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 Arrowhead Regional Arts Council announced the winners of its 2025 Arrowhead Arts Awards, which includes two artists from Cloquet, Karen Savage-Blue and Giizh ("Sarah") Agaton Howes. Savage-Blue, Agaton Howes and artist Joan Farnam will be celebrated at a ceremony in the spring. The awards honor "outstanding contributions to the arts in the Arrowhead region, showcasing the exceptional talent and dedication that enriches our region." Savage-Blue received the George Morrison Artist Award,...
Mary Beth Peter plays Christmas carols and other holiday tunes Saturday on a 1910 upright grand Hamilton piano recently donated to the Carlton County Historical Society. One of the piano’s original owners, Joanne Pearson, was in the crowd Saturday. Pearson gave it to former Cloquet resident Mark Hanratty, who brought it back to Cloquet from Oklahoma on a trailer earlier this year after taking it with him on moves around the country. “It’s extremely heavy so we’re grateful to two men in a truck... Full story
Tom Cawcutt is calling it "the return of a tradition." After a hiatus brought upon by his own health maladies followed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the pianist/vocalist will resume his popular Christmas benefit concert series at 7 p.m. Dec. 13 at Our Saviors Lutheran Church, 612 12th St. in Cloquet. Tickets will be sold at the door - $20 for adults, $15 for students, and under 12 are free. Proceeds go to needy families. It'll be Cawcutt's first solo Christmas concert since 2014. He has been perform...
Virginia Wright-Peterson reads from her book, "A Women's War, Too" at the Cloquet Public Library on Veterans Day. Wright-Peterson shared stories of the many women from Minnesota who played a role in World War II, from Mayo Clinic biophysicist Julia Herrick who was loaned to the war department for radar research, to Cloquet native Gertrude Esteros, a nurse in New Guinea during the war and in charge of creating recreation programs there. Others were spies, entertainers, pilots, factory workers...
Since its founding during Women’s History Month in March 2024, a group of about a dozen Carlton County women have put together five projects as part of the Carlton County Historical Society’s Local Women’s History Affinity Group. The members aim to enhance understanding of women’s place in local history and celebrate connections between those lives and ours today. The group is looking for more members: they meet the first Wednesday of the month at the NP Junction Bookstore in Carlton. Every meeting starts with a presentation by a citizen...
Be forewarned ... attending next week's Cloquet High School production of "Mamma Mia!" will have Abba songs running through your head day and night. Having Abba in your head is a happy way to start the day though, just like the CHS musical is a happy way to spend a couple hours Thursday through Sunday next week, with performances starting at 7 p.m. Nov. 14-16 and 2 p.m. Nov. 17 in the CHS auditorium. Director Corey Hunt said choir teacher (and music director) Rhonda Card pitched the musical last... Full story
Oldenburg House owner Glenn Swanson made the rounds on Saturday, winding between tables, chatting with guests in the dinner break between live jazz performances. "If we were to name this as a nightclub, its name would be Club Sardine," said the gravelly voiced Swanson, noting that they'd packed 38 music-loving guests into the L-shaped dining room of the Carlton bed and breakfast for another Cookin' at the O event. It was the second weekend of performances for Danish jazz vocalist and composer...
Fall is here and with it comes chill winds, scuttling leaves and so many things to do. It's not sugar plum fairies that dance through my head, but dreams of corn mazes, pumpkin carving, walks through the woods and creative ways to spend those chilly days together. Each year our family makes a trip out to the Ru-Ridge Corn Maze between Carlton and Wrenshall for an afternoon of delights. Though we have yet to brave the late-night activities such as the Flash Light Fridays, we make sure to take adv... Full story
On a visit to the Cloquet Public Library Saturday, Oct. 19, Emma and Bruce Corrie stand with "The Circles of Belonging" canvas, an artwork which was colored or messages drawn by hundreds of people over the 12 days of Minnesota State Fair. "The richness of our human experience from all walks of life, of our diverse faith traditions, of our home towns or countries of origin, of our friendships and insights from life - all of them made this canvas a kaleidoscope with beautiful views of the human... Full story
The 125th anniversary celebration at Our Savior's Lutheran Church last Sunday was a chance for parishioners to, as Pastor Luke Lekander said, "look back" and "move forward." "Moving forward requires us to change. But I don't want to change simply for the sake of change," Lekander wrote in his weekly message after the lunch and service Sept. 29. "The changes we make must be theologically rooted and always for the purpose of sharing and living out the gospel of Jesus Christ. ... The time has come...
The County Seat Theater opens its 2024-25 season this week with "The Dining Room," by A.R. Gurney. Performances of the semisweet comedy are at 7 p.m. Sept. 27 and 28, and Oct. 3 and 4; and at 2 p.m. Sept. 29 and Oct. 5 and 6 at the Encore Performing Arts Center in Cloquet. The play is set in the dining room of a typical well-to-do household, the place where the family assembled daily for breakfast and dinner and for any and all special occasions. The action is a mosaic of interrelated scenes -...
There are many reasons why people go to the Minnesota State Fair. The food, carnival rides, exhibits, livestock barns, music, educational demonstrations and, of course, people watching, bring nearly two million fairgoers to the fairgrounds each year. But very few get invited to perform on one of the four major stages scattered across the 330 acres of the fairgrounds. Count me as one of them. Doctor Kielbasa, a band with longtime ties to Cloquet and Carlton County, performed two days on the...
