In 1868 three Finnish neighbours, Isak Barberg, Nils Selvala and Peter Salmonson, built a small smoke sauna right on the line between their farms. In 1885 that line became a county road, and the sauna stood in the middle of it.

It went to court, and the story is told two ways. One version says neighbours accused the Selvälä family of strange practices in that little hut, and the family proved they were good Lutherans who were just getting clean. The other says Nils Selvala sued the township because nobody would pay for moving the sauna. Both end the same: 30 dollars in damages and 40 more to move it.

So the sauna was taken apart log by log, carried across the road on a wagon and rebuilt. The money paid for a bigger, better sauna, and the old one became a tool shed, with siding on the walls and tin on the roof. For about ninety years nobody knew what it was.

In 1979 it was moved to Temperance Corner in Cokato, and in 2008 it was restored. Today it is believed to be the oldest smoke sauna in the United States.

Which building near you is secretly something else?

Sources: MNopedia (Minnesota Historical Society), Barberg-Selvälä-Salmonson Sauna; Susan Keskey, Cokato Finnish American Historical Society (2014).
Sounds: snow wind and gravel recordings by Yle Arkisto (Freesound), CC BY 4.0. Other sounds CC0 or Apple-licensed.