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 26 - 40 of 40
First, you experience great surprise, and then awe, as you see a child springing into the air, turning, flipping, and landing on their feet. Next, an involuntary "Wow!" springs from your own throat. Finally, you see how much fun these kids are having, and how happy they are to be doing gymnastics with their friends. Mary Lee Jensen, known as just "Mary Lee" to those familiar with local gymnastics, has been touching the lives of area kids and parents for 60 years. And yes, she started her...
Imagine two passenger trains, sitting in the same railway station in a small Minnesota town. Each is taking on passengers bound for a year-long tour of the country, but set to travel in opposite directions. The red train is westbound, and will travel in a counter-clockwise direction around the country until it returns home from the east. The blue train is eastbound, and will travel in a clockwise direction around the country, also returning back home, but from the west. The passengers from our s...
The voice is deep, rich, and weathered. The hands may show some age, but they glide over the strings of the old Gibson guitar effortlessly, like they have maybe a million times before. Don Brown is not the same young man who first graced a noisy barroom stage in Cloquet nearly six decades ago, but his country music remains much the same. Brown started "playing out" with a friend about 1961. "I think the first place we played was down on Dunlap Island in Cloquet, at a little place on the corner...
There are very few people in this world who are widely known by just their first names. Some athletes, celebrities, or the occasional politician might achieve this distinction, but it is a fairly unusual thing. Yet, in Carlton and Wrenshall, and even in Cloquet, when the name "Harold" comes up in conversation, longtime residents frequently know the man to whom the name belongs. Harold Ankrum is the rare, memorable person who merits this sort of recognition. Owner and operator of Harold's...
In a representative democracy where discussion of issues should be fact-based, it’s always disappointing when publicly elected officials resort to mischaracterizations, half-truths, and good-old-fashioned propaganda to advance their position. Such was the case in the Aug. 2 letter to the editor, “Iron Range Legislators show support for PolyMet.” The seven Iron Range legislators began by stating, “The claims by metro legislators and anti-mining groups about PolyMet Mining are downright fabrica...
Somewhere deep in the Colorado Rockies is an unnamed gravel road that twists and turns on its way up past little-known Grayback Mountain. Indiana Pass crests at 11,910 feet right on this road, and the occasional travelers in their SUVs or pickup trucks often find it difficult to breathe. But the challenge of breathing at that altitude was made even more difficult for Cloquet-area resident and Fond du Lac Band member Alexandera Houchin. She was on Indiana Pass in late June this year "just riding...
A light mist began to fall at 11 a.m., just as riders began to roll their bicycles onto the Munger Trail from the Northern Pacific Junction shelter in Carlton. The occasion was the Carlton County Community Bike Ride on June 9. Organizers were concerned that the cool, wet weather might dampen enthusiasm for the second annual event. With multiple access points to the trail, it would be difficult to know right away how much impact the weather might be having on the turnout. At about the same time t...
Seated at the console of the beloved pipe organ she has played for more than six decades, Marge Stillwell paused for a moment. Her mind rolled through the catalogues of favorite music and fondest memories of past concerts and services, choir directors and organ instructors who helped her along the way. Stillwell, 87, has served as organist for the Presbyterian Church of Cloquet for the past 63 years. She was 24 when she started to play. The church organ was the instrument that she learned to pla...
John Fisher-Merritt knew his purpose, and did not hesitate before answering. He had created a demand for, and built a community around quality, sustainably grown food. Then came the questions: Why would he take on young farmers as apprentices, giving them all the secrets of his farming success and even access to his customers? Didn't he feel like he might be creating competitors? "Well, we had so many people on the waiting list," he said of demand for his organically grown produce. "I felt like...
Minnesota Department of Agriculture Commissioner Thom Petersen visited the Food Farm just south of Wrenshall on May 24. Petersen spoke to a gathering of about 30 people, drawing attention to Food Farm’s participation in the MDA’s Minnesota Grown and Agricultural Water Quality Certification programs, as well as the farm’s status as a certified organic farm. Petersen highlighted the Minnesota Grown website, a directory of local farm products, farmers markets, pick-your-own and Community Suppo...
Finding and getting started on a great career right out of high school is rarely an easy task. Yet helping to make that happen is what Cloquet High School, through its building trades program, has set out to do with its students ... with a lot of help from some local trade unions. Vocational teachers Dusty Rhoades and Bret Gunderson led the way in transforming an already well-developed industrial arts program into a comprehensive building trades curriculum. While their diverse course offerings h...
Gathered together for a moment of celebration, supporters of the Carlton County Historical Society did not try to conceal their enthusiasm last week. Carlton County had just signed over the deed to the 99-year-old Shaw Memorial Library Building in Cloquet. Excited to take on a future filled with both big challenges and new possibilities, the group assembled in the museum's exhibit area on a late April afternoon. Executive director Mark King summed things up. "It has been a harrowing path for...
Just off the alley behind his home in Cloquet's Pinehurst neighborhood, John Babineau placed another log on the already blazing inferno beneath his maple syrup boiling pan. It was a sunny afternoon in late March, and Babineau's first "boil" of the season. As he brought the contents of the 50-gallon pan to a steady, rolling froth, the wind switched directions, causing Babineau's small gathering of extended family members to hastily rearrange their chairs to escape the thick smoke. "I'm trying to...
When 100-year-old Mildred Kjoberg (CHO-berg) got together with a few of her friends and relatives at the Cloquet Senior Center on a recent Tuesday afternoon, the only thing flying faster than the playing cards was the friendly banter. Kjoberg, or just "Milly" to her friends, gave it back as well as she took it, and the result was a whole lot of laughter and fun for all. "You can see why we enjoy coming here," she chuckled. Indeed, Kjoberg seems content wherever she is, and with whatever life...
With the Carlton school district’s declining enrollments, falling test scores and budget deficit, the clock is winding down on the opportunity to save the Carlton schools. There is nothing like opportunity lost to cast a light on the Carlton school board’s approach to the recently proposed and abandoned consolidation discussions with Wrenshall. It was painful to watch. Last September, by a 5-1 vote, the Carlton school board sent a letter to the Wrenshall board inviting a discussion on con...
