Six possible Stone Age settlements have been found on the territory of modern Uurainen. Four of these sites are in Kuukkajärvi, one in the village of Uurainen and another one in Höytiä. Evidence for permanent Iron Age settlement has not been found. The area of modern Uurainen was devoid of a permanent settled population in the Middle Ages. In the 15th and early 16th centuries, these lands were held as hunting grounds by
Tavastians. The first settler of Uurainen was Paavo Minkkinen, who in 1548 established a farm named
Salmela in the hunting grounds of
Heinäjoensuu, owned by the men of the village of
Laitikkala in
Kulsiala (nowadays in
Pälkäne). This area would later become the register village of Kuukkajärvi. Paavo Minkkinen, like almost all settlers of Uurainen, was a
Savonian. The Minkkinen family likely originated from
Pellosniemi near modern
Mikkeli. The first register villages to be established in the area were Kuukkajärvi and Akonjärvi, both of which were first mentioned in 1561. Akonjärvi was merged into Kuukkajärvi in 1586. Uurainen was originally a part of the parish of
Saarijärvi. It was mentioned in 1741 under the Swedish name
Uhrais. The area got its own chapel in 1801 and was variously called
Uurainen, Kuukkajärvi, Kuukka and
Minkkilä. The area had multiple names as the vicarage (
pappila) was located in the register village of Uurainen while the church was located in the village of Kuukkajärvi on the lands of the Minkkilä farm. Uurainen became a separate parish in 1868, though the separation effectively happened in 1887. The northern part of
Nyrölä, which at that time included Höytiä, was transferred from the
Jyväskylä parish to Uurainen in 1868. ==Gallery==