Enontekiö (; ; ; ; ) is a municipality in the Finnish part of Lapland with approximately inhabitants. It is situated in the outermost northwest of the country and occupies a large and very sparsely populated area of about between the Swedish and Norwegian border. Finland's highest point, the Halti fell, with a height of above the mean sea level, is situated in the north of Enontekiö. The municipality shares borders with regions of Sweden and Norway that encompass the Scandinavian Mountains. The administrative centre of Enontekiö is the village of Hetta. About one fifth of the community's population are Sami people. Enontekiö's main industries are tourism and reindeer husbandry.
Geography Location and dimensions
Enontekiö is located in the region of Lapland in the outermost northwest tip of Finland. The salient between the Swedish and Norwegian borders, which is occupied by the municipality of Enontekiö, is called Käsivarsi (Finnish for "arm"), because before World War II, Finland's borders had the shape of a woman's figure (Suomi-neito) and the area looked like her raised right arm. The municipality occupies a large and sparsely populated area of (more than three times the area of Luxembourg). Thus Enontekiö is Finland's third-largest municipality in size, after Inari and Sodankylä, and with a population density of only , it is the second-most sparsely populated municipality, after Savukoski.
Enontekiö's neighbouring municipalities are Inari in the east, Kittilä in the southeast, and Muonio in the south; on the Swedish side in the west, there is Kiruna Municipality and on the Norwegian side in the north, there are Storfjord Municipality, Gáivuotna Municipality (also known as Kåfjord), Nordreisa Municipality, and Kautokeino Municipality. Enontekiö shares a border of more than with the two adjacent nations. The border to Sweden is formed by the river Muonionjoki and its tributary, Könkämäeno.
Villages The main village of Enontekiö is the settlement of Hetta in the south, with approx. 530 inhabitants. There is no village with the name of Enontekiö, but Hetta is often called the municipality's name. Other important places are the village of Kilpisjärvi, which is located near the border triangle of Finland-Sweden-Norway, as well as Karesuvanto and Palojoensuu, both of which are located at the Muonionjoki at the Swedish border. Enontekiö's villages are concentrated in the southern area and along the banks of the rivers Könkämäeno and Muonionjoki in the west of the municipality. Often, there is a corresponding village on the Swedish side of the river, bearing the same name (or the Swedish form of the name), e.g. Karesuvanto/Karesuando. In contrast, the part of the Käsivarsi Mountains away from the rivers is almost completely uninhabited.
The following villages belong to Enontekiö (Sami name, if available, in parentheses):
Hetta (Heahttá) Jatuni (Jáhton) Karesuvanto (Gárasavvon) Kelottijärvi (Gelojávri) Ketomella Kilpisjärvi (Gilbbesjávri) Kultima (Gulddán) Kuttanen (Guhttás) Leppäjärvi (Leaibejávri) Luspa (Luspi) Markkina (Boaresmárkan) Maunu (Mávdna) Muotkajärvi (Muotkejávri) Näkkälä (Neahčil) Nartteli Nunnanen (Njunnás) Palojärvi (Bálojávri) Palojoensuu (Bálojohnjálbmi) Peltovuoma (Bealdovuopmi) Raittijärvi Ropinsalmi Saivomuotka (Sáivomuotki) Sonkamuotka Vähäniva Vuontisjärvi (Vuottesjávri) Yli-Kyrö
Topography
In its northern region, Enontekiö shares borders with areas of Sweden and Norway in which segments of the Scandinavian Mountains are located. Through that and through its location in the far north of Finland, it is geologically and scenically very different from the rest of the country. Halti, the highest mountain of Finland with a height of 1,324 m, is located in Enontekiö, together with all 21 other mountains higher than in the country. Besides Haltitunturi, probably the best known and scenically most distinctive mountain is the Saana with a height of , which rises above the village of Kilpisjärvi. The southern part of the municipality is less mountainous, but some single fjells (tunturi, which means hills towering above the timber line) rise above the otherwise rather flat surrounding area. Below, a part of the Pallastunturi–Ounastunturi-massif extends into Enontekiö's territory.
A little more than 5% of the municipality's area consists of water. Several large rivers originate in Enontekiö: The Muonionjoki, Ounasjoki, Ivalojoki, and one of the headstreams of the Tenojoki have their sources in the municipality. Enontekiö owes its name to them: Eno is an old Finnish word for "major river" cognate with the Northern Sámi word Eatnu or "large river, largest river (in a specific region)" and tekiö is derived from the Northern Sámi derivational suffix -dat which forms abstract nouns. All of the 825 lakes in the area are rather small. The largest lakes are the Pöyrisjärvi, the Kilpisjärvi near the village with the same name, and the Ounasjärvi near Hetta.
Flora and fauna
The vegetation of Enontekiö is very meagre, due to the extreme northern latitude. The northern border of the natural geographic range of the spruce approx. matches the southern border of the municipality; the range of the pine ends only north of Hetta, too. North of that, only birches grow. The timber line is approximately ; above that, a tundra-like vegetation predominates. Heaths extends above timber line.
