A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
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They liked its unique nature, which is something, considering that the state flag design entered by Cloquet artist Sarah Agaton Howes was one of 2,600 entries reviewed by the State Emblem Redesign Commission this fall as it winnows down to a final new Minnesota flag and seal by year's end. The commission deliberated for hours on Nov. 21 and voted in six flag designs and five seal entries. Agaton Howes' flag, based on Native loom and bead work, features a geometric yellow North Star and...
Firefighters in the area were busy the past week with a spate of fires surrounding the Thanksgiving holiday. The most serious incident was a garage fire on Wednesday, Nov. 22, at a home in Brevator Township north of Cloquet in St. Louis County. A 64-year-old man suffered serious burns when trying to retrieve items from the burning garage. He was in stable condition by early this week. Deputies and the Cloquet Area Fire District were called to the 3500 block of Nelson Road, just west of...
Cloquet schools superintendent Dr. Michael Cary had an interesting observation he wanted to share with the school board during last week’s meeting. As the board prepared to hear about the annual audit of its finances at the Nov. 13 meeting, Cary offered a warning about the cyclical nature of school enrollment that can make budgeting a tricky business. Right now, the district is enjoying very large class sizes at the high school. Older students garner more money per pupil in state funding, so the district is realizing some fatter times than o...
Two days after his previously unbeaten football team was eliminated by Annandale, 14-7, at a state quarterfinal game in Brainerd, Esko head coach Scott Arntson remained puzzled. "It just seemed like everything that could go wrong did go wrong in that game," Arntson told the Pine Knot on Monday. He'd watched a tape of the game twice, replaying how the team lost key players to injury, including its star Koi Perich, and let control of the game tilt in a second half that produced no first downs for... Full story
It may seem odd for a Vietnam War era military veteran to refer to his experiences as "fun," but that's how Jerry Tschida chooses to remember his time in the U.S. Navy from 1966 to 1969. It was certainly interesting, including trips aboard the USS Princeton to snatch astronauts from the sea and feeling the aftershock of a historic nuclear warhead test off an island in Alaska's Aleutian chain. But there are darker memories that bubbled up later in life. At age 35, he was diagnosed with post... Full story
Esko's football season is over after a 14-7 loss to Annandale Saturday in Brainerd. The two teams came into the quarterfinal game of the state tournament with vaunted offenses. In the end, it came down to defense. Esko struggled to get anything going offensively after it went up 7-0 early in the first quarter on a drive that included a 36-yard run by Joey Antonutti. Esko scored on a 32-yard bobbling Sam Haugen catch from Jacion Owens. Things were rolling for Esko as they drove two more times... Full story
Way out west, there’s an air mass controlled by the El Niño cycle that will play a part in this winter’s weather. The National Weather Service office in Duluth released its winter weather forecast this past week, and it leaned toward the warmer Pacific Ocean air currents bringing the region a winter with above-normal temperatures and below-normal snow amounts. But beware, the El Niño effect is never quite predictable, said meteorologist Ketzel Levens on Oct. 19, and “we are still going to experience winter.” No two El Niños are the same, the...
Reader Kim Ochocki was good enough to translate some of the copy we found in the Minneapolis newspaper, Echo de L’ouest, from February of 1918. We had hoped it would contain some clarification on the naming of the Cloquet River, and, subsequently, the city. Alas, we merely get one of the theories that has survived the years. It’s an important find, as there are more than a few thoughts out there. Finding a source from more than 100 years ago helps narrow the field a bit. Here is some of what Kim translated for us: “Where does this name Cloquet...
Do you know your French? In our continuing effort to get to the bottom of the business of where the Cloquet name came from, we found this front page of the Minneapolis newspaper, Echo de L'ouest, from February of 1918. It appears that the issue is profiling the state of things in the booming lumber city eight months before the devastating fire. The beginning of the article, using the very rudimentary French known by Pine Knot staffers, seems to describe where the name may have come from. We see...
It was one of those picture-perfect fall days. Cerulean blue sky, the slight, wet waft of decaying organic matter, the hillsides seemingly turning orange and red and yellow in the moment. On Dunlap Island last Thursday, there was also the chattering of teenagers and outdoors experts as more than 200 ninth-graders from Cloquet High School spent the day exploring the natural world. They were in canoes on the St. Louis River. They were under the Minnesota Highway 35 bridge collecting aquatic... Full story
With the help of wetter and colder weather, the County Road 11 fire in Barnum Township was declared 100-percent contained on Tuesday, eight days after smoke was observed in the area on Labor Day. On Wednesday, command of the fire was handed off to local firefighters to monitor hot spots, mostly in areas of shallow peat among the 82 acres of mostly swampland that burned. The fire spread quickly after a hot and windy Labor Day weekend but was mostly contained a day after the fire was reported. It...
You could say that parts of Carlton County lucked out this past Labor Day weekend. Things could have been much worse. Days after a swath across northern Minnesota, including all of the county, was designated in the "extreme drought" category, we were hit with record high temperatures over the holiday weekend. Drought conditions lingering into the fall are not common in the region. Infamously, the region also received what would have been declared an "extreme" level of dryness in the fall of... Full story
One could call it a mystery solved, but only partially, very partially, since one resolved fact has only led to more mystery involving a pair of 1950s Cloquet High School graduates and their children. This is the curious case of the 1952 CHS class ring. On Sunday, Jody Larson of Bemidji is expecting to meet up with Bill Gannon of Cloquet to hand him a ring that hasn't seen the light of day in decades. It is assumed that the ring belongs to Gannon, since he was the only 1952 Cloquet graduate...
