Every design for Muhos

At Pyhäkoski the tar boats once came down the rapids with tourists aboard, the highlight of Finland's oldest tourist route, which ran from Viipuri through the east of the country to Oulu. The rapids were famous for salmon too, caught by villagers at shared weirs. After the Second World War the river was harnessed, and the Pyhäkoski power station, designed by Aarne Ervi, now has the highest fall of any in Finland. Its arrival brought jobs, but it ended both the fishing and the boat trips.

The Sankaripatsas in Muhos honours the parish's war dead, and its old wooden church is one of the oldest in Finland. People have lived beside the Oulujoki since the Stone Age, and finds at Pyhänsivu village rank among the most important in North Ostrobothnia. Muhos was also home to Armi Kuusela, who won Miss Universe and was born and raised here.

The map follows the river through the village, with the open plains to the south and the wooded hills of Kainuu rising to the north: the same view that anyone who grew up in Muhos knows from every trip along the river road.