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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There are many reasons why people go to the Minnesota State Fair. The food, carnival rides, exhibits, livestock barns, music, educational demonstrations and, of course, people watching, bring nearly two million fairgoers to the fairgrounds each year. But very few get invited to perform on one of the four major stages scattered across the 330 acres of the fairgrounds. Count me as one of them. Doctor Kielbasa, a band with longtime ties to Cloquet and Carlton County, performed two days on the...
Get ready to rock, Cloquet. The Social Animals are coming home to celebrate a new single and new owners at The Jack. Look for an edgier sound to rattle the hometown bar. Local bars, after all, were the band's bread and butter a few years ago. Made up of vocalist Dedric Clark, guitarist Tony Petersen, bass guitarist Roger Whittet and drummer Boyd Smith, three of four originally hail from Carlton County. Clark and Petersen are from Cloquet, Smith from Esko and Whittet grew up in Lino Lakes. Now,... Full story
Following the great success of its bird exhibit two years ago, The Knot gallery opened its "Fish and Fowl" exhibit to a crowd of local art fans Friday evening. Work by eight local artists and photographers are on display, some for sale. The artworks are unique, as are the people who created them. Exhibiting for the first time at the Knot gallery is award-winning fish artist Stuart Nelson, whose remarkably detailed paintings of fish bring them to life. "I've always done a lot of art and living on... Full story
The Animikii Mazina'iganan: Thunderbird Press team joins the community of small regional presses in our area with its first publication, "Fur Trade Nation: An Ojibwe's Graphic History." The new press will celebrate with a release party Tuesday. Using pen and ink drawings, Carl Gawboy (a Bois Forte Band member) explores the history of the fur trade and its impact on Minnesota in a graphic novel. Gawboy is a retired history teacher and an excellent artist whose work has long presented images of... Full story
With my dad in a hospital bed in late 2022, we planned how the family would gather for the 2024 eclipse at his house in Vincennes, Indiana - not quite a halfway point between my brother's home in Florida and mine in Minnesota. A huge fan of all things outer space, my dad had taken an astronomy class in college and enjoyed dragging kids and neighbors outside to search for constellations, planets and even the space station for the rest of his life. He didn't live to see 2024, but we did. My... Full story
In Carlton County, there are folks who harvest and process the sap that brings us the local flavor of delicious maple syrup, maple sugar, and maple candy we've come to expect each spring. This year - with the frogs already waking up because the weather is warmer heralding an early spring - the trees should be ready to tap. However, the trees are trying to bud in the warmer than usual weather. When asked whether climate change would affect maple syrup products this year, some people say it's... Full story
Last weekend, as they've done for more generations than there are records, Ojibwe descendents gathered for aadizookeng - wintertime storytelling which can be told only at night when there is snow on the ground. The fifth annual Ojibwe Language Symposium at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College attracted close to 200 participants from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Dakota, and Canada Feb. 2-4. Arne and Ivy Vainio shared my table during the feast. They said conferences like this one are...
Get ready for a horrifying, hilarious and toe-tapping treat, theatergoers, "Little Shop of Horrors" will be presented by Cloquet High School students next week. The horror comedy rock musical tells the tale of Seymour, a meek nerdy floral assistant who finds success and romance by nurturing a plant that thrives only on human blood and flesh. As the audience grooves to the music, the plant grows larger and larger and Seymour more anemic. Then people start disappearing. In his second year at the... Full story
Walk into the new Holy Smokes Coffeehouse and BBQ at 103 Ave. C in Cloquet, and one is immediately struck by the savory smell of smoked meat and a sense of time gone by. A 100-year-old leather-cushioned bench lines the back wall, pulled out of a billiards room in an old Elks Lodge. An Ed's Bakery and Coffee Shop sign hangs down from the ceiling, prompting flashbacks from customers over 40. Tin and wood are a nod to Texas barbecue. Behind the counter are faces familiar to anyone who knows the Hol... Full story
Fans of musical theater and deer hunting may be able to agree on one thing: “Deer Camp” is a hoot. Next weekend, the County Seat Theater Company will debut its production of “Deer Camp,” a musical comedy written by Gene Jurek and music by Doug Spartz. Four buddies are enjoying their annual deer hunting trip, but this year is different. After 15 years of them coming home with nothing but a hangover, their wives have given them an ultimatum: bag a deer or your deer camp days are over. Only on... Full story
"Now here's a story 'bout Steve Hanson. An Alaskan cowboy that really changed our salad dressin's," sings Xander Ripley-Jaakola in open lyric of his song "Ranch." Only 16 years old, Ripley-Jaakola released his first album last December under the name Xander Muxic. Aptly named "The Condiment Album," the Cloquet teen spent about six months writing and recording the songs, all while juggling high school at Harbor City International School in Duluth. He made the album in his parents' basement,...
