The confluence of the Hämeen and Pohjankangas rivers, with their rugged ridges and waterways, made an ancient wilderness man decide that this was where he would build his cabin. There were salmon in the streams and game in the forests.

There are traces of human activity in Kankaanpää as far back as the Stone Age. In the 1500th century, during the reign of Gustav Vasa, permanent settlements began to emerge in the region. The first holdings were man-owned forests, i.e. the area of ​​land that a man could walk around and mark in a day.

The oldest house names in Kankaanpää

The oldest house names are mentioned in Swedish-Finnish documents from the 1560s: Honko (Hongoi), Oukari (Åkare), Päivike (Päiffvä) and Kärki (Kärckij). The houses with the same name are still in Kankaanpää and more or less in their original locations near Ruokojärvi, next to the central town hall. House names are also mentioned in documents from the 1560s in Vihteljärvi. Sianjalka (Sikala), Kulhua (Saksa), Puuska and Jankkari. Kankaanpää was recorded in documents as "Cancanpä".

Kyrönkankaantie and Kuninkaanlähde

The oldest road in the province, the Kyrönkankaantie, ran along these kangas from Hämeenkyrö to Lake Nummijärvi in ​​Kauhajoki. Centuries ago it was used as a connecting road to the wilderness, and in the 1600th century the road was Finland's most important summer road between Southern Finland and Ostrobothnia. It has been a military road and has been used as a trade route. The King of Sweden-Finland has also visited the Kankaanpää region twice. Gustav II Adolf travelled from Ilmajoki to Hämeenlinna via Kankaanpää in 1614, and on 17 July 1752 King Adolf Frederick stopped to water his horses and eat at Kuninkaanlähte, which was named after this event.

Video produced by the Kankaanpää Society about Kyrönkankaantie:

Kankaanpää Parish

The Kankaanpää parish was founded as a preaching parish in the Ikaalinen mother parish in 1756, as a chapel in 1759, and by imperial decree as its own parish in 1841. The Kankaanpää church was consecrated on 9 June 1839 and the church was designed by the country's superintendent of public buildings. Johann Carl Ludwig Engel, whose work includes the Helsinki Cathedral and the capital's Empire-style city center. In the mid-1800th century, Kankaanpää had only 3000 inhabitants, and because the church was built for 1300 worshippers, it was considered too large for the times.

Population growth and the impact of drought years

However, the population of Kankaanpää grew rapidly, which was largely due to the development of the road network. Kankaanpää belonged to the Turku trade area until the 1840s, until the road to Pori was built and the so-called 'plank era' of North Satakunta began. Pori had the largest merchant fleet in Finland, which transported plank goods to the world, and the forests here were abundant with wood. Kankaanpää was also an important transit point for timber transport from Hämeenkyrö, Ikaalinen and, after the road was completed, also from the direction of Parkano.

In the famine year of 1866, the population was already around 5600. However, the famine of 1866 and the 'summer without summer' of the following year had taxed the population by over a fifth by the summer of 1868. There is information from 1867 that horse racing was still being held on the ice of Lake Ruokojärvi in ​​June. However, Kankaanpää survived the famine years with significantly less population loss than many other towns, largely thanks to the fact that the area's agriculture was very livestock-oriented at the time and even in famine years, enough hay could be collected from the fields and natural meadows that children did not have to go completely without milk for long winters.