Kemijärvi

When I was going to ForestSámiSummerExpo2025 I stopped in Kemijärvi. It is a city with interesting signs and citizens. I stopped there for 2 years 30 years ago and warmly recommend you to stop at least for few hours if on self guided road trip in Lapland, Finland. 

I visited at Kemijärvi local history museum. Unfortunately their website is only in Finnish. Like many local history museums they run it by volunteers. You can see the opening dates and hours on their website. I am sure google can translate it for you. But if it is not open when you plan to visit it just call them beforehand and ask for a private tour. The private tour per person for 1 hour is just 20€ and worth of the money. Besides the money goes for the charity/museum, they don't get the public funding to run the museum. I have visited the museum twice 30 years ago when studying in Kemijärvi and again now. I like it because they have labelled it all well and are very aware of about each item origin and history. 

Just check out the local library in Kemijärvi. There might be interesting exhibition going on at the library or at the cultural center. They locate both in the same building just next to each others. Usually it is all free entrance at least at the library exhibitions.

I wanted to see Heikinheimo's exhibition at Kemijärvi cultural center. He has phothographed a lot Forest Sámi people and his photos are very valuable to us and hopefully some day we'll see more of his collections at the museums and exhibitions. Rencently -about a year or something ago- his pics were donated to the museum from the private collection. In the future we are expecting to see more of his photos. This exhibition presented himself to the audience.