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
Sorted by date Results 151 - 175 of 192
Open area courses 29 Pines Golf Course 2871 Sundberg Road, Mahtowa 218-389-3136 Cloquet Country Club 400 Country Club Drive, Cloquet 218-879-7997 Grand View Golf Links 5665 Grandview Road, Duluth Off Midway Road 218-628-3727 Kendahl Miniature Golf 812 Sunnyside Drive, Cloquet Off Highway 33 North 218-879-3314 Minnesota National Golf Course 23247 480th Lane, McGregor 218-426-4444 Moose Lake Golf Club 35311 Parkview Drive, Sturgeon Lake 218-485-4886 Pine Hill Golf Club 1689 County Road 61,...
Back in 1966, in what would become classic cars, people flocked to Sunnyside in Cloquet to grab a 49-cent hamburger at the fairly new Gordy's Hi-Hat or a burger along with a frosty mug of Root Beer at the A&W. To extend the excitement, the brand new Kendahl Miniature Golf course opened up adjacent to A&W on Highway 33 North. Since then, A&W morphed into the Family Tradition Restaurant, but these three businesses have remained under family ownership. That's quite amazing in today's business...
The Cloquet Country Club opened as a nine-hole course in 1923 and its credited designer was renowned Scottish golf course architect Donald Ross. Rudy Weyerhaeuser, its president, also consulted with Runcie Martin and Tom Varden. Martin was a Duluth newspaper writer and a talented golfer. He was also a contributing designer of the Moose Lake Golf Club, which celebrated its 90th anniversary last year. Runcie Martin was also playing in the original foursome that officially opened the Lester Park...
The famous Mark Twain once said: "Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life." Such is the case for Jim and Cassie Barry, who have owned and operated the Pine Hill Golf Club in Carlton for the past 14 years. Located just over one mile south of Highway 210 on Highway 61 in Carlton, Pine Hill Golf Course isn't hard to find. Just drive past the Royal Pines Inn, Olsonville, and the Carlton County transportation building on "Old 61" and you're there. Originally...
The Moose Lake Golf Club is celebrating its 91st season. Pro/manager Josh Gamst (in 2019 photo at right) is now in his 13th season in that role. "As of June 1, our decks are now open to serve our hungry and thirsty golfing guests," Gamst said, "the public is sure welcome. The course could use some soaking rain with this dry spell we've had, but we're watering daily and it is greening up fast and getting into spectacular shape." Due to the pandemic, the course moved its Shoot the Moose...
Where do you go for relaxation, fresh air, exercise and charging your batteries? Where is your retreat? Everybody has one. Many golfers in the region escape to The Retreat Golf Club five miles east of Floodwood, on Highway 2. The nine-hole scenic golf course is open to the public. Esko resident Dan Donofrio has owned Retreat for 11 years with the goal of being "the finest nine-hole golf course in Minnesota." He thinks they're on the right track. The Retreat was built in 1998 by 12 people from...
Located just 53 miles from Cloquet, near McGregor, the National Golf Course is officially in Aitkin County but a welcome addition to the golf guide. This highly rated golf course has easy access, yet is in the northern Minnesota wilderness and is "golf as nature intended." Designed by well-known Minnesota golf course architect Joel Goldstrand, this beautiful course is tucked away on 600 gorgeous lakeside acres surrounded by towering pines, colorful hardwoods and abundant wildlife habitat....
Mark Carlson has been in the golf course business for 50 years. The past two decades, he has also owned Midwest Golf Cars, supplying golf carts to area courses, including many in Carlton County. Growing up, Carlson played on the golf teams at Denfeld High School and University of Minnesota Duluth. After college, he became the assistant golf pro at Ridgeview Golf Course in Duluth. For the next 44 years, he was manager and golf professional at Superior's Nemadji Golf Course, a 36-hole public golf...
In the early 1970s, a bunch of us guys finishing up our high school days wanted to continue to play competitive basketball. We played nearly every evening after school at the Cloquet Civic Center. Once in college, I talked to Kate Vestin, who was the center's manager, and told her I was interested in forming a team to play in a men's basketball league. I thought we could - although "undersized" - hold our own. Kate gave me league details and explained the need to find a sponsor. The sponsor's...
Charlie Jensen was a successful Cloquet golfer who learned by watching others and trying to duplicate their methods. He grew up on Summit Avenue in Cloquet, about a block from the Cloquet Country Club. His parents were active members at club. He thinks he was 7 or 8 when his parents gave him his first golf clubs. They were an older set of clubs with the shafts cut down, so they were appropriate for his size. He mostly putzed around in the yard but Jensen remembers it was his mother who took him...
Let's face it, this pandemic is changing us. If not seriously ill, people have time to stop, think, and actually ask themselves: "What should I do next?" The following story has nothing to do with the coronavirus, but does illustrate the realm of ideas possible for those contemplating retirement or individuals with time on their hands and a willingness to pursue dreams. Dave Antus grew up in Cloquet close to where the Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College is today. He was an active child and...
The SCARE program at Cloquet High School in 1970 was a big deal. For a whole week, students would be immersed only in environmental issues of the day. It came days before the first Earth Day, 50 years ago this month. SCARE was an acronym for Students Concerned About a Ravaged Environment. It was the brainchild of Cloquet High School social studies teacher Jack Pichotta. I recently caught up with Jack (he was my Cloquet neighbor not long ago and my teacher at CHS) to reminisce about this...
