Sunday at the South Range Eagles club, polka music gives visitors and residents a chance to dance and enjoy a cultural cornerstone of Copper Country life.

ADAMS TOWNSHIP – The village of South Range was hopping this past weekend. The village’s Fourth of July Committee celebrated Oktoberfest to raise money for their annual Fourth of July events.

Among the many attractions including, demonstrations, open houses, a classic car show and museum tours, an ethnic polka dance took place at the VFW post. Music was provided by Jim and Teri Enrietti and the World’s Most Dangerous Polka Band. They were followed by another local band named Slick Nickel. The following day, the Enriettis again performed, this time at the South Range Eagles Hall.

Fourth of July Committee President Mike Renier said his committee likes to provide a variety of entertainment for people.

“Not only new music,” he said, “but also older music that is very cultural in regards to German Oktoberfest.”

That is why, he said, the committee booked the Enriettis.

Renier said there has been some trouble in recent years finding polka bands, something he said the South Range Eagles Club has also found.

“We were fortunate to have Jim and Teri Enrietti play for us,” said Renier. “They always have a lot of offers from other places.”

South Range Eagles President Ed Kautto said while his club offers polka dancing every Sunday, the primary purpose is to provide club members the opportunity to socialize and exercise by dancing, pointing out that dancing is enjoyed mainly by senior citizens.

The annual South Range Polka Fest, after some 40 years, ended about a decade ago. Renier recalls that it was during that annual event that the Michigan State Polka Music Hall of Fame was present to induct local musicians who had made outstanding contributions to polka music. Enrietti was just one local musician inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Viola Turpeinen Syrjälä was inducted in 2001, becoming the seventh Upper Peninsula resident inducted since 1997. Arthur Moilanen, of Mass City, and William Stimac, of Dodgeville, were the first U.P. inductees, which occurred in 1997. In 1999, Edward (Eddy) Raffaelli of South Range and Joseph Pleshe of Portage Township were inducted. Last year, Richard Debelak of Munising, Robert Raffaelli of South Range and Tone Pleshe of Chassell were inducted.

Eddy started playing when he was 20 years old. He was self-taught, playing by ear. He first played in the Stimac Brothers Band in the late 1940s. In 1952, he organized the Polka Dots and in 2003, started playing with the Polka Kings, which included his brother, Bob.

Bob was another inductee to the Hall of Fame. He formed two local polka bands, the Ripley Ramblers and later the Polka Kings.

Brian Juntikka, from Atlantic Mine, was the Michigan Hall of Fame District 6 delegate who nominated Turpeinen. Juntikka, himself an accomplished musician who has performed with the likes of Frank Yankovic, was later inducted.

With the exception of Enrietti and Juntikka, the others are gone now, although their induction certificates are framed and are prominently displayed at the South Range Eagles hall.

Recently, Enrietti said his band is one of the last polka ensembles in the Upper Peninsula. At Sunday’s Eagles Club dance, he pointed to a couple sitting at a nearby table.

“They drove all the way to South Range from Escanaba,” he said, “just to listen to a live polka band. Then, they will drive back home after the dance.”

A Minnesota Public Radio transcript of the Weekend Edition from 2008 was titled Polka on the Decline in America’s Small Towns. Mike Jankovec, operator of polka jams and polka programming on a community TV station in Ely, Minn., talked to NPR’s Scott Simon about reviving the polka scene in the upper Midwest. Jankovec said the genre needs to be introduced to the next generations.

“Maybe we need to reach out a little more to the younger audience and get it out there, so they know what they’re missing,” he suggested.

In the west and central Upper Peninsula, with only one remaining polka band, the time for reaching out to the younger audience may have already passed.