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Preparations are heating up for Hockey Day Cloquet, an outdoor hockey extravaganza that will take place in Veterans Park on and around Jan. 11, 2025. Expect a state-of-the-art outdoor rink, shipping containers for locker rooms and Zamboni storage, plus fan-friendly seating and food trucks. Organizer Nate Knutson told the Cloquet City Council Tuesday that the idea was a “blind shot” in the beginning but the event is now in a good spot financially. “We’ve had unbelievable backing from our local sponsors, which is super cool. It’s Carlton,...
Shop locally. It’s not a new concept, but with online shopping a mouse click away, it’s a message that bears repeating for old and new generations. Sure, it’s easy to find what you want online. And sometimes, that’s the only place a person living in northeastern Minnesota can find that special something. But there may be something equally or even more special lurking in a shop or business right here in Carlton County. Have you visited Sass Boutique yet? Abundant Baby? Or Shop on the Corner, home to multiple makers, artists and vintage collect...
Tuesday’s wet and windy weather blew many things around, including a piece of paper with handwriting on it. It went splat, flat onto the front window of the Pine Knot. Or perhaps we should say “hoofwriting.” Apparently, the notorious loose sheep, known by many as Brad, was making his way back to Carlton County after quite the odyssey. After so much adventure, it seems he felt obligated to get it all down for the record. He was first spotted up the North Shore in the Two Harbors area a few weeks...
The Sass Boutique is the newest boutique in town! You might have seen our storefront on Cloquet Avenue as you're passing through town. Or maybe you've seen us at a local vendor event. We've been working to grow our product lines and presence in town. The Sass Boutique originally launched as an online boutique back in 2018. It was my dream for as long as I can remember. After graduating college with a marketing degree and working for years in retail, starting an online boutique felt like "the...
Over the past few years, the Minnesota State High School League has aired public service advertisements on television and radio stations across the state asking people to "get in the game" and become officials. The reason those ads air is simple: in many sports across Minnesota, there is a vast need for more officials. The lack of football officials hit home in Carlton County this year when Esko had to move its homecoming football game time forward to 4 p.m. Oct. 4 while Barnum moved its game...
Having completed the best local girls diving season in two decades, Cloquet-Esko-Carlton senior Rilee Durovec will take a breather. But only until her winter diving schedule resumes. Durovec reached the finals and finished eighth in the state Class A swimming and diving meet last weekend at the University of Minnesota. She'd entered the competition striving to reach Saturday's finals for the top 16 divers. She accomplished that and more. "It really means a lot to know I could get there and...
All times are p.m. unless noted Friday, Nov. 22 Girls basketball Barnum vs Hinckley- Finlayson, 7:15 Cromwell-Wright at Ely, 7:15 Saturday, Nov. 23 Boys hockey MLA vs Red Wing, 11 a.m. CEC vs Bloomington Jefferson, 3 Girls hockey MLA vs Fort Frances, 1 CEC at River Lakes, 3 Girls basketball Cloquet vs Hermantown, 1 Monday, Nov. 25 Girls basketball Carlton/Wrenshall at Denfeld, 7 Tuesday, Nov. 26 Boys hockey CEC at Hibbing, 7 MLA at Greenway, 6 Girls hockey CEC at Orono, 7 Girls basketball Esko at Cloquet, 7:15 Barnum at Floodwood, 7:15 South...
Winter parking is in effect now through March, so don’t leave your cars parked on the streets of Cloquet overnight. According to city code, cars cannot be parked on the streets or in alleys between the hours of midnight and 6 a.m. from Nov. 1 through March 31, to allow snowplow drivers and others to clear the streets. The only exception is a vehicle parked at an open business establishment between midnight and 2 a.m. “unless ordered to be moved at the direction of a peace officer.” In Esko, parking on the street is prohibited 4-7 a.m. In Carlt...
