Suominpuisto

By AARON ALDRIDGE -- Staff Writer
Saturday, October 18, 2008 8:33 AM

NEWPORT -- Long before Michael Phelps became the greatest Olympic athlete in history, Hannes Kölehmainen of Finland brought home three gold medals and one silver medal during the 1912 Stockholm Olympics making him a national hero and the pride of Finns around the globe.

That pride turned to excitement and enthusiasm for athletics which carried over to the large Finnish population living and working in Newport at the time. Thus began the construction of Suomipuisto, or Finn Park.

Located across the Sugar River along Sunapee Street, the 15-acre park was the site of the Finn Olympics where teams from Massachusetts and Vermont were invited to compete against the Newport Finns in numerous track and field events.

Today, the park is long forgotten except for a few locals like Kevin Sargent who comb the now thickly wooded site for artifacts.

"I've found a few old pennies and nickels," Sargent said. "In one area I found a lot of .22 shell casings probably used for a starting pistol."

After a group of Finns completed construction in 1910 of the Temperance Hall, which is now Sunapee Bedding, they decided they needed a place close to the hall where summer activities could be held.

Enthusiasm piqued following the 1912 Olympics and the following year a piece of land across the river from the hall was found, but it was owned by the Richards Mill Company. The company would not sell the land because it needed to protect its water rights, so an agreement was made to rent the land to the Finns for $25 per year.

In the spring of 1914, the men of the Temperance Hall constructed a bridge across the river and a road leading to where the athletic complex would be built. The bridge is still there and is now used by snowmobiles and hikers to cross the river.

Work on the complex was done in the evenings and on Sundays. A two-story building serving as a snack shack on the first floor and a changing room above has long since disappeared, but the remnants of the foundations for the posts can still be located on the site.

About 100 feet to the east of the snack shack the men created an oval track. Inside the track were the discus and shotput circles and to the side there were jumping pits and a pole vaulting track.

During later years, the Finnish youth made a cross-country track through the woods for longer races.

For many years the Finns held picnics, gatherings and competitions at Finn Park. But the temperance movement slowly lost momentum and in 1930 the hall was sold ending the local version of the Olympiad.

During the first half of the 20th-Century, the Finns were a powerhouse at the Olympic games taking home 26 medals at Stockholm in 1912, 34 medals at Antwerp in 1920, 37 medals at Paris in 1924, 25 medals at Amsterdam in 1928, 25 medals at Los Angeles in 1932, 19 medals at Berlin in 1936, 20 medals at London in 1948 and 22 medals at Helsinki in 1952.

One of the greatest Olympians in the history of the games is Paavo Nurmi who won nine gold medals in long-distance races between 1920 and 1928. His accomplishment has only been recently surpassed by Phelps.

In 1956, the medal count began to drop off with a total of 15 medals earned at the Stockholm games. Just five medals were earned at both the 1960 games in Rome and the 1964 games in Tokyo. Since that time, the Finns have been unable to recapture the glory days of Hannes Kölehmainen. During the past 40 years, a total of 57 medals have been earned during the last 10 Olympiads which include a total of two medals won during the 2004 games in Athens.

The Finns have consistently enjoyed success during the Winter Olympics having won medals in eight different categories during the 2006 games in Turin -- more than any other nation in Europe.

This year, the Finnish Olympic Committee sent 58 athletes to Beijing to represent the small European country. According to the committee, the goal of the team is to earn a total of three medals with at least one gold medal.

As a reflection of the once powerful Finnish Olympic team, a piece of Newport history is also slowly fading into obscurity. The Suomipuisto has all but disappeared except for a few small pieces of tin roofing scattered here and there and a couple of rotting post foundations covered in moss.

But the Finns can stand proud knowing that at one time, they were a group of athletes to be reckoned with during the Olympic Games.

Aaron Aldridge can be reached at (800) 545-0347 Ext. 139, or by e-mail at aaldridge@eagletimes.com.