There has probably been no phase in the community life in which Finns have not had their share. A good example is that of postal service - or the lack of it to begin with. In the early days, mail destined for Pike was directed to the Virginia post office, and from there it was picked up every Saturday, with all

Pike farmers' summer festival in 1912 on the grounds of the workers' hall.
The hall is one of the oldest on the Iron Range.

the farmers taking turns according to the list posted on the kitchen wall of August Matts's home. When this system proved onerous, it was decided to pay one man to do the chore every week. John Karjala volunteered and kept it up, winter and summer, afoot and on horseback, until Henry Kangas succeeded in getting a post office established in Pike. Kangas was also named the postmaster and operated from his own home. He later relinquished it to L. Lundström, and in 1907 the `office' was transferred to Kusti Lammi's house, and his wife served as the postmistress until 1914. In the meantime, the mail still had to be picked up in Virginia, and after Karjala gave up the collection others succeeded him, finally John Dorff, who began to pick it up in Embarrass. This route became the established one, and the local post office was closed. Through World War I the mail was picked up twice weekly in Embarrass, later daily, with Gust Päivärinta putting in the longest service on this RFD route, all of 24 years.

Agriculture was the mainstay of the local Finns, and the importance of mutual assistance was realized at an early date, and in 1914 a program for pooling their resources to buy farm

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