DULUTH, Minn. — A few traditions are reaching new depths in Duluth: a sauna built on top of a barge has sailed into the harbor.
Surrounded by icy Lake Superior, the sauna is docked with the picturesque backdrop of the iconic lift bridge.
“This was my dream,” Cedar & Stone Nordic Sauna co-owner Justin Juntunen said.
Juntunen grew up in a Finnish family in the town of Esko, roughly 20 minutes outside of Duluth. Over a decade ago, he visited Finland with his wife where they took a rowboat out to a sauna on a raft. It was after that trip that he began envisioning how he could bring this experience to the United States.
Juntunen’s vision came to fruition this winter.
“Most of our saunas take three to four weeks to build,” Juntunen said. “This one was a process of about seven months, start to finish.”
It's a careful process that required many permits and approval from the U.S. Coast Guard. There’s a device that creates bubbles around the barge to prevent ice from freezing it, but the hard part was getting it in the water.
“We had to use a 300-ton crane to set the sauna in the lake,” Juntunen said.
How did the barge make it to Lake Superior in the first place? On a semi-truck down through the streets of Duluth at 4 a.m. before most people were awake.
Juntunen says this is one of the only installs he’s ever lost sleep over. What could have gone wrong with a 40,000 lb and 36 ft long floating object? Apparently nothing because it all happened seamlessly.
“Lake Superior is a fickle mistress, we need to be very careful with her ice,” Juntunen joked.
As part of the sauna experience, visitors are encouraged to try a cold plunge in Lake Superior.
One day, Juntunen hopes to sail the floating sauna around the Great Lake.
Sauna History in Duluth
While researching his project, Juntunen came across old newspaper clippings from the early 1900's. Articles in Duluth newspapers say they had the largest population of Finnish immigrants at the time. They brought over with them the cultural gift of saunas.
"Duluth was nicknamed little Helsinki at the time," Juntunen said.
The Minnesota Historical Society has some of the old newspaper clippings showing advertisements for saunas and steam baths. One advertisement mentioned, "Steam, then a shower and plunge-it invigorates."
The "shower and plunge" are very similar to what is commonly known as a "cold plunge" nowadays.
Cedar & Stone
The Duluth-based company crafts the saunas by hand.
If you want to see more behind the scenes on making the floating sauna, click here.
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