A strong developmental season for the Cloquet-Esko-Carlton girls swimmers and divers came to a conclusion for all but one of the team's participants last weekend. The Section 7A championships in Grand Rapids featured scores of personal bests and many solid performances in race finals. But for Esko senior Rilee Durovec, a history-making season intensified starting Thursday with her participation at the girls state swimming and diving meet at the University of Minnesota. Durovec won the section...
The Cloquet-Esko-Carlton girls hockey team came out fast and determined Tuesday night at Northwoods Credit Union Arena as the Lumberjacks scored three times in the first seven minutes. Although the Moose Lake Area team threatened, they couldn't overcome the CEC lead. The win moved the 'Jacks to 2-1 on the season. CEC defeated Anoka 3-0 Saturday in Anoka, but dropped the season opener last Thursday by a score of 4-1 to Grand Rapids-Greenway. On Tuesday, the Lumberjacks' first goal came just 51...
When Moose Lake/Willow River and Mesabi East stepped onto the field in Esko for the Section 7AA championship game last Thursday, they had to deal with cold and wet and a field covered in snow. In the end the Rebels overcame the elements and the Giants, earning another trip to state - the 18th time in school history - by winning 24-14. The Rebels got two big runs from Levi Mikrot in the first quarter to gain the early lead. Mikrot rumbled 41 yards for the first score of the game, giving ML/WR an...
Winter parking is in effect now through March, so don’t leave your cars parked on the streets of Cloquet overnight. According to city code, cars cannot be parked on the streets or in alleys between the hours of midnight and 6 a.m. from Nov. 1 through March 31, to allow snowplow drivers and others to clear the streets. The only exception is a vehicle parked at an open business establishment between midnight and 2 a.m. “unless ordered to be moved at the direction of a peace officer.” In Esko, parking on the street is prohibited 4-7 a.m. In Carlt...
There was a line of people outside Cloquet City Hall at 7 a.m. Tuesday morning, waiting for the polls to open. "There was a line again at 10 a.m. that kind of surprised us, and now there's another one," said head judge John Cavanaugh at about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday. "We've been busy all day." By 4:30 p.m. they'd seen 675 voters come through, and Cavanaugh was expecting between 800-850 by the end of the day. The city hall was also busier than usual with people registering to vote, Cavanaugh said,...
Nathan Barta is just 20, but he won in a landslide Tuesday, taking more than 50 percent of the vote for Thomson Township Supervisor Seat C while his opponents – Jaryn Edblad and John Bergman – garnered 27 and 22.6 percent. While the incoming Thomson supervisor is definitely the youngest person in Carlton County – or maybe even the state – to win election Tuesday, the University of Minnesota Duluth junior knows a thing or two about local politics. Two years ago he penned a guest column in the Pin...
Museums are not just repositories of objects, they are living spaces that tell stories, bring people together, and create understanding." – Unknown We like to hold on to our history as evidenced by the local museums in Carlton County. Cloquet, Moose Lake, and Esko museums retain artifacts of our past to help us remember people who worked, played and formed the society and culture we enjoy today. The stories and insights we garner from a visit to the museum can improve our perspective on life a...
Longtime Carlton County resident Russ Plaisted was saluted by family, friends and neighbors at a birthday gathering Sunday, Nov. 2, at St. Matthews Lutheran Church in Esko. Russ was born Nov. 5, 1924 in Duluth. His parents were Elder and Genevieve Plaisted. He and his wife Dorothy lived in Esko 18 years, then on the Iron Range 18 years, then back to Esko, and are now settled in Cloquet. Dorothy was 93 on April 5. The couple has another milestone pending when they will celebrate their 72nd...
Accolades continue to pour in for area soccer players as All-State and All-Tournament teams were announced after the Minnesota State High School Soccer Tournament ended last week. Lauren Hughes of Cloquet/Carlton was named to first team All-State in Class AA and Reese Kuklinski of Esko was named first team All-State in Class A. “Reese is a true leader of our program,” said Esko coach Sharon Lahtii. “Academically, she is a 4.0 student, she mentors our younger players and is positive under pressure. Reese has a bright future ahead of her at Mi...
