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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New face minds Cloquet lakes, trails `The timing wasn't great, two weeks before the birth of his second son, but the opportunity for Tony Elwell and his family was too good to pass up. "Otherwise, chances of getting back here were slim," said Elwell, the new face of the Department of Natural Resources in Cloquet. "We'd have to wait years, and we've always wanted to come back to this area. So, I put in for it." Elwell's request was granted, and he started as the conservation officer for the...
It was easy to tell which group hadn't been to the Beargrease Derby before, as two sets of scouts made their way down the trail on three-person skis. It was the group that kept falling over that was obviously new to the exercise in teamwork. All six scouts were part of Troop 221 out of Superior, but at opposite ends of the age spectrum. Finn, Grady and Jonah were the youngsters. Teenagers Oliver, Daniel and Keith had been there before, and had mostly mastered the art of walking in unison on... Full story
Steve Kneeland provided this photo, taken by his mother, Jean Kneeland, from the scene on March 24, 1963, at the Cloquet Co-op Shopping Center parking lot on 14th Street (where City Hall is now located). The Cloquet High School boys basketball team lost to Marshall by one point in the championship game of the state tournament the night before, in what remains one of the best championship games in tournament history. The welcome home celebration for the team was attended by a reported 2,500... Full story
Following two weeks of uproar related to proposed ordinance changes in Wrenshall, the city council earned a muted response at its meeting Wednesday. There were fewer than a dozen visitors to City Hall, compared to the almost 100 who objected to an RV park ordinance at a public hearing in February. The city council said Wednesday it won’t address the RV ordinance again until a planning commission meeting at 10 a.m. April 19 — the first date the council can meet in full due to an absence from councilor Joyce Gvesrude. The council, which also act...
A one-time Cloquet resident was sentenced Tuesday to 38 years in prison — the maximum sentence — for the murder of Minneapolis North student and athlete, Deshaun Hill Jr. in Minneapolis. Cody Logan Fohrenkam, 30, was found guilty of second-degree homicide by a Hennepin County jury on Jan. 26. The shooting occurred after the two happened to pass each other on the sidewalk — Hill wearing a walking boot on one foot, Fohrenkam searching for the person who punched him four times and stole his phone at a store that morning. He shot Hill three times...
The Carlton County Animal Rescue group invites community members to a meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 7, at the Cloquet Public Library. Now officially a nonprofit, group members hope to discuss fundraising, future ambitions and hold a Q&A session for community members who are also concerned about the lack of an animal shelter within the county. It will be five years in August since the former Friends of Animals humane society closed its doors in Cloquet due to money and facility issues....
High-school students from more than 50 area schools in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa — with teams from Cloquet, Esko, Carlton and Barnum registered — will have the opportunity to showcase their hard work after an intense six weeks of designing and building an original robot in the FIRST robotics competition in Duluth. The competition runs through Saturday at the Duluth Entertainment & Convention Center. There will be 120 teams of students demonstrate their skill for science, mathematics, and technology. They will compete for honors and rec...
In the black and white world of auditing, the letter the Minnesota State Auditor sent to the city of Kettle River last month is clear. "We found several instances where the city violated Minnesota state law," state auditor Julie Blaha told the Pine Knot News this week. For city officials of the small town, population 172, things are apparently a bit more gray. Mayor David Lucas described the 10-page letter outlining administrative violations in three areas as "nothing." Those items include...
The Carlton County Historical Society announced the following upcoming events: Bruce Savage will present on maple sugar at 2 p.m. March 11 at Spirit Lake Nature Farms, 1032 Spirit Lake Road, Sawyer. In cooperation with the Fond Du Lac Reservation Historical Society, a new exhibit “Sharing Traditions of Sugar-bushing and Rice-Camping” will open March 14. New CCHS spring hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and Saturdays 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. A National Quilting Day exhibit will be on display Saturday, March 18, in partnership with the...
The slate of candidates is set for Lake Country Power’s director elections this spring. Director ballots for Districts 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8 will be mailed to co-op members between March 31 and April 5. Northern Carlton County areas fall in districts 7, 8, and 9. Members running as candidates for the LCP board in the area are: District 7: Craig Olson, Culver. District 8: Marvin Ketola, McGregor; Brian Napstad, McGregor; Daniel Reed, Kettle River; Danny Smith, Tamarack; and Paul Vernon, Tamarack....
A quick and aggressive response by firefighters saved the storefronts at the Bergquist complex last week, but the large warehouses in the back are likely a complete loss. Cloquet Area Fire District Chief Jesse Buhs said the stores were connected to the warehouses by two breezeways. Both Bergquist Imports and Erbert & Gerbert's sandwich shop sustained smoke damage, but the fire didn't spread to the front. Erbert & Gerbert's owner Al Kurtz used Facebook to thank fire suppression efforts, saying...
Icy roads did not deter a dozen concerned Kettle River citizens from attending Monday's Carlton County Board meeting to ask why the grader was pulled from the Kettle River area county garage. "Six months ago the Kettle River people were assured the county garage would stay open," Bob Hattenberger said to county commissioners. "No one from the county let us know the garage was empty. Our first inkling the man and machine were gone was when we saw no tracks in the snow in front of the garage. We...
