1950s, with V. Joensuu in charge, activity became somewhat more significant.

The Aurora Cooperative Association was begun in 1914. At that time its board of directors was made up of 6 Finnish-born members and 3 non-Finns; in 1952 there were 4 Finnish-born members, 3 second-generation Finnish Americans and 2 non-Finns.

During 1916-17 the Aurora municipal treasurer was a Finn, Matti Rahko, who in earlier years had kept a grocery store in Mesaba in partnership with Eli Kangas.

Hoyt Lake

Five miles east of Aurora is the young, modern mining community of Hoyt Lake, site of the Pickand-Mathers taconite mines. The ore is shipped by rail to Taconite Harbor, owned by the same company, and is processed there and shipped via waterways to eastern steel mills. About 3,500 persons are employed by the Hoyt Lake and Taconite Harbor (located in Cook County) enterprises; they comprise some 1200 families, among them second and third generation Finnish families. Also Finns living on farms in the surrounding area work here, to earn more money than their farming their lands would bring them.

Mesaba

The last township in the Messabi range is the one, located east of White, named Mesaba. Soon after 1890 there was already keen prospecting here in addition to forestry operations, and 200 persons were living in the region which received the name of Mesaba Township, organized in 1892. Considerable numbers of Finns have worked at various times in the following mines:

In Mesaba there have been two Finnish societies, a temperance society and a workers' society. The temperance society, the Erämaan Tähti, was reported to have joined the Temperance Brotherhood in 1891, but the Raittiuslehti reported in 1894 that the Erämaan Tähti had ceased to exist. The workers' society, also, was not conspicuously successful, but it managed to survive to a later date, to experience the schism which made this society into an IWW group. However, as Finns began to leave Mesaba for

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