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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The Carlton County Historical Society recently posted a photo on Facebook of past Lumberjack Days wood medallion buttons in its collection. The annual event began in the late 1970s and eventually dwindled out of existence after a few decades. It was held at various times, sometimes at the end of June and other times in mid-July. It was tied to the Fourth of July for a long time until the Fourth took on its own traditions in Cloquet. The historical society, located in the Shaw Memorial Library...
Historic Minnesota events with anniversaries this week. July 11 1999 Duluth’s state representative Willard Munger dies of liver cancer at age 88. He had served in the Minnesota House since 1955 and was known as Mr. Environment for his reputation as a pioneer, leader and activist in environmental legislation. The Willard Munger State Trail, which runs through Carlton County, is named in his honor. July 12 1829 Lieutenant Colonel Zachary Taylor ends his command at Fort Snelling, which had begun May 24, 1828. He would later lead the U.S. Army i...
Historic Minnesota events with anniversaries this week. July 3 1863 Minnesota’s first railroad fatality: a train strikes a wagon driven by Captain Abraham Bennett and his son at the Como Road crossing in St. Paul. There had been talk of building a bridge at the site but, ironically, Bennett himself had opposed it. His son recovered. 1941 Charles Haralson dies in Excelsior at the age of 78. The first resident superintendent of the University of Minnesota’s Fruit Breeding Farm (now the Horticultural Research Center) at Excelsior, the Swe...
Historic Minnesota events with anniversaries this week. June 26 1959 President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Queen Elizabeth II open the St. Lawrence Seaway in an official ceremony in Montreal. The seaway connects the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean, making Duluth and other lake cities international ports. June 27 1977 Elizabeth Congdon and her nurse are murdered at Glensheen mansion in Duluth. In a sensational trial, Congdon’s son-in-law, Roger Caldwell, is convicted of the murders and sentenced to life but faulty evidence leads to a retrial a...
Historic Minnesota events with anniversaries this week. June 19 1852 Congress passes a resolution changing the name of St. Peter’s River to a form of its original Dakota name, Mni Sota, or Minnesota. It is translated as “waters that reflect the sky,” “sky-colored waters,” or “muddy water.” The river had been known to the French as “St. Pierre” (and to Anglophone Europeans as “St. Peter”) for 150 years, with increasing use of “Minnesota,” since the days of the explorer Pierre Charles Le Sueur. June 20 1887 William A. Hazel, an African America...
Historic Minnesota events with anniversaries this week. June 12 1946 The Minnesota Historical Society accepts a grant from the Weyerhaeuser family to establish the Forest Products History Foundation. Initially located in St. Paul, the foundation evolves into the international organization known as the Forest History Society. Now located in Durham, North Carolina, the society's mission remains the same: to preserve and interpret the documents of forest and conservation history. Weyerhaeuser compa...
Historic Minnesota events with anniversaries this week. June 5 1885 The Western Appeal (later the Appeal), the first Minnesota-published African American newspaper to gain national readership, premieres, edited by Frederick D. Parker. June 6 1945 Just after 5 a.m. a fire was discovered at a farm home near Mahtowa. Vivian Doan, aged 28, was found dead in the home along with four children, Dorrayne, 8; Laurene, 5; Darlene Kay, 2; and Danny, about two months. The father, Robert Doan, later signed a confession stating that he had beaten to death...
Historic Minnesota events with anniversaries this week. May 29 1916 James J. Hill, the "Empire Builder," dies in St. Paul. A man of enormous influence, he moved to St. Paul in 1856 from his native Ontario, began work in the shipping business, and became owner of the Great Northern Railway and Northern Pacific Railroad companies. His interests were widespread: he helped develop the Iron Range, had a fleet of ships on the Pacific Ocean, pushed for modern farming techniques in the Northwest, and...
Historic Minnesota events with anniversaries this week. May 22 1888 Minneapolis architect LeRoy S. Buffington, the "Father of the Skyscraper," patents a construction method involving a steel skeleton that allows structures to be built to any height. He referred to them as "cloudscrapers." May 23 1857 Twelve counties are created. Six are named for individuals important to the state's history: Aitkin is for William A. Aitkin (also spelled Aitken), who ran an American Fur Company post on Sandy...
