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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Explorer Ponce de León was on a quest to find the mythical fountain of youth in Florida in 1513. President John Kennedy inspired the United States in its quest to have a person walk on the moon in the 1960s. Although maybe not quite as daunting, Dan Rosen, formerly of Cloquet, set out on a quest to golf in every calendar month in Minnesota in 2024. On Dec. 7, he accomplished his goal. Rosen, a part of the formidable golfing family, grew up near the entrance to the Cloquet Country Club. He was...
Gerald "Buck" Bloomquist recently turned 100 years old. Born Oct. 10, 1924, he was part of The Greatest Generation, graduating from Cloquet High School in 1942. He currently lives at a Veterans Home in Rifle, Colorado. He is a proud veteran of World War II. The Nov. 8 Pine Knot Veterans Day tribute spurred the Bloomquist relatives and me to revive - and retrieve - Buck's military and life stories. Buck's son, Bill, was a Cloquet school and athletic chum of mine. Buck Bloomquist was an...
Arvid Brekke is a humble, Carlton County octogenarian and now a foreign sports medal winner. Brekke, who lives between Carlton and Esko on West Palkie Road, returned from Germany this fall after participating in a successful 2024 World Rowing Masters Regatta in Brandenburg. He was joined on his September journey by several of his teammates from the Duluth Rowing Club. Unlike the fairly recent George Clooney movie based on the Daniel Brown book, "The Boys in the Boat," this was not an Olympic...
I don't remember meeting him. His name was Marvin Gleason. He was my first cousin who died in 1958, at age 31, when I was only 3 years old. Marvin was a decorated Korean War pilot who served in the U.S. Air Force. He's buried at the Maple Grove Cemetery in Cloquet and I visit his gravesite often. I always wish I could have heard his stories in person, especially when I'm reminded of his service each Veterans Day. Gleason grew up on Fourth Street and Selmser Avenue in Cloquet. He'd be 98 years...
Have you read media headlines lately? There apparently has been a renaissance across Minnesota and the nation on the joy of sauna. It’s now “cool” to cleanse your body and spirit in a hot, Finnish-inspired sauna. Of course, many locals know that, for it has been tradition in Carlton County and northeastern Minnesota for more than 100 years. The Finns, when they immigrated to this region of the state, often started homesteads by building a sauna. I grew up in a house with no bathtub, just a sau...
Scanlon is proud of its youngsters who grew up to become teachers, ministers, medical experts, lawyers, firefighters, machinists, papermakers, politicians, scientists, bartenders, bankers, musicians, and many others who got their early start at the elementary school on Dewey Avenue. To my knowledge, only one Scanlon grade school graduate has ever become a military general. Rich Johnston, who grew up on 23rd Street and Lincoln Avenue, retired as an Air Force general. Per military statistics,...
The 1963 Minnesota state high school boys basketball tournament runner-up trophy has a new permanent display at the Carlton County Historical Society in Cloquet. There is also now a film history of that magical season at the museum. The trophy came after what many basketball pundits still call the greatest state championship game ever, when Cloquet High School lost to Marshall by one point, 75-74, in front of more than 18,000 screaming fans at Williams Arena on the campus of the University of...
Cloquet Country Club hosted the Dan Sheff adult-child golf tournament last weekend, Aug. 24-25. Nearly 180 players participated, ranging from age 7 to over 80. The weather cooperated with two lovely Minnesota summer weekend days. Last year, the tourney introduced the front “purple tees” for those under age 11. The forward tees allow younger players, who are often still missing their front teeth, a chance to tee it up with their playing partners and reach par 3 holes in one shot. It is a gre...
Sports history and lessons learned can be very valuable and enjoyable. College or professional, amateurs or on a playground, it doesn’t matter. All can bring us a sense of joy and eternal fond memories. We tell of legendary games and encounters to all who will listen. I have two golf stories worth repeating. Pine Knot subscriber Bob Bromme lives in Arizona now, but he grew up in Cloquet in the 1940s and 1950s. His dad enlisted in the Navy in 1942, shortly after Pearl Harbor. He didn’t see him ag...
Nearly every person in Minnesota, and, for that matter, everywhere, has known a close friend or relative who has had some form of cancer. My good friend, Gary "Moose" Pastika, a few years back, tested positive for colon cancer. His best chance for recovery was to have his colon totally removed. He recovered, went back to work, played golf well, and after several years was deemed cancer-free. But, as it often does, the cancer returned, he got sick, and the disease won, ending his life. He died...
Taylor Sundbom won the Cloquet Invitational last weekend in dramatic fashion: a sudden death, one-hole playoff against old foe and longtime friend Alex Kolquist. He emerged as the victor of the 93rd annual Cloquet Country Club event. It was Sundbom's fifth championship. With 180 players, plus family and curious onlookers, the club parking lot and adjacent streets in the neighborhood were overflowing with cars and fans following the tournament. Watching the Sunday afternoon championship foursome...
Golf means many friendly conversations about various topics of varying degrees of importance. One day our Rugged Spruce foursome was talking about Jerry West's passing. Randy Flynn said, to everyone's surprise, that he had seen Jerry West and the Los Angeles Lakers play in Duluth in September 1966 in the "first professional athletic contest in the new Duluth Arena." It was a preseason game. Randy was 13, grew up in Esko, and his dad took him to the game. The Lakers played the Oscar...