County Seat Theater Company will present “Women Playing Hamlet,” a modern comedy about an old tragedy by William Missouri Downs. The show will feature an all-female cast performing multiple roles and is rip-roaring fun for Shakespeare fans and haters alike. “Hamlet” is a challenge for any actor, but when Jessica (played by Angel Maloney) is cast as the titular character in a New York production, it sends her into an existential tailspin. It doesn’t help that her acting coach is borderlin... Full story
Each year, Carlton County is well represented at the annual Homegrown Musical Festival in Duluth. It's the 25th edition of the weeklong festival that celebrates local music and other arts at venues across the Twin Ports. It opened Sunday and included Darren Shabaiash, right, with the stage name of Darren Sipity, who is a rapper from the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. He was part of the opening ceremony set at Hoops Brewery in Canal Park. The #theindianheadband is a family group... Full story
The Cloquet High School spring play, "Noises Off" is a play within a play, a comedy that gives the audience an inside look at a dysfunctional cast during three different performances, a final dress rehearsal, during a matinee performance and in the tour's final stop, from more than one angle. The New York Times called the play "spectacularly funny" and a "festival of delirium." Sardines feature prominently in this farce written by Michael Frayn, where lines are forgotten, love triangles unravel... Full story
‘Airness’ in Wrenshall Wrenshall’s three-act play will be putting on their performance of “Airness” this weekend. Don’t miss out on some awesome air guitar performances, incredible acting and heart from the cast, and some rockin’ songs. Performances start at 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday, May 4-5, and 10 a.m. Saturday, May 6, at the Wrenshall gymnasium. Tickets are free. ‘The Sound of Music’ If you missed the first two shows this week, New Wine will perform Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “The Sound of Music” four more times — May 7, 18, 20 and 21 — ov... Full story
The County Seat Theater Company recently took their Minnesota “Best of Festival” one-act production of “Tracks” on the road to Salina, Kansas for the American Association of Community Theatre Region V Festival. The April 20-23 event featured six shows from South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa and Kansas. "What an absolute honor it was to be able to have our show performed at this level. Especially amongst so many wonderful productions," said co-director Joel Soukkala. "To hear the positive feedbac... Full story
The latest Knot Gallery art show features seven artists, who sew, knit, weave and otherwise create art out of fiber and fabric. Last week we featured three of the artists - this week we introduce readers to the other four. Julianne Motis Cloquet area farmer Julianne Motis is exhibiting three quilted pieces depicting a couple of incredibly colorful chickens and a cow, each one pieced together with fabric pieces of all shapes and sizes that come together to portray the animal, the same way a... Full story
The Cloquet Community Band is seeking new members. If you have played an instrument, please check out the band. Practice is 7-8:30 p.m. Mondays at the Cloquet Presbyterian Church, 47 Fourth St., Cloquet. The band provides sheet music, and you bring your instrument. The band performs at a variety of community events (spring and winter concert, parades, nursing homes and other events as requested). Questions? Contact Becky at 218-206-4441.... Full story
The Knot Gallery is taking a different tack for its next display, hosting a fabric art exhibit for May and June. Join fabric artists and Pine Knot News staff for a reception from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Friday, April 28, in the office at 122 Avenue C in Cloquet's West End. The works of seven artists are up for viewing and most of them will be attending the opening, including Moose Lake's Tah'tini Ho'okan, who will be demonstrating techniques on her loom. This week and next we share insights from...
Those enticing ads depicting people immigrating to a better life in the USA sponsored by Ancestry.com have succeeded in convincing millions of people to submit DNA samples as a means of finding their roots. We search for stories of the past, details about where we came from, health histories and more. In all of this, we hope to learn how our ancestors survived to pass their genes on to us, but we need hard facts to establish the basis of our stories. The New York Library website says,... Full story
Carlton High School thespians will perform "Epic Fail" by Bradley Hayward at 2 and 6 p.m. Saturday, April 15 at the Encore Performing Arts Center in Cloquet. As the play is described: "Teenagers are faced with failure every day. Some mornings it feels like they have the letter 'F' stamped on their foreheads in bright red ink. In a series of hilarious vignettes, students take on a multitude of challenges, each from a different perspective. From learning to driving a car (seemingly with a mind of... Full story
In the 1963 crowd photo of area residents welcoming home Cloquet's state runner-up basketball team, we heard from 1963 graduate Helen (Waldorf) Witte, who noticed herself and others in the lower left corner of our March 24 crowd photo and said, "That's me. I couldn't believe it. I went down for the state basketball tournament." Helen is the person anchoring the foreground here, wearing the headscarf. Directly behind her is her late aunt, Marcella Johnson. Standing with them is Paulette...
Attending its first statewide one-act play festival since 2019, the County Seat Theater Company took home top honors this past weekend for its performance of "Tracks," by Peter Tarsi. The Cloquet-based community theater group won Best of Festival at the biannual Minnesota Association of Community Theatres one-act play festival in Glenwood, Minnesota. The acting troupe also won the following awards: Outstanding Achievement by an acting Ensemble, Outstanding Achievement in Directing to husband and... Full story
The Cloquet Community Band is seeking new members. If you have played an instrument, please check out the band. Practice is 7-8:30 p.m. Mondays at the Cloquet Presbyterian Church, 47 Fourth St., Cloquet. The band provides sheet music, and you bring your instrument. The band performs at a variety of community events (spring and winter concert, parades, nursing homes and other events as requested). Questions? Contact Becky at 218-206-4441.... Full story
When the Little Opera of the North came to Churchill Elementary School Friday, it wasn't only the professional cast members who performed "The Pirates of Penzance." More than 50 students became part of the production, and the gymnasium became a seashore where pirates and members of the upper class threatened and flirted and finally made peace, in honor of the Queen. Music teacher Regina Roemhildt said there was a larger-than-usual number of kids in the cast and the chorus, and the show kept the...
