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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"I am one of a dying breed," said Peter Laveau during a recent interview at his farm. He is referring to his occupation as an independent family dairy farmer. In 1990, the state numbered just under 10,000 dairy farms. By the end of 2020, the total was down to 2,334, according to the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. Farms have become larger and produce more with volume working for them. The small-farm operations have lost out. To be a dairy farmer requires dedication and determination. It's...
Her voice has a certain gravitas to it, then at turns it is lifted by a whimsical lilt driving a hearty laugh. Free as a kid's laugh, really. It is her 80th birthday, and a party has sprung up near Scott's Corner south of Carlton. She is flitting around, getting this and that ready. She earnestly thanks everyone who arrives, with theatrical gestures as further exclamation. She dings around on her electric keyboard, playing along with the alphorn player set up under one of the tents. That whimsy...
After missing last summer due to the pandemic, a new version of an annual Christian music festival will return to Cloquet's Veterans Park on Aug. 14. The Wood City Music Festival will now be known as the Wood City Worship Festival. Lee Harris, who helps lead the Kingdom Builders Ministry that puts on the annual festival, said it hit the reset button during the pandemic, both for the Common Ground Coffee Bar & Deli in Cloquet's West End and the music festival. "We're really getting back to why...
It's been a minute, but Jay Shogren will be playing in Cloquet again this Saturday, more than 40 years after his last performance here. "I'm pretty sure the last time I played was at the Golden Gate on New Year's Eve 1979-1980," said Shogren, a 1976 Cloquet grad. "I'd love to see old friends. I haven't been back in a while." Visiting his hometown between tour dates, Shogren will perform 6:30-8:30 p.m. Saturday, July 17, at the NorthEastern Hotel and Saloon on Cloquet's Dunlap Island. He...
A Northland legend has died. Gordy Lundquist, who founded Gordy's Hi-Hat restaurant with his wife, Marilyn, passed away Tuesday at the age of 93. He was home with Marilyn by his side. The two of them founded the famous restaurant - featured many times on cable television food shows and a favorite of residents and visitors alike - along Highway 33 in Cloquet in 1960. Until the pandemic, the two of them still worked at the restaurant frequently: Gordy taking orders up front with his son, Dan, and...
After 42 countries, one bear fight, and two attempted coups d'etat, Cloquet resident Roy Hagen has a resume to make any forester jealous. He has spent the majority of his forestry career in Africa and French-speaking countries and has created many memories and stories of his travels. Hagen grew up on a small dairy farm 3 miles outside of Barnum. More than half of the farm was wooded, and Hagen developed a special love for the forest. He found his passion for forestry while planting trees...
A soon-to-be senior at Cloquet High School, Connor Hecht knows a lot more about the inner workings of a playground than your average 17-year-old. Hecht is a Life Scout working to advance to Eagle Scout. There are many requirements for becoming an Eagle Scout, one of which is a project to help the community. When a community member reached out to him last summer about building a new playground in Scanlon, Hecht knew this would be his project to help him reach his goal of becoming an Eagle Scout....
After serving as pastor for the Queen of Peace Catholic Church for the past 10 years, Father Justin Fish celebrated his last mass here Sunday, June 20. He likes to joke that he's spent a quarter of his time on Earth here. "I've always felt very much at home in our parish community and the Cloquet community," he said. "I've been a good fit for the parish and the parish has been a good fit for me. Fish will be the new pastor at St. Joseph's Church in Gilbert, and Resurrection Parish in Eveleth....
When you watch good cooks in action, all their senses are engaged. They are tuned into how the sauce feels against the spoon, whether the vegetables are glistening as they are sauteed, how the bread sounds when the baking crust is tapped, what the sweet, sour, salty, savory, bitter tastes need to stand out or blend. Many languages describe what cooks are searching for. The Japanese call it "umami," which means the "essence of deliciousness." I like the deeper meaning expressed by the Arabic word...
When I think about how the Ojibwe have helped shape this great state, I tend to separate the ways we have influenced the land from the ways we have influenced its people. Maybe I do this because the Ojibwe worldview could not conceive of influencing the land, or aki (earth). So any notion of who influences what must be turned upside down and inside out by asking: “In what ways has aki shaped us? In what ways has everything about this land and sky, this place called Minnesota—all things animate, inanimate, and spiritual—shaped the Ojibw...
I'm Madison Hunter, one of two interns working at the Pine Knot news this summer. I am going into my senior year at University of Minnesota Duluth, where I'm majoring in journalism and minoring in photography and arts in media. I discovered the Pine Knot News through one of my journalism professors at UMD, John Hatcher. The history of the Pine Knot fascinates and inspires me. Working for an independent newspaper will provide me with experiences that will broaden my skill set and knowledge as a...
Hello, Pine Knot News readers. My name is Lydia Stone, and I'll be a senior in the fall, part of Cloquet's class of 2022. This summer, I'll be working as an intern, writing stories and columns, conducting interviews, taking photos, and getting to know the history and current events surrounding the Cloquet community. My childhood was full of books, fairy tales, and reading with my siblings and parents before bed. I've always been a passionate reader, and my love of literature has grown stronger...
