|
He Drove the Grasshoppers Out of Finland . . . 
Menahga,
MN honors St. Urho (Pronounced "oorlho"), the patron saint of
Finland, with a bizarre statue recreating his mythical battle with giant
grasshoppers. He is reputed to have used his "splendid and loud
voice" to chase the grasshoppers out of pre-Ice Age Finland (when the climate
was much milder) and save the grape harvest. The Finns love him.
At least, the ones in America do. St. Urho was
reportedly invented in the 1950s by a couple of Minnesota Finns as a joke.
Today it's taken seriously enough that St. Urho Day (March 16, the day before
St. Patrick's Day) is officially recognized in all 50 states.
 St. Urho was originally supposed to be carved out of a
one-ton block of laminated oak in 1975, but a Minneapolis woodcarver took
Menahga's money and never delivered. In 1982 Menahga gave the block to Jerry
Ward, a travelling chainsaw sculptor, and he finally produced their 12-ft
tall St. Urho. Oddly, the statue now standing along Hwy 71 is a fiberglass
replica; the original is stored in a mausoleum in the Menahga cemetery.
We do not recommend the
traditional summer night visit. The statue is the only well-lit milestone
along thirty miles of highway, and the air is thick with mosquitoes. We ask:
who is Menahga's patron saint, who will drive all the blood sucking bugs out
of Minnesota?
(St. Urho statue: east side of US
Hwy. 71, Menahga)
(St. Urho statue:
Hwy 1, Finland)
|