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SharanskyWailer t1_jb7vv9t wrote

This is actually a huge honor. I hate that it takes visits like this to remind us that Washington has very big Finnish-American population, especially right across the bridge from Astoria over in Oregon.

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Fartknocker500 t1_jb8hw4t wrote

My family is from Astoria, all Finns. I thought the Finnish president coming to WA is really amazing.

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kr9969 t1_jb8pjvb wrote

Same with my grandmas side, they spent their time between Astoria and Aberdeen, where they had a cranberry farm just a little ways away in grayland.

Fun fact, my grandmas family name is in the cranberry museum there.

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TheFairAmerican t1_jb9s1po wrote

I might be one of the few who knows what that means lol. Very cool though. (From a swede finn)

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mods_r_jobbernowl t1_jb8ig05 wrote

This is the first i'm hearing of Astoria having a lot of people of Finnish descent.

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SharanskyWailer t1_jb8j0ok wrote

It's a not-so-well-kept secret. I had the pleasure of talking to 70-something year-old Finnish man at a fundraising lunch at the lodge there that there were so many in the area decades ago (into the 1960s and 1970s) that they still spoke Finnish with each other in everyday life.

Apparently, Astoria had one of the largest populations in the USA outside Minnesota and Wisconsin. Those who haven't passed away have mostly left the area. The same old man complained bitterly about the economic decline and how there is so much poverty and addiction in the area instead.

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lurkerfromstoneage t1_jb93dlb wrote

UP of Michigan too for sure. Heck they even have Suomi College. Am Finn-American with a large Finnish family from MN, WI, MI. Didn’t know about Astoria either I’ll need to look more into that!

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