Lauri "Louis" or "Big Louie" Moilanen (January 5, 1886 – September 16, 1913), was a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

-born

giant In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: '' gigas'', cognate giga-) are beings of human-like appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''giant'' is first attested in 1297 fr ...

, who holds the record of being Michigan's tallest man.

Biography

He was the son of Louis and Annie Moilanen. At the age of 4, he and his family emigrated from

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

and settled in the town of

Hancock, Michigan Hancock is a city in Houghton County, Michigan, Houghton County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is across the Keweenaw Waterway from the city of Houghton, Michigan, Houghton on the Keweenaw Peninsula. The population was 4,634 at the 2010 United ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Louis Moilanen eventually grew to the height of , and was known in Michigan as "Big Louie". As an adult he was a

miner A miner is a person who extracts ore, coal, chalk, clay, or other minerals from the earth through mining. There are two senses in which the term is used. In its narrowest sense, a miner is someone who works at the rock face; cutting, blasting, ...

and

bartender A bartender (also known as a barkeep, barman, barmaid, or a mixologist) is a person who formulates and serves alcoholic or soft drink beverages behind the bar, usually in a licensed establishment as well as in restaurants and nightclubs, but a ...

. He also worked with the

Ringling Brothers Circus Ringling Bros. World's Greatest Shows is a circus founded in Baraboo, Wisconsin, United States in 1884 by five of the seven Ringling brothers: Albert, August, Otto, Alfred T., Charles, John, and Henry. The Ringling brothers were sons of a Germa ...

as a sideshow attraction to exhibit his great height. Buying clothes was difficult, so the Ed Haas Mens Store in

Houghton Houghton may refer to: Places Australia * Houghton, South Australia, a town near Adelaide * Houghton Highway, the longest bridge in Australia, between Redcliffe and Brisbane in Queensland * Houghton Island (Queensland) Canada * Houghton Townshi ...

tailored clothes for Louis and special ordered size 19 shoes, and size 9 stetson hats. Moilanen may have been one of the tallest men in the world at one time, said to be tall at his peak, although this remains unconfirmed. In 1913, he became violently ill, and he died from

tubercular meningitis Tuberculous meningitis, also known as TB meningitis or tubercular meningitis, is a specific type of bacterial meningitis caused by the ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' infection of the meninges—the system of membranes which envelop the central nerv ...

. He was buried in a coffin that was long and wide, and laid to rest at the Lakeside Cemetery just west of Hancock. The grandson of the founder of Crawford Funeral Home discovered an old telegram that says the inner measurement of Moilanen's casket was long. In 2013, a monument to "Big Louie" Moilanen was opened in front of the Finnish American Heritage Center in

.Hancock's Big Louie statue honors Moilanen, Finns
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moilanen, Louis 1886 births 1913 deaths People with gigantism American people of Finnish descent 20th-century deaths from tuberculosis Tuberculosis deaths in Michigan Finnish-American culture in Michigan