For the second time in less than a year, Esko schools were again the victim of a “swatting” incident, essentially a fake 911 call made to bring about the dispatch of a large number of law enforcement officials to a particular address. According to a news release from the Carlton County Sheriff’s Office, a 911 call came in at 10:39 a.m. Thursday, March 2, indicating there were injuries due to violence at Esko High School. Sheriff’s office staff made contact with the school and both entitie... Full story
Carlton resident and consulting forester Jan Bernu was recognized as the Tree Farm Inspector of the Year by the American Tree Farm System in January. The award is presented annually to one among thousands of foresters who help nearly a half-million landowners across the country take care of woods in accordance with Tree Farm's standards of sustainability. Bernu was selected for the national award from four regional (Northeast, Midwest, Southern, Western) finalists; the honor was announced... Full story
Cloquet resident and WKLK sports guy Dwight Cadwell has a new lease on life, and a new liver. He and his wife, Diane, got the call that a donated liver was available just before midnight on Feb. 18. The doctor told them they needed to get to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester within 5 to 5 ½ hours. Diane made it there by a little after 4 a.m. She may have exceeded the speed limit, despite her hatred of nighttime driving. "When you know you have to get there for a liver, you get there fast,"... Full story
Editor's note: Cloquet School District officials canceled the special meeting mentioned in this story and will finalize athletic facilities plans and funding at the board meeting on Monday, March 20 instead. Cloquet superintendent Michael Cary told school board members he’s been working “fast and furiously” with contractor Kraus-Anderson and Members Cooperative Credit Union officials on plans for the $4.5 million outdoor athletic facilities project, but not fast enough to bring it to the board...
This legislative session has proven interesting. In most bienniums, the first year is appropriations, not policy. However, there have been a lot of policies introduced and passed. Our local legislators have voted against most of the legislation. They have held true to their political and personal values. There has been bipartisan support on less controversial proposals. In discussions with our local legislators, this writer has encouraged them to address housing, energy and education issues. I continue to share conversations I had with voters...
I disagree with the Pine Knot reporter’s description of a community member shouting questions at the Wrenshall school board meeting in the Feb. 17 issue. I was sitting right next to that community member and he did not “shout.” In fact, he used a perfectly normal tone of voice. I have known this community member for a couple of years and have heard him speak many times. I have never heard him shout. Maybe your reporter should look up the definition of the word “shout.” Carol Anderson, Wrenshall...
Back in the 1960s, China was a Third World country, but today it’s a superpower. We, through trade agreements and importation, have turned the tables, making them strong. What do China, Russia and North Korea have in common? They’re all led by autocrats. Defined by Webster’s dictionary as a “supreme rule of unrestricted power. An arrogant, dictatorial person, self ruling, independent.” Sounds a lot like our former president, and he loves and respects them all and even claimed he and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “fell in love.” Now, as we Am...
Gift certificates are very popular presents. They have been since at least 1978, when my sister Zora gave me a McDonald's certificate for Christmas. Fifty cents, which bought a burger and maybe a drink back then. I don't know what it could buy now, but I'm sure it could still buy something, because I still have the gift certificate, safely stored in my home office along with my passport and the kids' birth certificates. I'll probably let my heirs fight over it after I'm gone. They'll have quite...
Some friends are lifelong friends and others are seasonal. I once got an emotional email from a friend of 8 years calling me out for not being more friendly — I hadn’t been paying enough attention to our friendship due to my unacceptable time commitment to my wife and diaper-clad children. He’d said: “You don’t pay as much attention to me as you do to your wife and kids and you don’t Get It because you don’t Get It.” I got it. Another Best Friend of mine from college, Tim — a guy I’d literally...
In 2018 I retired as the forest manager for the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa after a 37-year career. I'm also an alumnus of the University of Minnesota, College of Forestry. I'm writing to weigh in on the proposed return of the Cloquet Forestry Center lands to the Fond du Lac Band. I'll start out with a brief history of the land tenure on Fond du Lac so the reader can better understand the issues. The Fond du Lac Reservation was established with the signing of the 1854 Treaty, four...
After stumbling on Feb. 21 in a road loss to Duluth Denfeld, the Cloquet boys basketball team bounced back with impressive back-to-back home wins over Grand Rapids and Providence Academy Friday and Saturday. "We put all of our coaching efforts into the Friday game against Grand Rapids because it has big seeding implications for us," said Lumberjacks head coach Steve Battaglia. "We played our best half of the year in the first half against Rapids, and then we were in trouble in the first half... Full story
The girls high school section basketball tournaments opened Monday across Minnesota. In Section 7A the first-round games featured Wrenshall at Littlefork-Big Falls, while Fond du Lac was scheduled to play at Nashwauk-Keewatin. Nashwauk-Keewatin was a forfeit winner when Fond du Lac was unable to field a complete team. The Spartans moved to the second round on Thursday at Cromwell-Wright. Wrenshall struggled to find an answer to Kora Gustafson of Littlefork-Big Falls, who pumped in 34 points toward a 58-30 victory over the Wrens. The Wrens were... Full story
The boys high school basketball season is coming to a close, and as the season winds down every game is important from a seeding and momentum standpoint. Tuesday night Wrenshall hosted the Fond du Lac Ogichidaa with FDL coming out on top by a score of 80-45. "We had Jordell (Brown) going for his 1,000th point tonight, and he was able to get that done, and the guys did a good job of staying focused on the game as well," said FDL coach Cameron Thompson. "I was super-happy for Jordell, but also... Full story
