Mesaba Co-op Park is a cooperative park located near Hibbing, Minnesota. It is one of the few remaining continuously operated cooperative parks in the country. A gathering place of the Finnish cooperative movement, the park served the ethnic political radicals who energized the Iron Range labor movement and Minnesota's Farmer–Labor Party. The member-owned park is open to the public.HistoryIn late 1928, the Mesaba Range Co-operative Federation began securing land for a park to accommodate large Finnish gatherings. One hundred and sixty acres, including a fifty-two-acre lake not shown on lumber company maps, were purchased for $2000. Forty Finnish American organizations purchased membership shares. Volunteers cleared land for a road, grounds, and building sites.The period of the park's founding was one of anti-Finnish sentiment. Signs across the Range read, "No Indians or Finns allowed." The Finns' prominent role in the 1907 and 1916 Mesaba Range strikes had led to blacklisting. The Finnish cooperative movement was, in part, a response to this discrimination. In June 1929, as work progressed, an article in the Finnish-language newspaper Työmies (The Workman) announced that local Finns would celebrate in Chisholm for the last time without a progressive venue of their own.The park opened on September 22, 1929. In the spring of 1930, construction began on a caretaker's residence and a children's school. The park's centerpiece, a dance pavilion, was completed in June 1930. Early festivals featured plays, track and field events, swimming, and dances. In addition to sports, students at the North Star children's camp were given an introduction to working-class thought.
