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 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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Some of us may remember learning about the pioneer days when the women settlers would gather every so often for a quilting bee, a day of camaraderie and sewing. Even though our 21st-century lifestyle is far removed from those early days, the essence of the quilting spirit is alive and well in the members of the Wood City Quilters. The group formed in April 2019 with about 15 members. They originally met in the Esko Town Hall, but now meet on the second Wednesday each month in the Cloquet Public...
Darrell Davey is not afraid to reveal his inner nerd in conversation about games or all things ghoulish. And when something manages to combine the two - like his own All Hallows' Eve game - the Cloquet man enters a different dimension. Asked to describe the game he created, designed and is now selling, Davey starts with "it's like dudes on board, PVP," before translating the acronym as "player versus player." Then the fast-talking Davey dives into the theme of the game: monsters versus...
It was one of those appointments I wasn’t looking forward to. The confirmation program had made a big change and the kids and parents weren’t happy, to put it mildly. Tension had been building for months and finally had boiled over into open conflict. Ron, whose daughter was in confirmation, had asked to come talk to me. I knew the conversation was going to be difficult. He came into my office, closed the door, and took a seat. He immediately vented his anger, making his case that the kids wer...
We recieved responses to our inquiry last week about the photo found here of a group of people, young and old, believed to have been taken likely 50 years ago. If you have any items for History Mysteries, or info on current cases, email [email protected]. Here are some of those responses: Jennifer Jaakola I showed this picture to my parents and they recognized a bunch of people. They both grew up on Big Lake Road, which is where the people they recognized also lived. They believe this photo...
Approximately 200 people gathered at the Common Ground building in Cloquet last week to gear up for the fall church season. Pastor Brandon Monson, youth pastor at Grace Baptist in Cloquet, said 10 youth groups - from Cloquet, Duluth, Meadowlands and Two Harbors - came together on Sept. 8 "as one body" to focus on the next season. Two professional speakers addressed the crowd of mostly young people and their leaders. Jesse Smith, a former backup dancer for Justin Timberlake and Rihanna and now...
When asked what cases stand out most over his career, recently retired Judge Robert Macaulay doesn't have to think for long. None of them, he says. "No case was more important than the next to me," Macaulay said. "Each case was the most important to the people that were part of it. And it was so important to me to think about them that way." Macaulay retired last week, taking one final bike ride from his home in Cloquet to the courthouse in Carlton with a police escort and numerous coworkers. Bo...
For the 13th year in a row, yes, even during last year's pandemic - hundreds of people descended upon downtown Mahtowa for the annual Rat Rod Rendezvous. It's a car show, but with more rust showing and a lot of creativity. Actually, they say Saturday is for the "shiny cars" - your more traditional street rods - and Sunday is for the rat rods. What makes a rat rod a rat rod is imagination combined with mechanical know-how, resulting in a sort of mobile collage that comes together to make one vehi...
House to House Heart to Heart Carlton County Church of Christ Before you hit “share” or “like” on that post, consider Paul’s admonition from Philippians 4:8: “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy — meditate on these things.” • Is it true? Each day, hyped- up fear- fed articles are posted about new applications, foods, vaccines, politic...
Children of all ages at Judy's House day care celebrated the end of summer last week with unlimited trips (except during naptime) on a giant blowup slide. It was quite a year, said owner and at-home child care provider Judy Sanda. "We stayed open all the way through Covid with anywhere from one to 15 or 16 kids, including emergency workers' kids," she said. She's been running her Cloquet child care center out of her home for 43 years....
Shirley Goodwin of Barnum was honored as the Outstanding Senior Citizen at the Carlton County Fair in Barnum last month. "It was quite the experience," she said this week as she prepared to head to the Minnesota State Fair Thursday for honors there. Shirley and Kae Goodwin moved to Barnum 43 years ago when he was hired as a special education teacher in Moose Lake. They raised three children. Shirley worked at Northview Bank, attaining the position of manager before retiring in 2005. Shirley has...
Residents of Sunnyside Health Care Center enjoyed a sunny afternoon outside earlier this month when cardiac rehab director Azur Coleman brought her daughters Araya and Keaira, and their horses, to entertain residents. Residents rewarded the horses for their performances with a big basket of carrots....
Bob Bromme recently stopped in Cloquet to catch up with friends and to pay a reverent visit to the site where his wife is buried, and where he will be, too. He's 88 now, born in 1933, and lives in Surprise, Arizona. I caught up with him at the Pine Knot office to listen to tales of his storied past. Bob said he couldn't figure out why a columnist might want to interview him; after all, he's "generic." Hardly, Bob. Bromme's parents moved to Cloquet when he was 5 years old. His dad got a job at...
Pine Knot News intern Lydia Stone spent last week asking fellow Cloquet schools attendees to share their thoughts on going back to the classroom in September. Here are their responses. “Online school was rough, so going back in-person is going to be great and very refreshing.” ~ Madysen Waters, 16, sophomore, Cloquet “I’m excited to go see my friends every day.” ~ Emmet Prosen, 16, sophomore, Cloquet “I prefer being home. But I guess I’m excited to see my friends. I’m just not too excited about...
Going through high school while online learning was a big change, but the biggest change for me last year was not having any of my normal extracurricular activities. Almost everything I participated in was canceled. We did have National Honor Society, Link Crew, tennis, junior exec, and track but all of those activities were toned down quite a bit. Tennis last year was only half of the schedule I have to face this year. Instead of going to school, working on homework during lunch, and then...
It's been 10 years since Charlotte Polo retired from working at Polo Liquors in Scanlon, stepping down after 65 years at the helm of the family business. Last week her family helped "Gramma Polo" celebrate another milestone: her 100th birthday! That's right. At the age of 90, Polo was still working 14-hour days at least three times a week, running the store, which was touted as one of the oldest single-family-owned liquor stores in the state. "She's had a long and busy life," granddaughter Jodi...
A recently written book by Esko area resident Elaine Osborne confronts the reader with questions about what we believe and why. “If I Felt Alone” is the story of Osborne’s struggle against the personal devastation of environmental illness and the challenges of being heard, understood and believed by a world that does not always listen well. While living in her rural Esko home back in the early 1980s, Osborne was persistently exposed to toxic industrial and residential waste. A large sewag...
I'm hearing people are having all the emotions. Are you hearing this as well? Maybe more importantly, are you experiencing this? Several weeks ago, I read about the rise in airline incidents with unruly passengers and an increase of incidents with patrons at restaurants. The article went on to quote a noted psychologist who said the collective anxiety and grief we experienced these last two years has created a perfect storm for negative emotions to come forth, often unfiltered. So this is...
Writer Janice Laurie shared this poem with the Pine Knot News recently. Writing is her passion, but she didn’t have much time when she and her husband, Brian, were raising their kids in Esko. Now Laurie is working on her writing skill again and wanted to share this poem with our readers. Good Enough by Janice Laurie We all have demons in our minds. We all fight the battles of feeling not good enough. Even the person who always seems to be happy, fights these battles. Even the person who wishes you good morning with a sunny smile on her face, fi...
