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 551 - 575 of 1265
Who knew that blacksmithing and friendships could go hand in hand? A curious crowd of nearly 40 people turned out for Sunday's first Forging Friendships event at Spafford Park on Dunlap Island in Cloquet. Donald and Brian Lokken worked with 14 people to make projects to take home. Participants could choose to make a wall hook, bookmark, plant hanger, "S" hook, or a leaf. The Carlton County Historical Society gave away Stories of a Century: Cloquet Centennial Book of Reflections 1904-2004. They... Full story
Contrary to rumor, Brickyard Days is a go. Now under the direction of the daughter-and-mother team of Jolene Johnson and Phyllis Rousseau, the annual Wrenshall celebration is set for Aug. 5-6 and will include a parade, a movie in the park and much more. Interested in entering the parade or being a vendor? Call Phyllis at 218-393-1507. And look for a preview story of Brickyard Days in next week’s Pine Knot News.... Full story
U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar talks with Jay Cooke State Park manager Lisa Angelos at the River Inn Interpretive Center at the park Friday, July 15, before hiking another portion of the Superior Hiking Trail. Klobuchar and her husband John have already hiked 100 miles of the Superior Hiking Trail, with the goal of hiking all 310 miles....
As temperatures heated up in Moose Lake this weekend, so did the number of people there for the Agate Days celebration, especially on Saturday afternoon. A half-hour before the 3 p.m. agate stampede, the streets were already lined with eager spectators, eventually standing four- and five deep in the heart of the southern Carlton County city. What is an agate stampede, you ask? It starts with two dump trucks driving up Elm Avenue in Moose Lake, dropping all kinds of rocks and gravel, plus 400...
It's impossible to take in every pleasure and message at a community festival. Wrong Days in Wright last weekend was as joyful as ever. Arriving early, I watched some energetic softball as I walked the grounds. And later, a vigorous match of volleyball. I enjoyed the parade and my tacos from the food truck. Highlights of the day for me included learning more about the Talon Metals Corporation's proposed plans to build an underground mine in Tamarack that would operate for nine years and... Full story
With the annual Carlton Daze celebration just around the corner, I am dedicating this column to all the ways we celebrate our city. Over the years, how many unique community celebrations has Carlton had? I checked at the Carlton County Historical Society to find out. I didn’t find an exact number but saw there have been several celebrations over the years, including a street fair that started in 1914 and a cabbage festival held in late fall. At one time there was a July Fourth at Carlton, beginn...
At 57 years straight - or is it crooked? - the Wrong Days in Wright celebration is one of the longest running community events in the area. The small town celebration in western Carlton County didn't even pause during the first year of the pandemic, and it's still going strong. Longtime Wrong Days volunteer Jennie Hanson said it's a special time for the local community, population 136. "It's the one time every year that people get together," she said. "Past and present residents come from miles...
Minnesota's largest celebration of the state gem - the Lake Superior agate - returns to Moose Lake this weekend with the Agate Days celebration Saturday and Sunday. For those unfamiliar with our famous stone, the Lake Superior agate was named the official state gemstone in 1969. It is an unusually beautiful quartz stone banded with rich red and orange colors derived from iron ore in the soil. Most agates are about the size of a pea, but some are as big as bowling balls and weigh more than 20...
The Carlton County Historical Society would like to know more about this photo. Director Carol Klitzke says "All we know is that it is Billy Pederson's second-grade class in 1950. We would love to know which school it is, the teacher's name and the names of others in the class." If you have some information, send it along to [email protected] with "history" in the subject line....
Create a blacksmithing hands-on project at no cost with help from Donald and Brian Lokken 4-7 p.m. Sunday, July 17 at Spafford Park on Dunlap Island in Cloquet. Learn about blacksmithing and its importance to our community’s history in an event led by the Carlton County Historical Society and Lake Superior Metalsmiths. Brought to you by West End Flourish funding....
There will be music and food at the semi-annual Moose Lake Historical Society meeting, set for 5:30 p.m. Thursday, July 21. Enjoy a picnic lunch of hot dogs, brats, salad and dessert and a concert by the Moose Lake Area Community Band, followed by a short business meeting at 6:15 p.m. Freewill offering. Call 218-485-4234 with questions....
Cloquet School Board members learned Monday that Washington Elementary School is one of a few schools across the state recognized as a sustaining exemplary school for its ongoing efforts with positive behavioral interventions and supports, or PBIS. Washington was first recognized for its program in 2020. Students and parents at Washington don’t call it PBIS, though — for them it’s “Purple PRIDE.” PRIDE stands for having a Positive attitude, being Respectful, Including others and Doing your best Everyday. It is essentially a code of conduct,...
I wonder how fast the driver of a flatbed truck was going last Friday morning to bury his truck in the mud across from North Road on County Road 6. He had to be going very fast to have gone past the stop sign and end up quite a way from the pavement in the mud. There were two huge vehicles trying to get him out of the swamp. When I came back past the area later in the day, it looked like a small pond where the truck had been buried. I hope everyone will be able to attend the Finnish Luncheon at noon Tuesday, July 19 at the Kettle River senior...
