Kilpisjärvi Biological Station

Station area and buildings

Research activities were started in very primitive conditions. Kilpisjärvi wasn't connected to the electricity wire network until the beginning of the 1980s. In the 1940s there weren't any year round settlements except for the house of the family of the guard of Malla strict nature reserve. There Olavi Kalela and his co-workers rented rooms for summer for their studies. At that time, studying small mammals was so uncommon in Lapland that the house were named "Hiirimökki" (Cottage of Mouse,see section "History") by the local people (although Olavi Kalela and his collaborateurs didn't study mice but voles).

When the Station was founded a small building was built near the Kilpisjärvi lake. It was later named after Seppo Eurola, a professor of botany at the University of Oulu. A year later the shore-sauna was built. In 1973 a new separate accomodation building was built. It is named after Henrik Wallgren, professor of zoology. In 1984, the main building and laboratory facilities were built. In 1987 a separate building was purchaced c. 1 km to the north of the station. It was named after founder of our station, late professor Olavi Kalela. This year new accomodation rooms, a new kitchen, a dining room and a new laboratory were constructed.