History Mystery

The story about the closing of Wood City Lights & Hardware in the Pine Knot News a few weeks ago got us thinking about that nickname for Cloquet. It’s obvious why Wood City came to be, given the influence of the wood-related industry here. But when did Wood City gain traction as a nickname? If you can call it traction. The term is bandied about still today, but not as commonly as, say, the Big Apple, Big Easy, Charm City or Queen City.

A cursory look at the newspapers.com archive, which has searchable newspapers dating back hundreds of years, shows that at least two entities in the 1960s may h...