Get ready to rock, Cloquet. The Social Animals are coming home to celebrate a new single and new owners at The Jack. Look for an edgier sound to rattle the hometown bar. Local bars, after all, were the band's bread and butter a few years ago. Made up of vocalist Dedric Clark, guitarist Tony Petersen, bass guitarist Roger Whittet and drummer Boyd Smith, three of four originally hail from Carlton County. Clark and Petersen are from Cloquet, Smith from Esko and Whittet grew up in Lino Lakes. Now,... Full story
Following the great success of its bird exhibit two years ago, The Knot gallery opened its "Fish and Fowl" exhibit to a crowd of local art fans Friday evening. Work by eight local artists and photographers are on display, some for sale. The artworks are unique, as are the people who created them. Exhibiting for the first time at the Knot gallery is award-winning fish artist Stuart Nelson, whose remarkably detailed paintings of fish bring them to life. "I've always done a lot of art and living on... Full story
The Animikii Mazina'iganan: Thunderbird Press team joins the community of small regional presses in our area with its first publication, "Fur Trade Nation: An Ojibwe's Graphic History." The new press will celebrate with a release party Tuesday. Using pen and ink drawings, Carl Gawboy (a Bois Forte Band member) explores the history of the fur trade and its impact on Minnesota in a graphic novel. Gawboy is a retired history teacher and an excellent artist whose work has long presented images of... Full story
With my dad in a hospital bed in late 2022, we planned how the family would gather for the 2024 eclipse at his house in Vincennes, Indiana - not quite a halfway point between my brother's home in Florida and mine in Minnesota. A huge fan of all things outer space, my dad had taken an astronomy class in college and enjoyed dragging kids and neighbors outside to search for constellations, planets and even the space station for the rest of his life. He didn't live to see 2024, but we did. My... Full story
In Carlton County, there are folks who harvest and process the sap that brings us the local flavor of delicious maple syrup, maple sugar, and maple candy we've come to expect each spring. This year - with the frogs already waking up because the weather is warmer heralding an early spring - the trees should be ready to tap. However, the trees are trying to bud in the warmer than usual weather. When asked whether climate change would affect maple syrup products this year, some people say it's... Full story
Last weekend, as they've done for more generations than there are records, Ojibwe descendents gathered for aadizookeng - wintertime storytelling which can be told only at night when there is snow on the ground. The fifth annual Ojibwe Language Symposium at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College attracted close to 200 participants from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Dakota, and Canada Feb. 2-4. Arne and Ivy Vainio shared my table during the feast. They said conferences like this one are...
Get ready for a horrifying, hilarious and toe-tapping treat, theatergoers, "Little Shop of Horrors" will be presented by Cloquet High School students next week. The horror comedy rock musical tells the tale of Seymour, a meek nerdy floral assistant who finds success and romance by nurturing a plant that thrives only on human blood and flesh. As the audience grooves to the music, the plant grows larger and larger and Seymour more anemic. Then people start disappearing. In his second year at the... Full story
Walk into the new Holy Smokes Coffeehouse and BBQ at 103 Ave. C in Cloquet, and one is immediately struck by the savory smell of smoked meat and a sense of time gone by. A 100-year-old leather-cushioned bench lines the back wall, pulled out of a billiards room in an old Elks Lodge. An Ed's Bakery and Coffee Shop sign hangs down from the ceiling, prompting flashbacks from customers over 40. Tin and wood are a nod to Texas barbecue. Behind the counter are faces familiar to anyone who knows the Hol... Full story
Fans of musical theater and deer hunting may be able to agree on one thing: “Deer Camp” is a hoot. Next weekend, the County Seat Theater Company will debut its production of “Deer Camp,” a musical comedy written by Gene Jurek and music by Doug Spartz. Four buddies are enjoying their annual deer hunting trip, but this year is different. After 15 years of them coming home with nothing but a hangover, their wives have given them an ultimatum: bag a deer or your deer camp days are over. Only on... Full story
"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,...
County Seat Theater Company will present “Women Playing Hamlet,” a modern comedy about an old tragedy by William Missouri Downs. The show will feature an all-female cast performing multiple roles and is rip-roaring fun for Shakespeare fans and haters alike. “Hamlet” is a challenge for any actor, but when Jessica (played by Angel Maloney) is cast as the titular character in a New York production, it sends her into an existential tailspin. It doesn’t help that her acting coach is borderlin... Full story
Each year, Carlton County is well represented at the annual Homegrown Musical Festival in Duluth. It's the 25th edition of the weeklong festival that celebrates local music and other arts at venues across the Twin Ports. It opened Sunday and included Darren Shabaiash, right, with the stage name of Darren Sipity, who is a rapper from the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. He was part of the opening ceremony set at Hoops Brewery in Canal Park. The #theindianheadband is a family group... Full story
The Cloquet High School spring play, "Noises Off" is a play within a play, a comedy that gives the audience an inside look at a dysfunctional cast during three different performances, a final dress rehearsal, during a matinee performance and in the tour's final stop, from more than one angle. The New York Times called the play "spectacularly funny" and a "festival of delirium." Sardines feature prominently in this farce written by Michael Frayn, where lines are forgotten, love triangles unravel... Full story
