Seppala & Waisanen

01 Jun 2026

The bottling works of Seppala & Waisanen remain a mystery. It was not listed in the Polk directories or mentioned in local newspapers. We know from the two bottles that the firm Seppala & Waisanen was located in Laurium. Another clue is that bottle #139 has a date code for 1907.

Interestingly, the 1907 directory specified Matti Waisanen as a member of the Copper City Bottling Works in Laurium (1). The directory also listed John Seppala as a pop manufacturer (1), but it did not mention for what bottling works. Seppala, however, shared a residence with Matti Lohela, who was another member of the Copper City Bottling Works (1). Thus, Seppala was likely a pop manufacturer for the Copper City Bottling Works.

The annual report in 1915 of the Department of Labor of the State of Michigan specified 1907 as the start date of the Copper City Bottling Works (2). Although the start dates of businesses provided in such retrospective reports are sometimes erroneous, the 1907 date aligns with the Copper City Bottling Works being first listed in the 1907-08 volume of the Polk directory.

Given that Waisanen was a member of the Copper City Bottling Works in 1907, Seppala was a pop manufacturer in 1907, and a Seppala & Waisanen bottle dates to 1907, it seems likely that Seppala & Waisanen were proprietors of the Copper City Bottling Works in 1907.

The Seppala & Waisanen bottles are extremely rare, suggesting the operation under Seppala & Waisanen was small and/or short lived.

Citations

1. R. L. Polk & Co. 1907. Houghton County Directory 1907-08. R. L. Polk & Co., Publishers. Detroit, MI.
2. State of Michigan Department of Labor. 1915. Thirty-Second Annual Report of the Department of Labor of the State of Michigan. Wynkoop Hallenbeck Crawford Co., State Printers. Lansing, MI.