Midsummer Celebration held in Brantwood

BRANTWOOD — The Knox Creek Heritage Center held its annual Midsummer Celebration on June 22, welcoming community and visitors alike to three acres of historical period buildings dating back to the earliest European immigrants.

The guests enjoyed a fantastic dinner of grilled burgers, brats and hot dogs along with all the fixings, from baked Beans and potato salad to coleslaw and lemonade. The live entertainment was provided throughout the day by Randy “Rupert” Jones.

“The weather started a little wet in the morning, but cleared before the beginning of the event and turned out to be a beautiful day!” said Kevin Wollemann, president of the Knox Creek Heritage Center. “A good time was had by everyone.”

The pavilion helped shield from the drizzle. Guests could also use the time to explore the machine shed with several displays on the trades and mechanicals, along with the farm implement building and an original Finnish sauna that was in the Wollemann family for over a century. An original log home and the former Spirit Baptist Church are two other century old structures that were moved to the heritage center.

Brantwood is where people settled around the turn of the century to work in the logging industry, Wollemann said. When the cutover was done, the logging companies offered them parcels of land at a low price and many families stayed to take up farming.

The Brantwood area has a strong Finnish tradition along with the surrounding German, Czech and Swedish communities. So the heritage center events have a multinational flavor, Wollemann said. The original farmhouse at the site has the detached summer kitchen that early settlers used to avoid cooking indoors during the warmer months. Another farmhouse divided into three exhibits showcases a general co-op store; a one-room schoolhouse; and a logging display.

“A good number of folks helped volunteer for the day’s festivities and we would like to thank everyone that was there helping set-up, serve and clean-up afterward,” Wollemann said. “We could not have pulled everything together without all the help provided.”

The midsummer celebration also serves to celebrate the summer solstice and is one of four annual fundraisers. The next event is “A Country Afternoon” in September.

The other two events include the Finnish Independence Day celebration on the first Saturday of December at the Brantwood Community Center. There is Finnish food including mojakka cooked in a 35 gallon cast iron crock over a wood fire outside.

The fundraisers are crucial for the maintenance of very old buildings and the grounds, Wollemann said. It takes a lot of work and most of the board members are now getting into their late 60s to early 80s.

For more information, visit facebook.com/knoxcreekheritagecenter.