooms; in autumn they hunted reindeer, bears and beavers in the forest. Apart from fishing and hunting the Sami earned their living by trading fur with the Finns settled on the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia and the Karelians of the White Sea coast. As a Sami settlement the area belonged to Kuusamo Kemi-Lappmark at the time. Nominally it belonged to the territory of the Swedish province of Västerbotten, but the Swedish rule was limited to the collection of taxes. At the same time Russia collected taxes in the territory it deemed state-less. From the 15th century Finnish fishermen also took advantage of the fishing grounds on the lower reaches of the river Iijoki near Kuusamo. They took regular trips of a few weeks from Kuusamo, but because the land could not provide hay for the cattle other than near the river, they founded no fixed settlements. Only when, in 1673, the Swedish government granted all settlers in Lapland a tax exemption for 15 years, did settlers from Savo and Kainuu settle in Kuusamo. They practiced slash and burn as a form of shifting cultivation. This put the Sami's hunting way of life at risk. Within a few decades the Sami population was assimilated or ousted by the Finnish settlers. By 1718 there were only two Sámi families in Kuusamo, who had already adopted the Finnish language. The first parish in Kuusamo was founded in 1685. In 1687 a temporary chapel was built, in 1695 the first church. From the end of the 17th century the area around the lake…

Geography

Kuusamo lies in the east of Finland in the Northern Ostrobothnia region on the border with Russia. The town of Kuusamo is only a small part of the municipality. The neighboring municipalities of Kuusamo are Suomussalmi in the south, Taivalkoski and Posio in the west, Salla in the north and Russia in the east. The nearest large towns are Rovaniemi, northwest, Oulu southwest, and Kajaani south. The distance to the capital Helsinki is . Kuusamo covers an area of of which is water. or 14% of the area of Kuusamo is covered by water. The largest of the 166 lakes in the area are Joukamojärvi, Kiitämä, Kitka, Kurkijärvi, Kuusamojärvi, Muojärvi and Suininki. Rivers in the area include Oulankajoki, Kitkajoki, Kuusinkijoki and Pistojoki flowing eastward to the White Sea and Iijoki westward to the Gulf of Bothnia. The area of Oulanka National Park is shared between northern Kuusamo and neighboring Salla municipality. The landscape is dominated by pine forests, Oulankajoki river and its side branches with their sandbanks and rapids, and in the northern part vast marsh areas. In the wilderness live 30 species of mammals and 120 species of birds, including brown, stone and white-tailed eagle. Wolves and lynxes are rare. Rapids in Oulankajoki include Kiutaköngäs, Taivalköngäs, Jyrävä, Niskakoski, and Myllykoski. Near the southern border with Suomussalmi is the canyon lake Julma Ölkky with cliffs up to high. According to IQAir, Kuusamo's air quality is the cleanest in the world; small particulates are present in the air at only 0.2 μg/m3. The average annual temperature is 0.7 °C, annual precipitation . The warmest month is July with an average temperature of +15.0 °C, coldest January with −11.5 °C. The coldest ever measured temperature was −48 °C…

Most-observed species

• Willow Warbler

  Phylloscopus trochilus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,005
• Common Goldeneye

  Bucephala clangula (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  902
• Great Tit

  Parus major Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  878
• Whooper Swan

  Cygnus cygnus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  848
• European Pied Flycatcher

  Ficedula hypoleuca (Pallas, 1764) · Aves
  793
• Brambling

  Fringilla montifringilla Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  652
• Common Chaffinch

  Fringilla coelebs Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  645
• Little Gull

  Hydrocoloeus minutus (Pallas, 1776) · Aves
  637