This is a tale of a nearly 80-year-old gent who grew up in Barnum on a farm in the 1950s, enlisted in the Army and traveled the world, and managed a working career which included teaching children and building partnerships among various interests and groups. His name is Alan Finifrock. He is back in the area now, living in Cloquet as a retiree and world-class Carlton County tree farmer. Oddly enough, when he taught school in rural Alaska, the nearest tree was 100 miles away. Since Al knew that...
Earlier this year, I read that legendary professional wrestler Pampero Firpo, the Wild Bull of the Pampas, passed away. He was nearly 90 years old and was a TV and arena wrestling star in the 1960s and 1970s. It brought back many memories for me of airplane spins, the figure-four leglock, turnbuckles, forearm smashes, the bolo, standing dropkicks, the piledriver, the Boston Crab and other pro wrestling holds and terminology. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, his given name was Juan Kachmanian....
Married for 38 years, it was a bit of a surprise when my spouse told me that I should go and learn more about the birds and the bees - bees in particular. So, I attended the Northeast Minnesota Bee Association's fifth annual winter seminar Feb. 15, co-hosted by the Environmental Institute at the Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College. Courtney Kowalczak, institute director, met me at the seminar entrance at the college. I must have had that bee-in-the-headlight look, but I told her I was from...
Cloquet schools have shined in academics, athletics, the fine arts, and other extracurricular events going way back to the start of the 20th century. Over that time, the school district has been an innovator, taken chances, and exposed students to not only regional leaders but nationally acclaimed figures. Two events that happened in Cloquet around 1970 — when I was a high school student — had a profound effect on me. I’m not sure of all teachers and administrators responsible for these event...
On the third Thursday morning of each month (10:30-11:30 a.m.), the Second Harvest Mobile Food Pantry comes to the Our Savior's Lutheran Church parking lot in Cloquet to distribute food. What is unique about this food bank operation? The patrons stay in their cars and have - if you total it all up at the end of the day - tons of food put into their cars, vans, and pickup boxes as they parade by local volunteers who load it up, 50-75 pounds at a time. It's quite the operation. Dan Wilson, Second...
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the hockey rink at Cloquet's Athletic Park on 14th Street was a hopping spot. Ice skates weren't always required. On Monday evenings from January until March, the rink was reserved for broomball. Cloquet Community Education, led by director Gary Welton, organized and conducted a men's broomball league. Teams were mostly from Cloquet but there were some from Brookston, Grand Lake and other nearby communities. The Cloquet Broomball League was unique in that...
Imagine Cloquet Middle School Principal Tom Brenner greeting Kirk Cousins, Danielle Hunter, Stefon Diggs, Kyle Rudolph, Dalvin Cook, and other Vikings players as they file off a big purple bus at the gymnasium parking lot with: “Welcome to Cloquet, you can change in the varsity locker room. We have a full house tonight.” That is almost exactly what happened 49 years ago when star players from the Minnesota Vikings visited Cloquet to try their luck playing basketball against a group of Clo...
The Minnesota Twins Winter Caravan came to Duluth on Tuesday. This is the 60th season of the Caravan and this year's tour featured 1991 World Series pitching hero Jack Morris, Twins TV announcer Dick Bremer and exciting rookie infielder Luis Arraez. Always about a month before spring training, this event gets the baseball juices flowing in the Twin Ports area. Maybe better news was last week's Major League Baseball announcement that the Twins had signed Braves (and former Blue Jays) third...
Do you consider yourself a sports expert? Many of us would prefer to land on the orange space — sports and leisure — when we roll the dice and traverse onto a certain pie color in the Trivial Pursuit board game (rather than the brown arts and literature, for sure). The following sports quiz will challenge both your short- and long-term memory on major and minor sports. So grab a piece of paper and a pencil. Good luck. If anyone gets all of these correct, we, at the Pine Knot, will be imm...
Have you ever had the opportunity to meet your childhood or, for that matter, adulthood hero? It could be a political or religious leader, a rock or TV or movie star, a sports legend, or maybe even an astronaut. Someone, if you were to meet face-to-face, you would be so awestruck by that observers would have to tell you to please close your mouth? What makes a person a hero? Of course, people generally honor their parents and other family members, local clergy and elected officials, and even...
Well, deer rifle season has come to a close in Minnesota. For some hunters, it is the conclusion of their most cherished time of the year. Each November, these sharpshooters reminisce about numerous and bizarre stories and tales because of their uniqueness. The stories don't even have to necessarily be about hunting or searching for the elusive big buck. It could be the weather storms, or getting lost or stuck, or even unbelievable card games in the hunting shack. These are the stories, and...
More than 100 years ago, a member of the Fond du Lac band pitched six innings for the Chicago White Sox … the same year he was deemed “unqualified” to play for the Cloquet baseball team. His name was William Cadreau. The right-handed pitcher is listed in the 1889 Census Roll of the Fond du Lac Band of Chippewa, a 1-year old boy born to Antoine Cadreau and Louisa Naganab on Sept. 2, 1888, in Cloquet. William’s lineage appears to show he is the grandson of Chief Naganab of Fond du Lac, who sig...
Continuing with its storied history, the Cloquet Public Library celebrated its major expansion with a groundbreaking ceremony Friday, Nov. 8. The ceremony itself was a formality, as construction work on the area south of the building had already begun. The addition will add flexible meeting space to the library, which can be divided into one to three rooms, a dedicated children's area, a dedicated teen area, spaces for comfortable seating, a portable stage and sound system, and a teaching...