For three years in a row, the Esko volleyball team has met Rush City in the Section 7AA championship game and for three straight years the Tigers have come away with the title. The latest championship tilt came on Saturday night when the Tigers nabbed a 3-1 win in Hermantown. "Last year Rush City finished as the runner-up at the state tournament," Esko coach Pete Stasiuk said. "Our girls were excited to come out and play them." Esko started by grabbing a first set win with a strong finish,...
Esko High School students are putting on a production of the mystery murder play “Clue” at the school theater through Sunday, Nov. 3. Show times are 7 p.m. Friday, 6 p.m. Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday. The play is based on the 1985 film of the same name, which is based on the classic board game Clue. Guests show up at a mansion under mysterious circumstances and soon the host turns up dead and everyone is a suspect....
The Esko girls made their mark in the Minnesota State Class A Soccer Tournament this past week. After winning on penalty kicks Oct. 24 over St. Cloud Cathedral in the opening round, Esko fell to top seed Southwest Christian, 2-1, in a tense semifinal game Tuesday at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. The first half of play was tightly played with the Esko defensive corps doing a stellar job of not allowing one of the state's best forwards, Maya Johnson, to get free as the teams went to halftime...
Wednesday, Oct. 23 Volleyball 7AAA Princeton 3 Cloquet 1 7AA Barnum 3 Moose Lake/Willow River 1 Esko 3 Pine City 0 7A Floodwood 3 Fond du Lac Ojibwe 0 Cherry 3 Carlton/Wrenshall 0 South Ridge 3 Silver Bay 0 Thursday, Oct. 24 Girls soccer Class AA State quarterfinal Esko 1 St. Cloud Cathedral 0 Friday, Oct. 25 Volleyball 7A South Ridge 3 Cromwell-Wright 1 7AA Rush City 3 Barnum 0 Esko 3 Mora 0 Saturday, Oct. 26 Football Section 5 9-player Cromwell-Wright 25 Ogilvie 0 Section 7AA Mesabi East 22 Barnum 14 Moose Lake/WR 47 International Falls 6...
It can be difficult to know just what might inspire a teenager these days, but Brenda Knudsen may have found something in October. The trails on Pincushion Mountain offer spectacular views of the harbor at Grand Marais and the expanse of Lake Superior. As Knudsen prepared her Carlton/Wrenshall girls cross country teams for the Oct. 10 Polar League Conference meet on those trails, she told them she'd jump into the lake if they won. "It was freezing," the coach said this week, looking back on a...
University of Minnesota first-year player Koi Perich was honored as the “Big Ten Freshman of the Week” after Minnesota’s 48-23 football win against Maryland Oct. 26. Esko’s Perich posted his Big-Ten-leading fifth interception of the season in the game, taking it 45 yards and setting up a field goal. Perich also made three tackles in the win. Perich’s five interceptions are tied for fourth most in a season in the Gopher record book, and it was his third-straight game with an interception. Perich also returned three punts for 31 yards, including...
Despite finishing in the middle of the pack in last year's Section 7AA cross country meet, Cloquet boys team coach Chandra Allen had an inkling that things could only get better for the Lumberjacks. They were losing just one senior to graduation. "We knew after last season," she said of the 2024 prospects. The hunch was indeed correct, as this year's team won the section meet in Hibbing on Oct. 24. The team will now travel to St. Paul Saturday for the Minnesota State High School Class AA Cross...
After two rounds of playoffs, just two local football teams remain in the hunt for that elusive state tournament berth. Both of those teams, Moose Lake/Willow River and Cromwell-Wright, are rich in postseason success and were scheduled to play for section championships Thursday night, after the Pine Knot News went to press. The stunner in the second round was top-seeded Barnum falling, 22-14, in Section 7AA, to No. 4 Mesabi East. The Giants jumped on the Bombers in the first half and held a...