100 stories from the hiking route

1954 – Saeveski forest ranger base is built

Information

Topic

The story of forestry

Coordinates

Long-Lat WGS 84

Latitude: 58.63435278

Longitude: 25.28535833

L-EST 97

x: 6500103.4
y: 574648.5

Location

Ikla-Aegviidu Hiking route

Ado Kuldkepp, also known as Saeveski Paša (bassa), was the forest ranger at Saeveski at the end of the 19th century. A chatterbox as smooth as Old Bassa can seldom be found. He sprinkled his jokes and fibs with words of wisdom, indicating the depth of his character.
Several tales about Saeveski Paša have survived in legends, for example: it was a bleak winter with little snow so it was easy for the people to go and steal wood from the manor’s forest. It was hard for the forest ranger to keep track of everyone and catch the thieves. At the time, the newspaper „Postimees“ briefly reported on an orangutan that had escaped from the Riga Zoo. In order to scare people from going to the forest on their own, Aadu [Ado] told them that a “rangu-tang” or, as the people called it, “tang-urang” was lurking in the Saeveski forest. To make the people believe this, he put on a peculiar cone hat, wrapped himself in long sheets and walked on stilts in the forest so people could see him from afar.
The last Saeveski base was built in 1954 but was only in use for 4–5 years, as it had no electricity. The desolate building started to fall apart when the forest district turned it into a forest hut open for everyone.
The Saeveski forest hut is known among hikers. About 1,000 people a year write in its guestbook and in the summers the hut is usually occupied.

Sources: 
The Kuldkepp Family Chronicle