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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Izzy Burley may be the only Cloquet High School student ever to get a college scholarship for archery, said activities director Paul Riess. The CHS senior signed a commitment letter to go to Mount Marty University in South Dakota to compete on its archery team on Friday, something her parents never saw coming when she got her first compound bow at the age of 6. Her mother, Aimee Burley, said it's been "a wild ride." "We knew they had some potential, but we had no idea how far they would go,"... Full story
There is a story in the fourth chapter of John's Gospel about a woman Jesus meets at a well. We don't know much about her, but we do know that she has been married to five different men and was now cohabitating with a sixth. We know she is languishing under the weight of crushing expectations and not measuring up to the societal standards of the day. Now it would be easy to assume that she must be in this position because she is promiscuous or immoral, but the text doesn't say that. You see,... Full story
A Cloquet family has been living with their collective heart in a knot since Russia invaded Ukraine, worried about the fate of a girl they once thought they would adopt, and a Ukrainian family that instead made them part of their family. It's a long and complicated story, but Cloquet's Carmen Purcell says she is 14-year-old Sonia's "foreign mother" and she wants the teenager to come and be safe here while war rages in her homeland. Purcell plans to fly to Poland if Sonia can get out, or to...
Joel Lembke and Jenna Johnson were crowned Wrenshall homecoming king and queen Friday, Feb. 18, after the boys basketball game. Other homecoming candidates included Corey Despot, Abbie Resberg, Jordyn Harvey, Joshua Anderson, Magdalene Sowada, Austin Larva, Abby McKay and Joseph Mills. Zeke Rousseau-Sheff and Anne Mattson were returning royalty. Crown bearers were Evelyn Reinsch and Novalee Martinez-Dahl. Train bearers were Owen Reinsch and Lincoln Ferrelly. Photo contributed by Chloe...
For the first time in more than 20 years, the Esko One Act play team took its show to the state competition Friday. Before the team loaded their trailer and drove to St. Paul, their classmates and teachers at Esko high school held a sendoff for the One Act team. "Most of us don't do sports, theater is kind of our jam," said actor Drew Prachar. "So to realize we made state and now we get to run through the halls was pretty neat because a lot of us would never get that opportunity otherwise. It... Full story
Like athletic teams, One Act play teams compete against one another at section and subsection tournaments to get to the state competition. Esko had to get past 23 other regional teams in Section 7A to advance to the Class A state competition, including Carlton County schools Moose Lake, Barnum and Cromwell-Wright. Cloquet competed in Section 7AA. Cromwell-Wright performed "The Internet is Distract- OH LOOK A KITTEN" for their play. The plot centers on a girl, Micah, who is trying to complete a... Full story
Watching the Trapp kids play basketball and volleyball in the previous decade, Carlton County residents knew Esko's Trapp family was extraordinarily tall. Now the world knows. As announced by the family on social media only last week, Guinness World Records has declared the Trapp family of five is the tallest family in the world. As the "global authority on all things record-breaking," the folks at Guinness should know. According to the online tallest family entry at www.guin... Full story
Who needs a birthday party when you can work? Florian Chmielewski celebrated his 95th birthday last week with friends, family and more than 40 fans in the finest of traditions - by playing the senior dance at the Cloquet VFW. While last Wednesday's dance fell just over a week before his Feb. 10 birthday, this was definitely a birthday party, with great music, a big cake and lots of cards. One dance attendee commented that Chmielewski was still a "chick magnet" at 95, with women - including his...
On paper, the 40-mile version of the John Beargrease sled dog race on Sunday looks like a real thriller. Racing times showed minutes and even seconds of differential in the top six places. But the quick race from the outskirts of Duluth to Lake County Highway 2 north of Two Harbors has a staggered start, so participants basically hung out as fellow racers came in and later found out the official times and places. Among them was Cloquet's Billie Thompson, who finished fourth among 13 racers with... Full story
The Fond du Lac Resource Management & Tribal Court building has been renamed the John A. Smith Memorial Building, honoring a retired conservation officer who died at age 69 on Dec. 25. Smith served in many prominent capacities, including interim police chief for FDL and District III Reservation Business Committee representative. Being a conservation officer was his calling, however. Working for FDL for 47 years, Smith was the chief conservation officer protecting resources both on and off the...
Cloquet lost one of its most charismatic and dedicated residents Saturday, when 81-year-old Dave Johnson died unexpectedly at home. Although Johnson was born and raised here, he was very much a citizen of the world. With his beloved Rosa at his side, Johnson had one foot in Minnesota and the other in Italy. Italy was Rosa's birthplace, the place the couple met when Johnson was stationed at Aviano Air Base there. Theirs was a grand romance, with obstacles to overcome and great joys as well. Rosa... Full story
Kerry Rodd’s column about the late Rol Bromberg last week was right on, but I wanted to add a few of my favorite memories. I first met Bromberg when he was my physical education teacher at Cloquet Junior High. I remember a certain quarter that was dedicated to wrestling. Now, Bromberg was a college wrestler himself at Bemidji State and spent a few hours teaching us amateur wrestling rules and tactics. With some preliminary practice and demonstrations, he divided the classroom of all boys into w... Full story
Ask Cloquet-Esko-Carlton Nordic skiing head coach Arne Maijala about the hometown ski meet this week and the conversation will be as much about all the people who help make it happen as much as the skiers who participate. Nordic skiers from six schools descended on Cloquet for a rare evening ski meet Tuesday, held on the lighted trail loop at Pine Valley. Volunteers include parents of past skiers, former coaches, former Cloquet skiers and a handful of folks who just want to support Nordic...
