The story
The toponym was first mentioned in 1554 as Kijuijerffuj ärmarch, referring to hunting grounds held by Tavastians. The village of Kivijärvi has existed at least since 1571, when it was a part of the large Rautalampi parish. It was transferred to the Viitasaari parish after its establishment in 1628. Kivijärvi became a chapel community in 1750 and fully independent from Viitasaari in 1864. Kinnula was separated from Kivijärvi in 1904, though it had had its own church since 1867. In 1934, parts of Kivijärvi and Viitasaari were separated in order to form the Kannonkoski municipality.
Suomenselkä municipality
Kannonkoski, Karstula, Kivijärvi and Kyyjärvi planned to merge into the Suomenselkä municipality from January 1, 2022. Karstula, Kivijärvi and Kyyjärvi accepted the merger proposal, but Kannonkoski did not. After Kannonkoski left the planned merger, Kivijärvi also left it. Later, the merger project of the remaining Karstula and Kyyjärvi also failed at the Kyyjärvi municipal council meeting held on May 17, 2021, and the Ministry of Finance does not propose a forced merger either.
From Wikipedia’s article on Kivijärvi, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5