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 176 - 192 of 192
Although it's been close to 40 years since the lights went out for good on the Cloquet Civic Center, many Cloquet residents still have fond memories of the iconic downtown building. Located on Cloquet Avenue between Fifth and Sixth streets - the present home of the Cloquet Area Fire District's Station 1 - the civic center was a destination for generations of area residents. Also known as the "Y" (originally, it was affiliated with the YMCA), the civic center had a gymnasium for basketball,...
Fall is in the air, and retiree darts are zooming at targets at Our Savior's Lutheran Church in Cloquet. Friday morning dart league has resumed play from now through April. The Major League Baseball playoffs are nearly, but not quite, as stressful as the three games played each week by these seniors. The games - with randomly picked teams each week - begin every Friday at 9 a.m. at Our Savior's Lutheran Church's Fellowship Hall on the corner of 12th Street and Doddridge Avenue. "We have guys...
For decades, the name Butch Newby was synonymous with Cloquet Country Club championship golf. I had the privilege of recently catching up with Butch while being joined in the phone conversation by Bill Manahan, the manager-pro at the club, and Dick Brenner, longtime CCC member and community activist. Butch's given name was Harry Newby, Jr., but he has been known as "Butch" ever since he can remember. He was a very successful attorney in Cloquet and Carlton County, sharing an office for many...
It’s been an exciting fun year to be a Minnesota Twins fan. The team finished in first place in the American League Central Division with 101 wins — the most wins they’ve had in a season since they won the pennant and competed against the Dodgers in 1965. They hadn’t won the division since 2010. They will be playing their nemesis — the New York Yankees — in the first round of the playoffs. First game, in the best of five series, is scheduled for Yankee Stadium tonight. Often on warm summer even...
Tucked a few miles west of the Moose Lake, on beautiful Sand Lake, is the Moose Lake Golf Club. Established in 1929, this nine-hole club is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year. For my Carlton County Golf Course update, I interviewed club manager Josh Gamst. According to course history, Moose Lake Golf Club was originated by a banker (Richard Lewis), an attorney (Clayton Dodge), and a dentist (Elmer Williams). The three, along with community supporters, were able to purchase the Romanoski...
What comes to mind when you hear the word "bridge?" For many from Carlton County and northern Minnesota, it may bring visions of the beautiful Aerial Lift Bridge welcoming boats and ships to the Duluth harbor. Travelers perhaps dream of London Bridge or the Golden Gate Bridge. Old-time movie buffs recall actor and Academy Award winner Sir Alec Guinness in the classic "The Bridge on the River Kwai." But for a select group of local individuals, it means already planning for getting back to...
Many young athletes today grow up dreaming of college scholarships and careers in professional sports, but there was a time that being a good men's softball pitcher could help a guy get a better job ... as long as he promised to play on the company team. I recently spoke with one of my former neighbors, Larry Anderson, who has lived near where I grew up in Scanlon on Sahlman Avenue since 1960. His storybook sports history aamazes me. From all of my years of working in human resources, I was trai...
It's a fact: most golfers don't like being in sand traps or hitting the ball out of these hazards. But, if you must, the Black Bear golf course in Carlton is the place to show off your skills, just like the professionals. Here, beautiful white sand from Georgia is, indeed, the same as the picturesque sand found in traps at Augusta National Golf Course - the home of the Masters Tournament. The Black Bear golf course is located at the junction of Interstate 35 and Minnesota Highway 210. It is...
"It's the finest little nine-hole course in Minnesota." That's what one of the ladies in the clubhouse bar told me as I completed my interview at 29 Pines Golf Course in Mahtowa. I had to try the famous homemade chicken Alfredo pizza and a North Shore microbrewery beer to make my visit complete and perfect. After a few bites and sips, it made me wonder if I shouldn't be chasing down Carlton County's tastiest pizza but I continued in my assignment of reviewing Carlton County's golf courses. 29...
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 built by...
Forty years ago this week, a two-year-old Tiger Woods appeared on the afternoon TV variety program "The Mike Douglas Show." Little Tiger was featured because of his status as a national golfing prodigy. Other guests on the program were Bob Hope, Jimmy Stewart and Tiger's Dad, Earl Woods. Tiger won the hearts of many Americans by winning a quarter from Bob Hope with a little trickery and making a 1-foot putt. Of course, Tiger went on to be a champion amateur and professional golfer. Not sure if...
Fifty years ago was a monumental time in American history. On July 20, 1969, our country made President John F. Kennedy's 1961 proclamation - to put a man on the moon and return him safely, by the end of the decade - a reality. As part of its "Space Week" and in honor of the 50th anniversary of the moon walk, the Cloquet Public Library hosted John Cavanaugh Monday evening. It was the anniversary of the Apollo 11 crew lifting off and making history five days later. Cavanaugh is an amateur...
There was a time when the Cloquet Country Club would advertise in the Pine Knot newspaper every July for 100 caddies to work the annual invitational golf tournament. Back when golf carts weren't ubiquitous, nearly every player counted on a caddy and his ability to track and find balls, have tees and extra balls ready, and help read the break on putts. Mike "Beatsie" Rosen and Gerald "Jiggs" La Breche recently talked about their experiences of caddying at the CCC. Beatsie and Jiggs are...
It’s probably been more than 20 years since there was an active Carlton County fastpitch softball league. I thought about it the other day when I was driving down Minnesota Highway 210 toward Cromwell and passed the old Iverson Inn ballfield. The inn, a bar and restaurant that grilled great hamburgers and served ice-cold beer, burned down to the ground many years ago. The adjacent ball field still has a backstop today but does not resemble the field where I had the privilege of playing f...
Most people like pickles. Whether it's genuine dill pickles or kosher, sweet, bread and butter, or Gherkin ... nearly all have a favorite pickle. But for a growing number of Cloquet and Carlton County residents, their favorite pickle would be a game called pickleball. And it has nothing to do with pickled cucumbers. Pickleball is a relatively new game. It originated in 1965 in the backyard of a home in a suburb of Seattle called Bainbridge Island. Several gents came home after a round of golf...
September through April, a group of regional male retirees get together at Our Savior's Lutheran Church in Cloquet on Friday mornings to try their hand at dartball. Players ranging in age from their late 50s to their late 90s continue to play week after week and year after year, with the league now decades old. The Cloquet league is very informal, with teams chosen randomly each week, which means a new champion each week too. "That's two weeks in a row of my team winning all three games," said 9...
For many area residents, the traditional media hype over the opening of Gordy's Hi-Hat restaurant on Highway 33 is a true and welcome sign of spring (especially since it typically opens the first day of spring). For some, it may be seeing the first robin of the year or putting out the dock and preparing for the opening of the walleye fishing season. But regional golfers know spring is really here when they can dust off the clubs, put away the snowblower and head to their favorite golf course. Fo...