Enjoy this pictorial story of a pivotal night for the Class of 2021 at Esko, South Ridge and Barnum high schools on Friday, June 4....
Fond du Lac Lake Superior Chippewa Band member and doula Tammy Dixon has been named the recipient of the prestigious Tribal Trailblazer award at the National Breastfeeding Conference and Convening, which is taking place this week online. “When a woman is in labor, she is at her most powerful state, it can help having a doula there to reassure them that their body is doing what it needs to do,” Dixon said. “Being a part of this special time in their lives is magical and an honor.” After Dixon h...
Starting next week, recent Cloquet High School graduate Hunter Finnila will start work in Duluth, one of hundreds of construction workers building the new Essentia Health hospital and clinic, a massive $900 million project in downtown Duluth that is already reaching toward the sky next to Lake Superior. On the morning of graduation last Friday, Finnila took that giant step into his future, signing on with McGough Construction and joining the carpenters union, where he will be part of their...
Sometimes we hold a treasure within our reach without an awareness of its value and, as the refrain from the song "Big Yellow Taxi" goes, "Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you don't know what you got till it's gone." Many states across the country are recognizing what the loss of family farms means to our quality of life in rural areas. Carlton County's farms constitute a wealth of wholesome food and valuable resources in our backyards, but do we truly appreciate our farmers?...
In the Lutheran tradition we affirm the idea of now and not yet. This is particularly important as we bask in the post-Easter glow. God's promise of new life and resurrection has come to pass and yet it has not been realized in its fullness. We have the down payment, the first installment but the day is yet coming when all will be brought to fruition. We find ourselves in such a moment more than a year on from the outset of this pandemic. Vaccines are available to nearly everyone or soon will...
Travelers and others driving into Cloquet from Interstate 35 are greeted by billboards and trees, and very quickly a huge statue of a bright rust-red-colored Swedish Dala horse in front of longtime local business Bergquist Imports. In February, Barry and Vivian Bergquist sold the 73-year-old business to Scott Camps, who said he intends to continue with business as usual. Barry and Vivian, on the other hand, intend to relax and travel more. They left for Florida the day after they signed over...
Lydia Swedberg is a hard-working professional photographer who specializes in couples photos and grads. She is also 15 years old and a sophomore at Esko High School. Balancing school and work can be challenging - especially without a driver's license - but it's a labor of love. And love is what makes Swedberg's photography world go around. She tells a story of a proposal she photographed near Pier B in Duluth last Saturday. The young man who was going to propose texted her for weeks in advance....
On the first day of 2017, Glenn and I settled into our new community and new marriage, hopeful that we would find good friends and a satisfying way of living at Oldenburg House. We really didn't know that this region was so full of creative, generous, engaged people and organizations. But it didn't take very long for us to realize it. From the Free Range Film Festival to Oshkii Giizhik Singers to County Seat Theater to Agate Music Series to Heart Berry Contemporary Ojibwe Design to Dragon Fire...
Golden-winged warbler. Rusty patched bumble bee. Steelhead and brook trout. Healthy soil. Clean drinking water. These are just a few species and resources that most of us Northlanders deeply value. We are incredibly lucky to live in a region that has a rich history of natural heritage with pristine lakes, woods, and streams. But, as the saying goes, “It takes a village” or community to protect and enhance our natural resources. Your local Carlton Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) can...
The City of Cloquet, in collaboration with Oldenburg Arts and Cultural Community, were selected as one of four communities selected in the state (out of 41 applications) for Minnesota’s Artists on Mainstreet Program. I want to thank all of the regional artists and other creative people who joined our West End Flourish virtual workshop April 29, hosted by Rethos, Springboard for the Arts, Oldenburg Arts and Cultural Community, the City of Cloquet, and funded in part by the Bush Foundation. It was...
Michele Anderson / Springboard for the Arts At Springboard for the Arts, our work is about supporting creative people power in communities of all sizes. For us, that means holding that artists are essential. Our work supports artists making a living and a life, helps artists offer their creative thinking to community planning processes, ensures communities have hubs and homes for creatives to gather and support one another, and creates mechanisms for artists to demonstrate, experiment, and prototype new possibilities for their community. We...
Joyce laPorte of Cloquet is among six artists selected by the Springboard for the Arts Equitable Rural Futures” program. LaPorte’s project is “Make a Village,” a collection of Ojibwe dolls. As part of the program, artists and creative people in rural places and small towns in Minnesota were invited to propose projects that center the perspectives and experiences of people who are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous or People of Color), Native, LGBTQIA+, and/or people with disabilities in rural and tribal...
Gail Olson / Carlton County Farmers Market Next time you’re at the Carlton County Farmers Market, walk down an aisle and look at the names on the booths. Each of those names can tell you a lot about the food you’re buying and the neighbor who grew or made it. Some farms, like Heavenly Acres and Promised Land Farm, are named with deep love for a specific place and life-long ideals about how to care for land, animals and people. Others honor farmers who came before them. Leaning Barn Farm tak...
