However, Kuusamo was not able to provide a satisfactory livelihood for all its residents. At the end of the 19th century, this resulted in a strong wave of emigration, which primarily targeted the Arctic coast of Finnmark and the “Russian coast” of Murmansk, as well as America. Several thousand people from Kuusamo immigrated to foreign countries at the end of the 19th century.
From the 1860s, logging started in Kuusamo. Due to the land ownership conditions, the activity was quite small at first. At the end of the century, however, logging got going, and in the best time before the outbreak of the First World War, forestry companies from four kingdoms were operating in the area. As salaried work became more common, Kuusamo came more broadly into the scope of the monetary economy. The logs were mainly floated to White Sea Karelia along the rivers Koutajoki and Kemijoki. At the beginning of the 20th century, sawmills were also established in Kuusamo, and with the timber produced, the vigorous construction of the church town began. Among other things, Kuusamo Osuuskauppa cooperative office buildings, several private shops along roads Kitkantie and Ouluntie, a regional hospital, a pharmacy, a public school, the premises of the Swedish forest company Berggren and much more were built. This was the beginning of the church town’s rapid development into a versatile downtown area of the parish.
Until the middle of the 19th century, Kuusamo was a place far away from the rest of Finland, where visitors rarely came. The situation began to change after the road to Oulu that could be driven by horse was completed before the middle of the 19th century. When the parish’s internal roads were also built, the horse began to supplant the reindeer as a means of transportation. However, even at the beginning of the 20th century, the officials of the parish generally owned reindeer and used them as driver animals.
In Finland, a law on municipal self-government was passed in 1865, which was soon implemented in Kuusamo as well. The municipality, which received the right to tax, came to include several different tasks, from care for the poor and health care to maintaining a public school. The most important body in the municipality was the representative municipal board, whose supervisor, and the strongest decision-maker in the early years of the Kuusamo municipality was the bellringer J. H. Luoma. He later also served as a member of parliament 1871-1888.