BOOK YOUR STAYThe First Pages of Apukka Resorts Story
We all have a story to tell. A story that begins from the dawn of our time and is altered by all the small encounters and details met along the path. A story full of enchanting memories, unique moments and brave individuals. As any story when told, this story will open our soul and heart to the reader. This, our dear friends, is the story of Apukka.
As you might expect in Finnish Lapland, the story of Apukka Resort started from ice. 12 000 years ago the area was covered by glacial ice over 2 000 m thick. As the ice age ended roughly 9000 years ago, the people started to make their way to the surroundings of lake Olkka about 2 000 years after this. The scenery surrounding them in this new world them was the creation of the melted ice cover – the previously sharp hilltops were polished by the moving ice and the valleys were carved to a perfection by the powerful flow of glacial waters. And in this terrain, the story started to build its chapters.
Most likely the first people in the surroundings of Apukka were Sámi. The nature would talk and they would listen, living their lives in harmony with the surrounding wilderness. They’d live in small communities as nomads, following the fish and game from the coast to the inland. The rich fishing waters of the area also brought the Finns to the surroundings of lake Olkka around the 14 th century. The Sámi and the Finns would inhabit the area together in peace, gaining their nutrition from the nature and getting around by the means of a reindeer or a horse sleigh. In a place with plentiful water ways, boats would also been rowed on the waters of Lake Olkka for thousands of years.
As the pages of the story turn forwards, the number of people habiting the North grew. In the late 1700s there was a growing need for taverns offering a bed for a tired traveller and so on the year 1865 began a new chapter of Apukka as it opened its doors as a tavern of the crown. The tavern of Apukka was always ready to greet travellers and adventurers from all around the world, ensuring that there was always a comfortable bed ready for the venturers of the unknown. The traditional food served was abundant and the glasses would never fall empty. Laughter and joy would fill the tavern as the guests shared the stories from their astonishing adventures.
The tavern of Apukka, well known around the area for its great horses, was open until 1930s. Many great stories were shared by the big fireplace during those decades of the tavern, many laughters echoed and filled the building with joy – even an airplane was built inside the tavern of Apukka by Johan Lindström at 1926. But it was time for a new chapter, and at 1938 Apukka became a nature research station – a path it followed until 2012. Fishing on the area continued and logging became a big part of Lappish lifestyle as the years went pass. The rivers meeting lake Olkka were used to float logs and a log mill was built on the opposite side of the road from Apukka. And all the time, Apukka stood proudly on the side of lake Olkka.
On the year 2017 the opening words of a new chapter were drafted in the story Apukka as it was bought by brave and innovative local men. They created something new whilst never forgetting to respect the old. One log at a time, a hammer in one hand and notebook for ideas in another they together brought the old tavern of Apukka back to life. Today, the new chapter in the story of Apukka has just begun and its proving to be full of magic and adventures.
This, our dear friends, is where the story of Apukka continues from.