In 2023, Riley Brown and Kassidy Curtis-Lugo decided to move from New York City to Madeline Island, an island in Lake Superior in Wisconsin. The now-married couple met working at an event production company in the city.

“We started spending summers here and going back and forth from the big city to the little island,” Brown said.

“Until it was like, ‘okay I think I don’t want to go back to the big city anymore,’ so we moved here,” said Curtis-Lugo.

Curtis-Lugo is from California and wanted a way to stay warm in the Wisconsin winters. The couple talked about getting a hot tub or a sauna and opted for the sauna because they don’t have running water at their home.

“We weren’t sure where we wanted to put it, so we put it on a trailer,” Brown said. “And then we decided to rent it out.”

Through their company Hot Island Sauna, formed in 2024, Brown and Curtis-Lugo drop off their saunas at people’s homes for rental. They also build custom saunas.

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