Historic Minnesota events with anniversaries this week. May 8 1910 Governor Adolf O. Eberhart declares Minnesota's first Mother's Day holiday. 1924 Ships idled in ice in Duluth's harbor begin to break free after stranding passengers and cargo for three days. May 9 1921 Daniel Berrigan is born in Virginia on the Iron Range. His brother Philip was born Oct. 5, 1923, in Two Harbors. The Berrigans, once called "rebel priests" in the early 1970s on the cover of Time magazine, learned protest from...
Historic Minnesota events with anniversaries this week. May 1 1933 Prompted by Gov.Floyd B. Olson, the Minnesota legislature passes an emergency law stopping farm foreclosure sales. The Great Depression and the dust bowl had hurt farmers throughout the nation, and they had responded to foreclosures by organizing the Farmers’ Holiday, which attempted to stop the sale of farm products until prices rose. May 3 1959 After passing through the St. Lawrence Seaway, which had opened on April 25, the British freighter Ramon de Larrinaga becomes the f...
Historic Minnesota events with anniversaries this week. April 24 1956 The first baseball game is played at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington. The Wichita Braves beat the Minneapolis Millers, 5-3. April 25 1924 A race to break the world record for the longest distance traveled in a hot air balloon ends in Rochester as the winner, W. T. Van Orman, lands the Goodyear III just under the world record distance (1,179.9 miles). The race had begun in San Antonio, Texas, and the three top finishers...
Historic Minnesota events with anniversaries this week. April 17 1990 The Minnesota State Lottery begins selling instant tickets. Within four months, sales reach $100 million. 1997 The Red River crests at 39.5 feet, 22.5 feet above flood stage at Fargo, breaking a 100-year-old record. Continuing into Grand Forks and East Grand Forks on April 21, the flood pushes water levels to 54.2 feet, 26.2 feet above flood stage. The worst flooding in the area in over a century, it causes more than $1 billion in damages and displaces 47,000 of the 50,000...
Historic Minnesota events with anniversaries this week. April 11 1680 Father Louis Hennepin, exploring the Mississippi River north from Illinois by canoe, is captured by a group of Dakota. During his captivity he sees the Falls of St. Anthony, which he names for his patron saint. On July 25, Daniel Greysolon, the Sieur Du Luth, would arrange for Hennepin’s release. April 12 1937 Dennis J. Banks is born on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation. An activist for indigenous rights, he would be one of the founders of the American Indian Movement in 1...
Historic Minnesota events with anniversaries this week. April 3 1970 A former Greyhound bus station in Minneapolis opens its doors as a music club, the Depot. Twelve years later it would be renamed First Avenue by Steve McClellan, the booking agent for the club, and Jack Meyers, the club's financial manager. A cornerstone of the city's music scene, First Avenue has hosted local and national acts and was featured in Prince's movie "Purple Rain." April 4 1893 The Minnesota state flag is adopted,...
Historic Minnesota events with anniversaries this week. March 27 1905 The Aerial Bridge, spanning the Duluth shipping canal, carries its first passengers across the harbor inside a carriage suspended from the bridge framework. The system would be replaced with a lift bridge in 1930. March 28 1992 William Maupins, Duluth’s prominent civil rights leader, dies. He served as president of the Duluth NAACP chapter, and, when a black family was prevented from moving into a Duluth neighborhood, he launched the campaign that led to a city f...
Historic Minnesota events with anniversaries this week. March 14 1919 Humorist Max Shulman is born in St. Paul. An author and Hollywood screenwriter, he is best remembered for creating the character Dobie Gillis. Shulman died in 1988. March 15 1927 The Arrowhead Bridge across the St. Louis River opens, linking West Duluth to Superior, Wisconsin. 1941 Thirty-one Minnesotans, mostly unsuspecting motorists caught on the roads, die in a blizzard, the second killer snowstorm of the season. The deaths exceeded 60 in the region as the storm barreled...
