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 1 - 25 of 37
Last winter was one most folks won't soon forget, with record snowfalls common and collapsed roofs and fallen treelines forever impacted. Even now, the city of Carlton is dealing with the aftermath. The city-owned arena, Four Seasons Sports Complex, is the subject of a pending insurance claim, having suffered exterior damage from the ice and snow. The damage is obvious to passersby, as the arena side facing Highway 210 features a long crumpled strip of steel siding. "The ice and snow buildup...
We received testimony, and physical proof, the past week that the mermaid fountain at Garfield School in Cloquet has been around at least since the 1950s. It was a goldfish pond at the bottom. Sandy Strand provided this delightful picture of her first-grade class in October of 1950. There's the fountain in the back at far right, in Miss Campbell's classroom. Sandy, who is in the all-white dress under the "Happy Helpers" sign, behind the boy in the plaid shirt, clearly remembers the day the girl...
A father and his two sons canoeing on the Nemadji River in southeast Carlton County Saturday called in a report of human remains found on the river bank east of Minnesota Highway 23 and south of the Soo Line Trail. This week the Midwest Medical Examiner's Office was making an identification effort after a laborious effort to remove the remains from the remote area. The Carlton County Sheriff's Office received a call at 1:30 p.m. about the find. Sheriff deputies and responders from Wrenshall and...
A man housed in the Minnesota Sex Offender Program facility in Moose Lake was sentenced to 220 months — over 18 years — in state prison Monday to attempted second-degree murder. Nicolas Ladell Aron-Jones’ victim made a statement in the hearing, as did the offender, saying he prefers prison time to the MSOP. Aron-Jones, 29, pleaded guilty in May to the most serious of four charges against him. Under the terms of the plea agreement, the other charges of first-, second- and fourth-degree assault were dismissed. “He attempted to kill someone...
Leave the mosquitoes outside and come to the Moose Lake Community School auditorium to hear some great symphonic music for free. Agate Encores Community Concerts is offering a free concert by the Duluth-based Northshore Philharmonic Orchestra at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 25. Under the baton of conductor Tracey Gibbens, the concert includes music by Jean Sibelius, Franz Berwald, and Antonín Dvořák. Dr. Betsy Husby, principal cellist with the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra, is the soloist. The orchestra is made up of people united by their lo...
A fire on the 100 block of Jay Cooke Road spread from a vehicle to a home early Tuesday. According to a news release from the Carlton County Sheriff’s Office, a passerby noticed the vehicle fire and reported it around 6:35 a.m. Tuesday, July 18, also stopping to notify the homeowners. When deputies responded, the fire was initially observed under the hood of a vehicle in the driveway. As the fire grew, it spread to the residence. The Esko Fire Department arrived and contained the fire at the residence, with assistance from Carlton and W...
A barn on the 2200 block of Olson Road in Blackhoof Township caught on fire, likely the result of a lightning strike around 4:15 p.m. Wednesday, a Carlton County Sheriff’s Office news release said. Firefighters from Blackhoof, Esko, Carlton, Barnum, Moose Lake, Mahtowa and Wrenshall fire departments responded and found the barn fully involved in fire. Due to the size of the fire and rural location, a large amount of water had to be brought in by truck to put out the fire. There were no animals in the barn, no injuries, and no other s...
Several Carlton County communities are planning National Night Out events on Aug. 1. Cloquet will have its first large National Night Out event back at Veterans Park 5-8 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 1, for the first time since 2019. Other local National Night Out events are detailed below: • The city of Wrenshall will hold its NNO event 5-7 p.m. Aug. 1 at Hugh D. Line park. Join neighbors for this free, family friendly event with hot dogs, freezies and chips provided. Bring lawn games, musical instruments and friends. • In Kettle River, the fun beg...
The Salvation Army in Carlton County is encouraging donations to support their food shelves through July 31. That’s how long the Open Your Heart organization will match all financial gifts made to The Salvation Army food shelf up to $4,000, effectively doubling the impact of every donation. Send checks to 316 Carlton Avenue, Cloquet, MN 55720. Call 218-879-5447 or visit SalvationArmyNorth.org for more....
Cloquet's West End business district has been seeing larger weekend crowds, thanks to business owner Ryan Bridge, of Bridges Customs. A growing crowd of car enthusiasts are making their way to the West End every other Friday to share their love of unique cars and enjoy the "drifting" display by Bridge's drifting team. In car culture, drifting is the practice of driving a car in a controlled skid, as if on ice. These drifting competitions have nothing to do with racing and a checkered flag....
A 76-year-old Cloquet man could be facing more than 11 years in prison for possession of child pornography and use of a minor in pornographic work. On April 24, Edward Christian entered a plea to seven counts of possession of pornographic work; minor under 14 along with one count of use of minors in sexual performance/pornographic work; minor under 14 years old. Under the terms of the plea agreement, six charges of criminal sexual conduct in the first degree with a person under 13 were dismissed. According to the criminal complaint, Christian...
An 80-by-110-foot residential lot in southeast Cloquet gave rise to robust discussion on housing throughout city hall this month, with the city council agreeing Tuesday to sell the lot to a building contractor who plans to build on the lot with the intention to sell. "The 'for-sale' market is the toughest market we've faced to date," said community development director Holly Hansen during last week's meeting of the Economic Development Authority. "It's been easier to put up apartment buildings...