Marge Stillwell has been giving the gift of music at the Presbyterian Church in Cloquet for more than six decades, and last week a group of musicians decided to return the favor. They held a birthday concert for the longtime organist in honor of her 90th birthday. James Sheetz, the music director at the church and proprietor/general manager of the Scott House, was the brains behind the concert, who produced and coordinated the concert. He also talked about Marge, and their working relationship.... Full story
I used to love Christmas. Don't get me wrong, I still love Christmas, but bear with me for a minute. What I have always loved about Christmas was the warmth of the season. I love that people gather with family and friends, and I love the undercurrent of joy that runs underneath all of it. Then, in the year 2015, a whole lot changed for me. I moved away from my friends and my home. When I got to my new home, I struggled to find a job. Once I did, I didn't feel like I fit. A short time later, my g... Full story
Editor's note: Each year, on the anniversary of the Dec. 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor attack, the Pine Knot News checked in with Don. We were saddened to find out he passed away in August, and want to share his obituary with readers. Below is a 2019 Pine Knot story on Don and his day in the middle of history. Some memories never fade. Don Long remembers the morning of Dec. 7, 1941 like it was yesterday. The Barnum High School 1939 grad had been at Kaneohe Bay Naval Air Station in Hawaii for about only... Full story
We've heard much about supply chain issues over the past year or two as the world reckons with the Covid-19 pandemic. Rather than stress about whether that mass-produced item you panic- ordered on Amazon will make it here on time, we here at the Pine Knot News suggest you take a look (in person or online) at your own backyard. Buying locally is, after all, a win in so many ways. Gifts are often made (or grown) right here in Carlton County. Gifts or gift certificates from local businesses and ser... Full story
For the first time, the Superior National Forest has a full-time tribal liaison. Juan Martinez coordinates communication between the national forest and the three Ojibwe bands in northeastern Minnesota - the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa, the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, and the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. The bands occupied the nearly 4 million acres that now make up the Superior National Forest long before the federal government acquired it, and they maintain...
The sepia-toned photographs, slightly larger than a business card, tumble out of a browning, mottled envelope. For what is known of the six photos, and also what is enticingly unknown, the sight of them is breathtaking. Keiko Satomi punctuates the moment. "It's just," she pauses. "It has a weight." From what can be pieced together across nearly eight decades, the photographs were found on the bodies of dead Japanese soldiers during a Pacific Theater battle in World War II. There are pictures of... Full story
At the ripe old age of 21, former Cloquet standout Riley Leslie has been an award-winning high school athlete and scholar, then a hard-working college student, and now you can call him “Captain.” Leslie recently acquired his own boat as part of the Happy Hooker Charters fleet in Duluth on Lake Superior. Sports were always a big part of Leslie’s life. As a junior, he played on the undefeated Lumberjacks football team, which lost for the first time in the state championship game. Although the t... Full story
Senior high choir and band members sang and played their hearts out to an enthralled audience Nov. 9 in the Cromwell-Wright auditorium. The full senior high choir kicked off with Walter Rodby's "Calypso Joe," accompanied by band/music teacher Andrew Morrisette on the congas and choral teacher MaryRose Varo on guitar. Next, Augustas Poskus, an exchange student from Lithuania, played the incredibly challenging Rachmaninoff piano piece, "Prelude in C Sharp Minor Op. 3 No. 2." It's gorgeous and... Full story
There are storms and then there are storms. The ones we remember are often tied to other significant events. Think of the Super Bowl blizzards in the 1970s, or the Armistice Day blizzard in 1940. The Halloween blizzard in Minnesota has properly taken its place in Minnesota weather lore. It's hard to forget trick-or-treating through heavy snow and even by snowmobile. It's hard to forget that in Carlton County we got a break of about just 20 inches of snow, really, compared to more than 3 feet in...
Thanks to all the kids who colored our trick-or-treat scene. Our three favorites are printed here, with each artist getting a free admission to the Ru-Ridge Corn Maze, a hayride and a pumpkin. Everyone who sent a picture gets a free hayride after entry at Ru-Ridge. All entrants also get a free popcorn and soda when attending the Halloween Spooktacular at Country Seat Theater today or Saturday. Entrants should have received prizes via email. If you haven't, hurry up and let us know so you can... Full story
The Pine Knot News is wondering about our readers’ experiences when it comes to the most infamous of storms in modern Minnesota history: the 1991 Halloween blizzard. While Carlton County didn’t get hit as hard as Duluth or parts of southern Minnesota, each with more than 2 feet of snow, a still-whopping 15 inches was measured in Cloquet 30 years ago this next weekend. We’d like to know what you remember about the storm, wherever you may have been. Were you socked in? Caught in the storm? Trick-or-treating? Maybe you weren’t anywhere near th... Full story
Kirsti Hakala Assendelft has moved quite a bit since graduating from Cloquet High School in 2005. She was born in Anchorage, Alaska, and now finds herself putting down roots in Australia. Cloquet has been her longest stop along the way. Hakala and her family moved from Alaska to Cloquet when she was 8 years old. It was a way for the family to be closer to extended family on the Iron Range and for her older brother to pursue hockey. Following in the footsteps of her brother, Hakala developed a... Full story
