Museum A-Ö » Technology and industry » Kaskinen Engine Museum

Anyone interested in technics is likely to enjoy the Kaskinen Engine Museum, where there are on view diverse boat engines in a beautiful harbour surrounding next to the Kaskinen visitor harbour. The harbour museum respects the history of the local machine workshop and displays engines of various types and models.

When entering the small museum one can sense the mild whiff of motor oil. The museum contains around hundred different kinds of engines. There are various both self-made and factory manufactured motors, for instance air and water cooled center motors and some of the first models of outboard motors.

Most of the engines are local and date back to the 1920s and 1930s, but there are engines all the way to the pearls of the 1960s in the collections of the museum. The largest machines are made by the motor workshop of the Wickström brothers from Vaasa, but among the boat engines can also be found the trademark Suomen moottoritehdas Oy Waasan Olympia. The Wickström brothers’ workshop manufactured engines during the years 1906-1959 and Olympia during the years 1920-1989. There are also on display lake district models from Kuopio, such as the Vire and Kipinä and Linnavuori-Valmet.

In Kaskinen, just as elsewhere in the archipelago, many people made their motors by themselves and they were screwed up from new and old parts. In Kaskinen used to operate G. Grönlunds Mekaniska Verkstad (machine workshop), which was the first actual factory on the island. Grönlund had in his youth emigrated to the United States and after returning to Finland he founded the factory in 1909. At first he imported engines mainly from the United States, but the First World War ended the import and he was forced to build the engines himself. The first own and for a long time also the most important product of the factory was the GG engine, which was very popular both as a sea engine and in agriculture. The GG engine was manufactured all the way to the 1950s, and it can be said, that the engine in question started the mechanization of agriculture and fishing in the region.

The museum is open during the Kaskinen Fair, the Fish Strand Days and the herring market in October. During other times the museum can be visited upon request.