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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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 Moose Lake/Willow River football team overcame several first-half penalties and an 8-point deficit at halftime to defeat Royalton 20-8 in the Section 7AA semifinals Saturday in Willow River. The Rebels advance to the section title game for the 13th time in 14 years. The Royals scored the game’s first touchdown late in the first quarter when Brady Conrad scored on a five-yard touchdown run; following a Dylan Skwira two-point conversion, the Royals led 8-0. Both teams had chances in the second...
The Pine Knot celebrates one year of publication this week. It's been a heady journey for the founders and those who work to assemble your newspaper every week. We re-opened the downtown Cloquet office that the Pine Journal's corporate owner closed in early 2018. The Pine Journal was the result of a merger of the Cloquet Journal and the Pine Knot in 2002. We obtained the rights to the historic name in a nod to the past and future. It took us two months to launch the new Pine Knot. Five of us for...
Tragedy happens in an instant. To triumph over it, well, that can take much longer. One day you are simply a newly minted teenager leaving school. One day you are an infantryman fixed in a foxhole, already accustomed to a daily deluge of enemy fire. In an instant, you are literally blinded. ... Joyce Campbell of Cloquet fell flat on her back. The icy snowball had hit her square in the face. Her school books went flying, she probably hit the back of her head - hard. It was boys horsing around....
In August, the Mercy Hospital board of directors voted unanimously to request proposals to partner with a larger health care system. On Tuesday, leaders from Mercy Hospital in Moose Lake and Essentia Health announced plans for a formal partnership. Mercy’s board of directors voted on the affiliation at a meeting Monday night. According to a press release, board members chose Essentia for its aligned mission and values and Essentia’s plan to grow primary- and specialty-care services in Moose Lake, along with hospital and emergency care. “A...
It’s been an honor serving Ward 3 since being appointed in July. I’ve had the privilege of visiting with city staff, various department heads, fire district personnel, police officers and acting chiefs, local leaders and, of course, the public. We have much to be proud of and I’m grateful for the insights gleaned along the way and their confidence. I’ve taught government and history classes at Cloquet High School since 2001, have served on the Carlton County Historical Society Board, on my chur...
Historic Minnesota events with anniversaries this coming week. Nov. 1 1849 The legislature establishes funding for the territory’s public schools. By decree of the Northwest Ordinance, one section in each township had been set aside to support a school, and in Minnesota these lands are not sold for short-term cash but are rented out to provide a steady and long-term cash flow. Martin McLeod authored the bill, which Territorial Governor Alexander Ramsey would consider his administration’s most important piece of legislation. Nov. 2 1948 Hub...
I have spent much of my life in the public eye. As a teacher, I was always very familiar with the idea that it wasn’t just what you did in the classroom that mattered. Nearly anything done in the community was also the subject of judgment and gossip. Then working in the media, I knew that my words were given more importance than they deserved. When I stopped working on radio and TV, I was more than happy to fly under the radar. I even moved away from Cloquet for a couple of years and most d...
I am a 25-plus-year resident of Cloquet and have been working as a Realtor in the area for the last 15. As a long-time resident of this city, I have always had a vested interest in the political landscape and an interest in the direction Cloquet is headed. I have served on the planning commission for the last nine years and have been politically active in this community for the last 20. I have served on multiple boards, including transportation and housing and governmental affairs, to name a...
Public meetings are continuing on the question of consolidation between the Carlton and Wrenshall school districts and it seems a bit of a divide lingers between residents in each district. A handful of people braved the nor’easter storm on Oct. 21 for the first public meeting outlining the two-site consolidation plan and its associated costs. There, the pressing question was about whether or not to keep the current nonfunctioning pool at the Wrenshall school or scrap it. Another question rang loud and clear as well: What does the Carlton schoo...
Following an investigation by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), a shooting by a Carlton County deputy while executing a warrant in July was deemed “necessary, justified and authorized by law” by the Carlton County attorney’s office, according to a press release sent out Tuesday. On July 29, 2019, the Carlton County Consolidated Emergency Response Team (CERT) responded to the home of Shawn Olthoff’s mother in Moose Lake to execute a warrant for his arrest on charges alleging use of deadly force against a peace officer stemmin...
Churchill Elementary School students are captivated by soprano Siena Forest as she performs in "Cinderella" with the Little Opera of the North program Oct. 24. The traveling show aims to introduce younger children to the joys of opera. According to music teacher Regina Roemhildt, 47 fourth graders tried out and 18 were chosen to perform with four professional singers and a pianist in the opera, which did the same thing in Wrenshall Oct. 21 and will visit Washington Elementary School in...
As a result of making close to $600,000 in cuts this past year and better than expected state aid, the Cloquet school board got some good news Monday following its annual audit. Instead of ending the 2018 fiscal year $800,000 in the hole, the district instead had an overage of $450 in its general fund. Including restricted funds such as transportation and facilities maintenance, however, the district actually ended the year with a $448,617 increase to its fund balance. Most of the increase was...