A cathedral of pines serves as entry to a path that winds over and through 32 acres of undulating land off Prevost Road, just north of Cloquet. A short walk is enough to slough off any travails of the day. Then there is a gate, the only gap in a fence tall enough to keep deer out. And a vista opens up, rows and rows of blueberry bushes. This is Sweet Land Farm, one of now a handful of places in Carlton County where one can pick blueberries. And, man, are they ever prevalent here. The berries... Full story
My hometown festival takes place this weekend. And I won’t be attending. Southern Minnesota, many of us know, is simply too hot this time of year for us northerners. Instead, I’ll likely poke around that big air conditioner called Lake Superior and maybe take in some FinnFest events; its cultural-specific air might make me feel a bit like I’m at the old hometown shindig. Montgomery is the home of Kolacky Days, a celebration of all things Czech that’s been taking place since 1929. Town festivals are a huge thing in southern Minnesota, and much o... Full story
A father and his two sons canoeing on the Nemadji River in southeast Carlton County Saturday called in a report of human remains found on the river bank east of Minnesota Highway 23 and south of the Soo Line Trail. This week the Midwest Medical Examiner's Office was making an identification effort after a laborious effort to remove the remains from the remote area. The Carlton County Sheriff's Office received a call at 1:30 p.m. about the find. Sheriff deputies and responders from Wrenshall and...
A man housed in the Minnesota Sex Offender Program facility in Moose Lake was sentenced to 220 months — over 18 years — in state prison Monday to attempted second-degree murder. Nicolas Ladell Aron-Jones’ victim made a statement in the hearing, as did the offender, saying he prefers prison time to the MSOP. Aron-Jones, 29, pleaded guilty in May to the most serious of four charges against him. Under the terms of the plea agreement, the other charges of first-, second- and fourth-degree assault were dismissed. “He attempted to kill someone...
The most interesting portion of the Agate Stampede in Moose Lake Saturday was all the pregame talk along Elm Street about strategy. Some vow to wait back and snatch the loot others miss after the two dump trucks unload their haul of rocks along the two, long, people-packed, blocks of the downtown street. Some get ready to dash right in, water bottle in hand to better discern the precious rocks from the ordinary. There are all levels of bucket sophistication (some with built-in sifters) and...
The Over the Hill Rangers band - Mick Heaser, Digger DeRusha, Davey Jokimaki, Ron Jokimaki - entertained in the park in Wright Saturday afternoon as adults caught up with each other in pockets of conversation, children lingered on the playground, and people watched softball and volleyball games. How do you know it's Wrong Days in Wright? The softball rules. You ran to third base on a hit, you ran home from first base to score. It seemed the volleyball play was conventional. Both tournaments...
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has quite an opportunity for those looking for a deal when it comes to the Minnesota State Fair. In its email blast this week, it offers opportunities to volunteer Aug. 24 to Sept. 4 and get free admission to the fair each day you help out. There are a bunch of jobs - wildlife interpreter, greeter and crowd rover, display assistance, and working with the wildfire prevention program. But the one that captured my attention? "Voice of Smokey Bear." Cool... Full story
The former executive director of the Cloquet/Carlton Housing & Redevelopment Authority was fired on May 12 for a long list of reasons outlined in a letter its board gave her that day. In the letter, board members declared that the “serious nature” of its concerns left it “no recourse but to terminate” her employment after more than 16 years there. The Pine Knot News obtained the letter to Debra Shaff from an attorney representing the HRA after the newspaper made a request for information regarding her dismissal under the Minnesota’s data practi...
Things were busy last Friday and Saturday night at the Free Range Film Festival in rural Wrenshall. The act of watching a series of short films inside a barn built more than 100 years ago continued to draw people from the region and from the Twin Cities area. Both nights saw a standing-room-only crowd. Aside from the whimsy, there is also real value. A $10 donation was a suggestion only, and drinks and movie snacks were only $2 and $1, like way, way, way back in the day. Sandy and Betsy Dugan...
By unanimous vote of the school board Monday night, the Esko school nickname will no longer be "the Eskomos" as of June 30. The change, which has been urged for at least three years by some in the community, comes as a new state law goes into effect that prohibits school districts from using names, symbols, or images that refer to American Indian tribes. The board told parents and the community that they were still researching options about the nickname at its meeting on May 8 and planned to...
The graduation ceremony in Wrenshall Friday afternoon was remarkable in that it wasn't your typical look back on school years or forward to whatever is next. It was grounded in living every moment, in not taking anything for granted. Salutatorian Wesley Ward told the audience in the gymnasium that memories are precious, like those of last summer when members of the Class of 2023 vowed to stay in touch, get together more often. "Tomorrow is not guaranteed," he said after mentioning fellow... Full story
Their dad's plane went down in Cloquet 50 years ago, killing him and an uncle David sat right down in the bramble, overcome with thoughts of what happened in this spot exactly 50 years ago. He is admittedly an emotional person. His body heaved. He was uttering guttural sounds. He was swatting away mosquitoes here on the old Haro homestead off Reservation Road in Cloquet. A hand intermittently went to his mouth in that universal, human sign of shock, grief, overwhelming thoughts. His... Full story