The 93rd annual Cloquet Invitational golf tournament opens play on Friday, July 12 and concludes on Sunday, July 14. The tourney is conducted at the beautiful 18-hole Cloquet Country Club. The full field of 175 players will be seeking the crown currently held by 2023 champion Brian Moores of Duluth. In 1931, the Cloquet golf course expanded from six to nine holes. Established in 1923, Rudolf Weyerhaeuser, the president of Northwest Paper in Cloquet, was intent on establishing a sporty course...
Do you remember the first Minnesota Twins game you attended in person? I sure do. The Washington Senators moved their major league baseball franchise from Washington, D.C. to Metropolitan Stadium in 1961. It was also the first year the Vikings became an NFL franchise. Met stadium was located in Bloomington, a Minneapolis suburb. Back then, there was no interstate highway between Duluth and the Twin Cities area. My uncle and aunt, Clifford and Helen Johnson, took my sister, Jan, and me to a...
My granddaughter was recently sitting on my lap and asked, "Why do you have such hairy knuckles, Grandpa?" Kind of a personal question, but it made me pause and think. My dad had hairy knuckles. The hair even curled. To my eyes, he always had big, strong hands. He died 40 years ago, when I was 29. My dad, for most of his working life, was a car mechanic and gas station owner. When not at work, he was putzing around in his four-stall garage. He could fix almost anything: cars, plumbing,...
Steve Korby [email protected] The Cloquet High School boys golf team competed in the Class AA Minnesota State Golf Tournament Tuesday and Wednesday. The Lumberjacks finished seventh in the eight-team field. Cloquet had won the section tournament on six straight occasions and has placed higher at state, including a championship in 2021, but this year the top teams from around Minnesota played better over two days in a rain-shortened event. The tournament was held, again, at the Ridges At Sa...
Not surprisingly, the Cloquet High School boys golf team has repeated as Section 7AA champions, with medalist Lance Sayler leading the way. The team will now play in the Minnesota state high school golf championship at the Ridges at Sand Creek golf course in Jordan, Minnesota, June 11-12. It is the sixth time the Cloquet team has won the section crown since 2018. As has been the mantra all season, the Lumberjacks relied on a balanced team approach to winning the section. Cloquet's varsity...
On a bright, sunshiny spring afternoon, my wife and I were assigned to pick up our grandkids after school from Churchill Elementary in Cloquet. The school is within walking distance of home. I usually wait for my grandson, who is in first grade, outside of the door where he’s released. My wife goes to a second building to meet my granddaughter, who is 4 and in preschool. Max came running out of the school doors, saw me and gave me a big hug, then asked if he could go to the playground. With p...
The Cloquet girls golf team placed second in the Lake Superior Conference golf meet Wednesday, falling to Grand Rapids but beating Hermantown by four strokes at the Pokegama Golf Course in Grand Rapids. Top 10 Cloquet finishers were Abigail Steinert 91 (fifth), Addison Johnson 93 (eighth) and Kortney Kavanaugh 96 (ninth). Twins Abigail and Julie Steinert are the team’s only seniors and both qualified as individuals for last year’s Class AA Minnesota State High School League state meet. Both are...
The Cloquet Men's Retiree Darts league concluded its 2023-24 season April 29. Meeting on Mondays at Our Savior's Lutheran Church in Cloquet, the league reflects the old bowling league schedules going from fall to spring. "Some come for the competition, but for most, it's just a chance to get out of the house, have a cup of coffee and cookie, and laugh and converse with friends," said league commissioner Ray Wiles. Usually 20-30 gents come weekly to test their right arm and dart baseball...
Deb Hunter, a Cloquet High School and Minnesota Gophers women's basketball legend, was back in town sharing her hoops knowledge Tuesday. She was invited by Cloquet girls basketball coach Heather Young to address current Cloquet players and coaches. Hunter starred at Cloquet in the late 1970s and has had her Gophers jersey retired and her likeness forever displayed on a banner in Williams Arena on the University of Minnesota campus. Coach Young introduced Hunter and asked Cloquet players and...
Cloquet grad Karson Patten just keeps adding to his growing golf resume. His collegiate team, Minnesota State Mankato, qualified for the NCAA regional championship in Edmond, Oklahoma next week. Patten, a freshman, finished third individually in the nine-team Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference meet held April 19-21. Patten is the defending Cloquet Country Club champion, a member of Cloquet's 2021 Minnesota State High School golf state championship team, and a 2023 Minnesota Mr. Golf...
The Cloquet High School boys golf team traveled to Red Wing to take on the Wingers at the Mississippi National Golf Links on April 17. Traveling 178 miles south from their home course, Cloquet coach Aaron Young said they figured when they put the match on the schedule "that we'd get nice weather again, like we did last spring. It wasn't exactly the case," he said. It was overcast and temperatures were in the 50s. Cloquet won the duel meet by a score of 312 to Red Wing's 337. Cloquet was led by...
There were still some snow banks in the parking lot, remnants of a late March storm, but the Cloquet Country Club golf course opened for play Sunday, April 14. An opening the same day as the Masters tournament finale is still very early for the Cloquet course to open. Since longtime CCC general manager Bill Manahan accepted the GM job at the Wilderness Club in Tower, Minnesota, on April 1, CCC has made some important administrative changes. Matt Carlson, who has worked in many different jobs at...
They've been friends since they were both in kindergarten at Jefferson Elementary School on Eighth Street and Cloquet Avenue in Cloquet. Now, after roughly 70 years, they volunteer together at the Clothing Depot in Cromwell. Dardanell "Beanie" Randa and Jayne Hakamaki have been fixtures and leaders in the Cromwell area for years. Unfortunately for many of its devoted customers, plans call for the nonprofit organization to close its doors in August. Their paths have crossed and separated many...