Hey, as I get ready to send this week’s news, the date is 7-11-22, so let’s hope it’s a lucky day and week. Our sincere sympathies to the family of Bethlehem and Bethany Lutheran’s former pastor Edward Nieman, who passed away July 4, 2022. His funeral will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, Aug. 12 at Faith Lutheran Church in Coon Rapids. Send cards to the Nieman family at 13859 Quinn St. NW, Andover MN 55304-3944. So many friends and relatives were able to attend Arnie Kahara’s burial service a...
Cloquet rebounded from a fairly disastrous July Fourth by making the most of July Fifth: holding a last-minute stand-still parade Tuesday evening before the movie and fireworks to make up for the canceled parade on Monday. Cloquet Fourth festival co-coordinator Ivan Hohnstadt said the idea for the stand-still parade came to him late, after a cold and wet July Fourth that saw the parade canceled and the movie and fireworks postponed to Tuesday. He emailed committee members at 1 a.m. and called... Full story
With July Fourth in the rearview mirror, summer festivals are now coming fast and furious. Moose Lake and Wright will celebrate their signature events next weekend, with Agate Days running July 16-17 and Wrong Days in Wright starting one day earlier, with events planned for July 15-17. Perhaps the most exciting news out of Moose Lake is the return of the Clark-Olsen Agate Stampede at 3 p.m. Saturday following a pandemic pause the last two years. For the uninitiated: people line up on both sides...
Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College was set to kick off its Hot Summer Nights concerts Thursday with a show by the acoustic duo PK Mayo and John Wright. The concert series is free, and shows are 7-9 p.m. the first three Thursdays in July in the FDLTCC amphitheater. Next up, enjoy groove trio New Salty Dog on July 14, followed by Rock-a-Billy Revue, a band with a history of bringing fun to every show, on July 21. Each exciting evening will feature music great for the entire family. All...
Although the July Fourth celebrations have passed, many of us put out the American flag every day, weather permitting. The earliest version of the flag flew in 1776, but it wasn’t until 1777 that the Continental Congress passed the Flag Act, which unified the U.S. under a banner of 13 alternating red and white stripes: one for each of the 13 colonies and 13 stars to represent each state. There is also a color code for the flag. Each color represents an American ideal — red for valor, white for...
Congratulations to the Anderson Family of Swede Lake on being recognized as a Century Farm in March 2022 by the Minnesota State Fair and the Minnesota Farm Bureau. The farm was purchased in 1918 by Finnish immigrants Charles and Wilhelmena Anderson and has been passed down for four generations. The current owners are Guy and LeeAnn Anderson. They hope one of their grandchildren or great-grandchildren will keep on farming in some way or another far into the future. I live on County Road 23, aka...
This week's photo isn't a mystery. It's just a look at Cloquet's Kiddie parade for children in 1970. It comes from Billy Anderson, the boy dressed as a woman at left, with brother, Blake, dressed similarly. Hidden behind Billy is Ricky, a sister. Billy says their mom was a "women's libber," and thus the motif for their parade entry. In the background are Mike Kortie, at left with dark hair, and Kerry Kolodge....
In its fourth year, the annual Cloquet microchip clinic Saturday saw no decrease in the number of dogs and cats (and their owners) lining up for pet services, including free microchips for up to three pets, $10 nail trims and low-cost vaccinations. Sheriff Kelly Lake and her daughter, Taylor, helped wrangle a couple of excitable dogs to give their owner a moment to fill out paperwork Saturday afternoon at Veterans Park. Sponsored by the city of Cloquet and Carlton County and held in conjunction...
Last Monday around 10:30 a.m., I noticed my birdfeeders were moved and knocked to the ground. A few minutes later, I noticed they had moved again. I couldn’t figure out what was happening until I looked out around 11 a.m. and saw a beautiful cinnamon-colored black bear eating out of the feeders. It even tore one apart while I was watching. The bear hung around for about a half-hour, enough time for me to get some great photographs from my sliding glass door in the kitchen. Then in the evening w...
The weather was kind, and so were the movie reviewers. Three directors attended the festival Saturday, including Cy Dodson, who felt compelled to film the aftermath of George Floyd's murder in 2020 because it was his neighborhood. "Say His Name: Five Days for George Floyd" offered an intimate look at the days that followed Floyd's death - the struggles, the dark and the light times that followed - punctuated by the guilty verdict for the police officer who killed him. Dodson said he recently...
Once again, arts entrepreneur Annie Dugan and her family are offering up a mix of 11 remarkable films for their June 24-25 Free Range Film Festival in their family barn. I've had a chance to review some of them. Here are my takeaways. For me, "A Life on the Farm" is the standout. A nephew discovers a stash of home videos made over several decades by a wacky uncle, Charles Carson, a farmer in rural England. With his friends, the nephew creates a feature-length home movie out of the videos. It... Full story
Welcome, summer — it arrived Tuesday, June 21, with the longest day of daylight in the Northern Hemisphere. I had heard you can balance an egg on its narrow end on the first day of summer due to the rotation and revolution of the earth. We’ve tried it and managed to balance several eggs on June 21 in the past. And now that summer is here, it’s heat, heat, heat, and a mosquito invasion. What next? Oh, yeah, a bear got my bird feeders, too. Bill and Judy Haapoja will be singing at the Villa Vista...