The Carlton school district hired Angela Lind to fill the open business manager position, after the previous business manager, Norm Nelis, took a job at the Hermantown school district. Lind formerly worked just up the road at Wrenshall, but was laid off there in a cost-saving measure. “She’s been a fantastic addition,” said Carlton superintendent Donita Stepan during Monday’s board meeting. Under Lind’s new contract, she will earn a salary of $61,000 in her first year with regular longevity increases of $1,000 per year for the next 8 years. In...
The 2023 Carlton County Garden Tour featured five Esko properties plus the Esko Community Garden on Tuesday evening, July 18. This year's tour stops included decades-long established gardens, works in progress, family heirloom plants, ponds and water elements, vegetable plots, berry plants, and whimsical characters populating yards and gardens. One of the featured tour stop hosts estimated nearly 300 visitors stopped by to view landscaping and garden projects during the three-hour event. The...
At the very center of a panoramic photo of Cloquet taken before 1918 stands a substantial stone building. A bank? A theater? A store? Nope. The prominent building is the public library, completed in 1902 when Cloquet was still a village. Cloquet had no city water or sewer system, no electrical service, and no paved roads - but it had a library, a public symbol of the value of culture and learning. Donations totalling about $7,500 came from the Shaw family, Northwest Paper Company, and First...
Thumbs up to Sen. Jason Rarick, our local representative in the Minnesota Senate, who married fellow legislator Rep. Marion O’Neill on the Fourth of July. Congratulations to the newly wedded couple. Our instant thought was, which one of them will give up their seat in St. Paul? Murphy represents the Buffalo and Monticello area, more than an hour from Rarick’s district, which covers all of Pine and Carlton counties, plus parts of St. Louis and Kanabec counties. Residency determinations for state lawmakers generally come down to where a person sl...
Practicing family law can be far more difficult than expected. “This should be an easy one,” potential divorce clients tell me all the time. “We pretty much agree on everything.” Of course, that might be true, but they usually don’t understand what “everything” is. Did you discuss parenting time? Income tax issues? Where will the kids go to school? Or the myriad other issues that need to be addressed? The answer, usually, is: “Gee, we never thought of that.” One of the most complex issues in...
Kudos to the Pine Knot organizers and all the volunteers for the Fourth of July festivities. Parade was great. Veterans Park was laid out very nicely with lots of tables, chairs and canopies. They made excellent use of the space which invited people to stay longer. Compared to other festivals in Cloquet, we found an abundance of clean restrooms and very few, if any, lines when I was there. Thank you to all of the people who helped with planning, organizing, labor, and contributions. Sheryl Homan, Cloquet Editor’s note: Staff here at the Pine K...
"Now here's a story 'bout Steve Hanson. An Alaskan cowboy that really changed our salad dressin's," sings Xander Ripley-Jaakola in open lyric of his song "Ranch." Only 16 years old, Ripley-Jaakola released his first album last December under the name Xander Muxic. Aptly named "The Condiment Album," the Cloquet teen spent about six months writing and recording the songs, all while juggling high school at Harbor City International School in Duluth. He made the album in his parents' basement,...
The most interesting portion of the Agate Stampede in Moose Lake Saturday was all the pregame talk along Elm Street about strategy. Some vow to wait back and snatch the loot others miss after the two dump trucks unload their haul of rocks along the two, long, people-packed, blocks of the downtown street. Some get ready to dash right in, water bottle in hand to better discern the precious rocks from the ordinary. There are all levels of bucket sophistication (some with built-in sifters) and...
The Over the Hill Rangers band - Mick Heaser, Digger DeRusha, Davey Jokimaki, Ron Jokimaki - entertained in the park in Wright Saturday afternoon as adults caught up with each other in pockets of conversation, children lingered on the playground, and people watched softball and volleyball games. How do you know it's Wrong Days in Wright? The softball rules. You ran to third base on a hit, you ran home from first base to score. It seemed the volleyball play was conventional. Both tournaments...
The Esko Legion and Junior Legion baseball teams got off to a slow start this summer, but they had an excellent excuse. "We missed the first 10 days of the season because of the long run to the state championship by the high school team," said Nick Legarde, head coach of both the Legion and Junior Legion teams. "For Legion, we've only played nine games so far and normally we'd be at around 15-18 games," he saidd. Esko Legion is 6-3 thus far and opened play in the Northeast District 2 playoffs...
On Monday, golfers from as far away as Iowa, the Twin Cities area, and the Iron Range gathered for the fourth annual "Moose" Cancer Golf Fundraiser at the Cloquet Country Club. The event is named in honor of Gary "Moose" Pastika, who died of colon cancer in 2018. Moose was a CCC member for over 50 years. The fundraiser benefits the infusion therapy center/oncology department at Community Memorial Hospital and a portion also goes to the Second Harvest Northern Lakes Food Bank. The tournament...
After a busy season for both the Cloquet Legion and VFW baseball teams, playoffs are looming. Legion coach Tyler Olin, also the Cloquet High School boys baseball coach, said they’re as ready as they’re going to be after 13 games so far. “Summer baseball is a whole different thing than high school,” Olin said. “There are some teams in our area that have age-eligible college guys who are back playing, and we don’t have that. We are just glad guys are out getting reps for next spring for the hig...
More than 60 youth baseball teams will descend upon the Cloquet area this weekend to participate in the fifth annual Northland Baseball Classic. The tournament was the brainchild of Cloquet’s Nate Knutson, the current VFW coach, who was looking to bring teams to Cloquet and to build a top-notch tournament. “We have now built a reputation as a very good tournament, and teams are electing to come here and play,” Knutson said. “There is very good competition and the tournament is getting to be known across the state and outside the state as well...
