There are many historical elements and events connected to Paukaneva and its surrounding areas. Paukaneva has remained well-preserved despite the changes around it, even though it is tightly surrounded by settlements, the railway, roads, and the Seinäjoki bypass channel. The bypass channel was built between 1968 and 1982 from Seinäjoki to the Kyrönjoki river to protect farmland from annual floods.

Slash-and-burn cultivation and tar burningo

Slash-and-burn cultivation, i.e. burning mire meadows to turn them into arable land, began in Southern Ostrobothnia in the early 18th century. The fields surrounding Paukaneva, such as Pajuneva, are old mires that were taken into cultivation by burning. Robust forests have grown on the wooded islands of the mire. The tar pits in Isosalo and Lehtisalo serve as reminders of the special importance of tar burning for the region in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Old duckboards

At the beginning of the 18th century, the people of Seinäjoki built Nurmo Church together with the people of Nurmo. At the same time, duckboards were built as a shortcut straight across Paukaneva to Isosalo and from there to the church. This route was called "Niemistö’s church path". These duckboards were destroyed in 1752 in a great forest fire that reached all the way from Ikaalinen to Paukaneva.

Ditching of Paukaneva

During the years of crop failure in the 1860s, the crown began organizing emergency relief work for the landless population by ditching Paukaneva. The intention was to drain the mire using large ditches to make it suitable for slash-and-burn cultivation. Ditching of Paukaneva began in the spring of 1867 but with poor results. The following year, the chapel parish meeting decided to request that no further funds be allocated to ditching work, because the mire was so soggy that it could not be drained by manual labor. The funding was redirected to building a new road.

Kiikku’s straight line

The idea of a road crossing Paukaneva was initially considered impossible and far too expensive. However, in a joint municipal meeting in 1876, a local landowner named Matti Martikkala promised to survey a straight road line for 30 marks, compared to the previously estimated 500 marks. He asked the tenant of the Kiikku croft to light a pile of straw on fire at 8 in the evening. He himself went with his assistants to Nurmo Church to wait until smoke from the fire appeared in the sky. They then placed poles with burning torches at even intervals. In this way, a straight line could be drawn all the way to Kiikku.

The war of 1918

The violence of the 1918 war also affected Seinäjoki and Nurmo. A total of 44 Red prisoners were executed, all of whom had been brought in from elsewhere. The people of Nurmo and Seinäjoki had no part in these events. Most of the executions took place in Paukaneva. While the war was still ongoing, the families of 20 executed prisoners exhumed their loved ones from the mire and reburied them in their home regions. The rest were buried anonymously in the Nurmo church cemetery.

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