EBEN

Region: Pictured Rocks/Munising/Au Train

Founded: 1908
Superior Central School marks Eben Junction's four-corners where M-94 (between Munising and K.I. Sawyer) meets H-01. It's not far from Rock River Canyon and Laughing Whitefish Falls.
Many small ethnic farm communities were established on cutover land in this area.
Eben was Finnish. A gift of the internet age is Leonard S. Wilson's detailed, illustrated study of Finnish agriculture and farm buildings in Eben. It was first published in 1934 in the papers of the Ann Arbor-based Michigan Academy of Science, Arts & Letters

Wilson enlivened it with localisms like, "Where there is a Finn, there is a cow" and "It is said, locally, that if a Finn is given his choice between a well-drained, cleared, first-quality farm, and a piece of poorly drained, rocky, cut-over land, he will choose the latter." (It's more likely that the good land was all taken.)

The paper is enlivened by meticulous maps of fields and photos of cutover farmland and small, specialized farm buildings typical of Finnish farms. Find the article by searching for "Eben: A Finnish Community in the Upper Peninsula."

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PLACES AROUND EBEN TO

Eat Sleep Camp