Historic Minnesota events with anniversaries this week. Feb. 29 1844 Albert Sieber is born in Germany. Sieber would move to Minneapolis in 1856, join the First Minnesota Regiment in 1862, and after the Civil War become a U.S. Army scout in the American west. Sieber was severely wounded on July 2, 1863 in the Battle of Gettysburg, at Cemetery Ridge. He fought in several key engagements, including Battle of Antietam, Battle of Fredericksburg, Battle of Chancellorsville, Battle of Gettysburg,...
Historic Minnesota events with anniversaries this week. Feb. 21 2005 Three Minnesota National Guardsmen—David Day of St. Louis Park, Jesse Lhotka of Appleton, and Jason Timmerman of Tracy—are killed in Iraq, marking the deadliest day for Minnesota soldiers since Vietnam. Lhotka is credited with saving a fellow guardsman’s life and helping evacuate another soldier before being killed by the roadside blast. Feb. 22 1855 The Mississippi, Pillager, and Lake Winnibigoshish bands of Ojibwe sign a treaty ceding to the U.S. government a major porti...
The Cloquet Rotary Club is organizing its Rotary March for Veterans Celebration to show appreciation for military veterans starting at 5:30 p.m. March 7 at the AAD Shriners Building in Hermantown. This event is open to the public and festivities will include a speaker, entertainment, dinner, and silent auction. The featured speaker is Chris Magnusson, who served in the United States Marine Corps for six years as a Special Intelligence Communications Center Operator. Tickets are $30. Call Reliable Insurance at 218-879-4663 to purchase. The...
Historic Minnesota events with anniversaries this week. Feb. 7 1851 The Minnesota territorial legislature votes to make St. Paul the capital and to put the prison in Stillwater. 1867 Laura Ingalls (Wilder) is born near Pepin, Wisconsin. Her family would settle in Walnut Grove, in Redwood County, from 1874 to 1880 (living briefly in Iowa for the year 1876-77). She is remembered for writing the “Little House on the Prairie” books, which chronicle her family’s experiences as pioneers. She died Feb. 10, 1957, in Mansfield, Missouri. Feb. 9 1920...
Historic Minnesota events with anniversaries this coming week. Jan. 26 1949 Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company announces the invention of a machine that can make mass recordings on magnetic audio tape. Jan. 27 1871 Kentucky Congressman James Proctor Knott delivers the speech, “The Glories of Duluth,” in Congress, mocking the city in an effort to defeat a bill granting land for a railroad in northwest Wisconsin. Duluth’s citizens appreciate the free publicity, and a town nearby is named Proctor Knott, which was later shortened to just...
Historic Minnesota events with anniversaries this coming week. Jan. 10 1925 "Arrowhead" is selected as the official moniker for northeastern Minnesota, the result of a nationwide contest sponsored by the Northeastern Minnesota Civic and Commerce Association of Duluth. It renamed itself the Minnesota Arrowhead Association in July of 1925. 1975 A fierce blizzard strikes, bringing one to two feet of snow (with some drifts reaching 20 feet) and winds up to 80 miles per hour, closing most Minnesota...
Historic Minnesota events with anniversaries this coming week. Jan. 3 1905 The Minnesota legislature meets for the first time in the state capitol building designed by Cass Gilbert. 1916 Maxene Andrews is born in Minneapolis. With her sisters LaVerne (born July 6, 1911) and Patty (Feb. 26, 1918), she would form the Andrews Sisters singing group, known as “America’s wartime sweethearts” and remembered for their 1941 hit “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.” 1940 The Marlborough Apartment Hotel burns in Minneapolis, leaving at least four people missing,...
Historic Minnesota events with anniversaries this coming week. Dec. 30 1977 Legendary sports broadcaster Halsey Hall dies in his Minneapolis home at age seventy-nine. Known for his cigar-smoking, whiskey-drinking style, Hall was broadcaster of Twins games for many years and the first to use the phrase “holy cow” during a broadcast. He also coined the adjective “golden” to describe the University of Minnesota’s sports teams. Jan. 1 1893 Workers nail the final spike in the 818 miles of track stretching from Pacific Junction, Montana, to Everet...