The lower heathlands are dominated by shrubs such as Betula nana, Vaccinium myrtillus and Empetrum hermaphroditum, whereas in the fjell heaths at higher elevations Salix herbacea, Empetrum and alpine grasses with lichens and mosses occur. In the mountains of the north-west Cassiope tetragona is abundant. The largest part of the municipal area consists of these plateaus or bogs, which mainly predominate at the rivers. Only 19% of Enontekiö's area is afforested. About 70% of the total area is conservation area of various grades.Finnish Museum of Natural History: Enontekiön kasvillisuuden erityispiirteitä Enontekiö contains parts of the Pallas-Yllästunturi National Park, as well as the wilderness areas of Käsivarsi, Pulju, Pöyrisjärvi and Tarvantovaara.
Due to the harsh climatic conditions, there are not especially many species among Enontekiö's fauna; however, there are Arctic species that are unknown to southern Finland, e.g. Norway lemming, Arctic fox, snowy owl, Eurasian dotterel, ptarmigan, and ring ouzel. Besides the semi-domesticated reindeer, there are a lot of small mammals and bird species.
Climate Enontekiö's climate is characterised by the extreme northern location, the high altitude compared to the rest of Finland and the closeness of the Arctic Ocean. Due to the moderating influence of the Gulf Stream, the winters are not quite as harsh as in central Lapland, which is characterised by the continental climate, but the summers are shorter and cooler.
The annual average temperatures of Enontekiö are the lowest of Finland. In Kilpisjärvi, in the north of the municipal area, the long-term average is −2.3 °C (compared to Helsinki: approx. +5 °C; Berlin approx. +9 °C). July is the warmest month, with an average temperature of +10.9 °C, the coldest is January with −13.6 °C. Due to these extreme climatic conditions, the growing season only lasts a little over 100 days. Thus, the winter, with its 200 days, is very long. The annual average precipitation is .Website of the Kilpisjärvi biological station of the University Helsinki: Basic climatological data on Kilpisjärvi, according to data of the Finnish Institute of Meteorology In the cold season, enormous amounts of snow can fall: The highest snow depth ever recorded in Finland was measured on 19 April 1997, in Kilpisjärvi: .Finnish Institute of Meteorology: Suomen ja maapallon sääennätyksiä Normally, a permanent snow cover is generally formed in October and does not melt again until the end of May.Finnish Institute of Meteorology: Talven lumista ja lumisuudesta In sheltered places, snow can remain even longer; thus a ski race is traditionally held for Midsummer's night in Kilpisjärvi.
Enontekiö's municipal area is located between 200 and 300 km north of the Arctic Circle. Accordingly, there are extreme seasonal differences in the length of daylight. In Kilpisjärvi, the Midnight Sun shines between 22 May and 23 July. Accordingly, Polar night (kaamos) prevails between 2 December and 11 January. Enontekiö has the highest rate of occurrence of Polar lights in Finland: In the region around Kilpisjärvi, this natural spectacle can be observed on average three out of four nights during the dark season in clear weather.Finnish Institute of Meteorology: Where and when are the Northern Lights most seen?
History Prehistory and Swedish age The first human settlement in Enontekiö emerged after the retreat of the glaciers at the end of the last ice age, when people of the Komsa culture migrated from the coast of the Arctic Ocean. The oldest traces of settlement were found at the shores of the Ounasjärvi Lake and are dated to a time 6,000 BC. Later, the Sami population of Lapland, which predominated for a long time in Enontekiö, developed by the blending of this stone-age ancestral population with speakers of Uralic languages, who immigrated after the 3rd millennium BC. Initially, the inhabitants of Enontekiö made their living from hunting and fishing, and they had only a few reindeer as draught animals.
In early modern times, Enontekiö came under Swedish influence during the course of the Christianisation of the shamanistic Sami. In the 16th century, Enontekiö's first church was built. It was a small wooden building in the village of Rounala on the right shore (today in Sweden) of the Könkämäeno river. According to tradition, the church was erected by three Sami brothers who had converted to Christianity. It was a central meeting point, where Sami people gathered for religious ceremonies, where merchants travelled to sell their wares, and where Swedish officials held judicial courts at particular times. In 1611, a new church was built in the village of Markkina. After the destruction of this church, another one was erected in the same place in 1661.
Since the end of the 17th century, the reindeer-Sami culture, which was based on keeping large herds of reindeer, spread from Norwegian and Swedish Lapland to Enontekiö. The reindeer-Sami of Enontekiö had a nomadic way of life; they moved with their animals between the coniferous forests in the south to Kåfjord, Kvænangen, and Nordreisa (in Norway) on the coast of the Arctic Ocean following the annual cycle of summer and winter grazing land. Enontekiö's last nomads did not settle down until the 1960s, but the culture of the reindeer-Sami is still preserved in the large-scale herding of reindeer. As of the 17th century, the first Finnish people settled down in the south of Enontekiö and introduced the culture of settled agriculture. Due to the Finnish immigration and the assimilation of the old-established Sami population, a Finnish majority emerged over the years.
Grand Duchy of Finland period