Like former Chief Wade Lamirande, and Dewey Johnson before him, acting police chief Derek Randall has been a member of the Cloquet police department for years and has worked his way up the ladder at the police department. While Randall is now acting chief, soon the city council will be tasked with finding a permanent police chief. We hope they refer to the job description and city hiring procedures and encourage both internal and external applicants this time when appointing a new chief. A new police chief should meet the qualifications as set...
There’s no free lunch. But there is this one free issue of the Pine Knot News. You’re receiving this paper in your mailbox this week because we want you to subscribe. Those of us at the Pine Knot News started a new local newspaper — by honoring one that served Cloquet for more than 100 years — because the Pine Journal, which is owned by a Fargo company and is now published out of Duluth, had closed its local office and seemed less interested in reporting local news stories. Once we opened the Pine Knot News — with local owners, a local off...
As a patriotic American, I am proud of our Constitution and all its amendments (I am particularly fond of the 21st). But there’s a reason why the First Amendment comes first. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press to print the news has protected our country many more times than armed citizens ever have. No gun owner has ever stopped an attack of tyranny; a free press has done it countless times. Our system of government is good. The Founders figured out how to blend democracy with e...
The Pine Knot recently had an excellent article about the merger of Community Memorial Hospital and the Raiter Clinic ("Cloquet's health care twins make it official," Sept. 27, 2019). That article clearly listed all the services our hospital provides to Cloquet and surrounding area. When I was Hospital Chaplain, it was not uncommon to have patients from the Range, Cook, or Ely areas who came because of our orthopedic surgeons. That was just one area of our broad outreach. Those working in the...
Ward 3 Cloquet Council Candidate profile: Uriah Wilkinson PKN: Briefly summarize your personal background and qualifications. Wilkinson: I have been a resident of Cloquet (with my five children) for 25-plus years, and have been working in the real estate industry for the past 15. I have served on the Cloquet Planning Commission for going on eight years as well as task forces including housing, transportation and zoning. PKN: What made you decide to run for Cloquet City Council? Wilkinson: This...
Ward 3 Cloquet Council Candidate profile: Ray Schow PKN: Briefly summarize your personal background and qualifications. Schow: I have held jobs in almost all sectors of the job market, from janitor to stockbroker, from call center supervisor to golf course manager, but I am best known as a teacher which I started at 22 and still sub to this day. PKN: What made you decide to run for Cloquet City Council? Schow: I decided first to apply for, and then to run for city council because I have been ver...
Ward 3 Cloquet Council Candidate profile: Chris Swanson PKN: Briefly summarize your personal background and qualifications. Swanson: I grew up and lived in this area of Cloquet most of my life. I've taught government classes at CHS since 2001. As a parent, resident and community member, I appreciate the importance of remaining level-headed under pressure, responsive to my fellow residents, and conscious of the public's trust. PKN: What made you decide to run for Cloquet City Council? Swanson:...
The financial stress that is being put on individuals and families by our elected officials in the form of new taxes each year must be looked at very seriously because of how the continual increases are affecting people’s lives. The population of Carlton County has increased very little over my lifetime, but taxes on the people have continued to increase at an alarming rate. Carlton County’s tax base is made up mainly of homeowners who want to live here but are being taxed at such high rates it is very difficult for them. Carlton is one of the...
Gereldene “Geri” Phyllis Bakken was the third of six children born to Erick and Grace Schultz on Nov. 3, 1924, in Willow City, North Dakota. In 1941, at the age of 17, she went to Washington, D.C., where she worked as a secretary at the Pentagon. She attended Minot State Teachers College and taught school for a few years after returning to North Dakota. Geri married Robert Bakken in 1951, and they had four children together. The couple lived in Esko before moving to Moorhead. She had a pas...
June A. Haedt, 89, of Duluth passed away Oct. 19, 2019, at Viewcrest Health Center. She was born June 17, 1930, in Duluth to Martin and Eleanor (McDonald) Baumgartner. June graduated from Denfeld High School and married Walter "Wally" Haedt in June of 1949. Her faith was strong, and she loved the Lord. She always believed that she would be reunited with her husband, Wally, her twin boys, Gerald and Jerome, and her beloved twin sister, Jean Davner. June loved crafting and belonged to the Munger M...
Janith Lee Wadman, 87, passed away surrounded by family Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019, at St. Luke's Hospital in Duluth. Janith was born Oct. 7, 1932, to Harry and Reva (Dunton) Carlson in Waite Park. She graduated from Annandale High School and continued her education at the Minneapolis Business School. Following her education, she was employed at Occident Elevator in Minneapolis. Janith married Donald Wadman on June 19, 1954, in Annandale, and two years later the couple moved to Cloquet. Jan was a...
Virgil Louis Swing, 81, a 1956 Cloquet High School graduate and a retired Duluth newspaper editor, died Saturday, Oct. 26, 2019, in Banner Baywood Medical Center in Mesa, Arizona. He was born in Aitkin, Minnesota in 1938 to Edward and Esther Swing. His family moved to Cloquet soon afterward. After graduating from the University of Minnesota Duluth in 1960, he enlisted in the Navy and served as a journalist aboard the aircraft carrier the Bonhomme Richard and as a researcher in the Pentagon from...
