Nippa\u2014whose factory is located along US-31, between Beulah and Honor\u2014turns 85 this year<\/a> and celebrates its 10th anniversary in Benzie County. Finnish immigrant Leo Nippa (pronounced Nee-pah) launched the company in 1930 in the village of Bruce Crossing in the Upper Peninsula. Nippa moved to Benzie in 2005 and was acquired in 2011 by Dean Michael. <\/p>\nA Nippa can cost anywhere from $900 to $2,250, but the quality is made to last. <\/p>\n
Nippa\u2019s claim to sauna fame comes from using a technique that has \u201cpromoted strength and lasting quality that, even in today\u2019s high-tech world, remains unmatched,\u201d according to the company\u2019s website. By rolling the firebox, fewer welds are needed during manufacturing, which makes the product stronger. <\/p>\n
The company\u2019s stoves have been sold to hundreds of people in every state of the Union, as well as to Canada and Mexico. And Nippa\u2019s website is full of testimonials by sauna enthusiasts who express adoration for their hot room stoves. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t know exactly how long the sauna has been [at our lake house in the Adirondacks],\u201d writes Karen Scheer, of Upstate New York. \u201cBut no one can remember when it wasn\u2019t there\u2026 The stove is still working like a champ, and we enjoy it immensely. Thanks for making a product that does withstand the passage of time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another Nippa aficionado in Anchorage, Alaska, writes, \u201cI got some great periodotite-type rocks from the Brooks Range while working as a geologist, and they kept the heat in well. I have to say, this stove is a bomber stove, durable as hell [and] simple to use.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here are a few avid sauna lovers in our Benzie County community who heat their hot rooms with Nippa stoves:<\/p>\n
James Kudlack, who lives just south of Elberta, built his sauna with recycled materials that he salvaged in preparation to build his craftsman home in the woods. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s funky but has good karma,\u201d says Kudlack, who bought his stove from Nippa just before the company left the U.P. and moved to Beulah.<\/p>\n
Kudlack\u2019s sauna has several rooms, including a towel room where you can sit on cherry benches from lumber that he milled, gaze out through the tall French doors, and catch a view of Betsie Bay when the forest loses its leaves. The changing room also features an antique painting by Marc Chagall of a woman perspiring from the sauna and staring into the woods.<\/p>\n
During the cold months, Kudlack typically fires up his sauna a couple of times a week, often on a Saturday night when he can listen to A Prairie Home Companion on the radio. Happy hour drinks and hors\u2019deurves would follow the sweat, as he and his companions listen to the sound of the wind blowing through the dune and watch the setting sun cast shadows.<\/p>\n
On some particularly still Friday nights, Kudlack can hear the cacophony of noises from a high school football game in Frankfort, which is two miles away as the crow flies. The marching band, the cheering, even the whispers in the huddle.<\/p>\n
For Kudlack, the sauna is akin to a religious observance. A weekly or biweekly cleansing of the body, mind, and soul.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach week, it\u2019s a spiritual awakening,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Joe Martin, who lives off M-115 near Crystal Mountain, has owned four Nippa stoves at different times. He and his wife currently have saunas at their cabin on the Betsie River and at their place on a small lake in the Upper Peninsula.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been uniformly impressed with the quality of their construction and efficiency of operation,\u201d Martin says. \u201cWe\u2019ve never had a problem of any kind with any of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Their Benzie sauna building sits on a \u201cpoint\u201d formed by a small creek and the Betsie River, high enough to afford a nice overview of forest, floodplains, and ravines, all just a few yards from the cabin door. The sauna gets used most during deer-hunting season and cross-country ski season. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no better way to get warm \u2018to the bone\u2019 after a day outside in the cold and wind than sitting in a 160- to 180-degree sauna; I typically will stay in the hot room until thoroughly warmed up, then cool off in the cold room before returning to the hot room one last time,\u201d Martin says.<\/p>\n
Martin confesses that he doesn\u2019t roll in a snowdrift to cool down between hot-room sessions like his die-hard \u201cyooper\u201d friends do.<\/p>\n
Eric Fernelius, who lives on Marshall Road outside of Beulah, purchased his Nippa stove in September 2012. His sauna occupies an old pump house building, about 50 yards from his main house.<\/p>\n
Fernelius\u2019s father was a Finn who lived in Detroit and had a sauna in his basement. When the family moved north to Roscommon, the portable sauna came with them. Now Eric and his brother carry on the Fernelius family tradition with saunas of their own.<\/p>\n
A fire three years ago destroyed Fernelius\u2019s previous sauna, which was heated with a stove that he built himself. So he searched for a top-of-the-line stove that would pass a building inspection. He settled on Nippa, in part because his grandparents in the Upper Peninsula were actually friends of the Nippas.<\/p>\n
Saturday and Wednesday nights are typical sauna nights at the Fernelius residence. It\u2019s a time-honored ritual, from the lighting of the stove to placing towels on the benches to casting water on the rocks to create steam, or l\u00f6yly in Finnish. Saunas are traditionally taken in the nude, so Fernelius typically sweats at night under the stars, to provide privacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur saying is, \u2018If you don\u2019t have 180 degrees, you don\u2019t have a sauna,\u2019\u201d Fernelius says. \u201cI like to go three times into the hot room: the first time to get the sweat going, the second time to get up the steam, and the third time to get the sauna as hot as you can stand it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Each trip is punctuated by a brisk escape to his above-ground outdoor pool, filled with 45-degree water. With Fernelius\u2019s sauna often at 220 degrees, that means his body goes through a 175-degree temperature change, and fast!<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s exhilarating,\u201d he says. \u201cA shocking rush that feels so good.\u201d<\/p>\n
To learn more about acquiring your own Nippa stove, call 231-882-7707 or stop into the showroom at 8862 US-31. Nippa is open Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 3 pm. <\/em><\/p>\nFeature photo:<\/strong> James Kudlack stands outside his sauna in the hills of Elberta. Photo by Robert Bushway Photography<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cCadillac of sauna stoves\u201d are made right here in Benzie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Winter Survival in the Sauna","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[173,48,1,44],"tags":[66,109,184,185,187,186],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/james-portrait-at-door.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3TDCr-m4","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1368"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1368"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1421,"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1368\/revisions\/1421"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}