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 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...
The County Seat Theater Company is taking audience members along for the ride, as actors present the community theater's Minnesota festival competition piece starting Friday. "Tracks" is a one-act play written by Peter Tarsi. The dramatic play is set on a well-traveled subway station where a group of strangers meet. Each person has arrived with limited personal belongings and they all claim to be in different cities and have no sense of time. Soon they learn there is no way out of the station,... Full story
Tim Winker loves living here, and he's always looking for ways to engage his neighbors in his passions. Whether it's car racing, saunas, accordions, or the delicious soup/stew called mojakka, Tim wants to share his enthusiasm as far and wide as possible. Tim started the local mojakka cookoff 20 years ago, and it's still going strong. He also put together the website mojakka.com, where you can find recipes, memories and stories contributed by Finnish folks from the U.S. and Canada. The word...
Jim Boyd had a repost on Facebook recently that we wanted to share. Boyd’s page, called “Cloquet, MN-1884 to Present,” is chock-full of historical Cloquet area photos and memories. He shared a memory from Kurt Hunter, a 1975 graduate of Cloquet High School, “of the day I played softball with the vice president of the United States.” It was May 23, 1969, so Hubert Humphrey was then a former vice president, having lost the presidential election to Richard Nixon in the fall of 1968. Humphrey... Full story
Talk about learning from experience. After making their first trip to the state One Act Play Festival last year, the Esko High School cast, crew and directors placed first in the Section 7A competition again this year and were one of only a handful of schools to receive the coveted "starred performance" award. Esko was one of four Class A schools to get a star. The 19-student cast and crew performed "The Inexplicable Chaos Factor of Mia Gregory" by Emily Hageman. The play about mental health tel... Full story
The late Jack Finberg (center) is pictured, at right, training to make "slabs" for the Carlton County Vidette newspaper with two unidentified men. Finberg worked at the Vidette, then took a printing job at the Pine Knot newspaper in the mid-1960s. His son, David Finberg, shared some photos with the Pine Knot News. David's grandmother, Ruth Finberg, below, had a radio talk show in the 1970s called "Memory Lane," about the history of Carlton. David said the old Finberg house on Slate Avenue in... Full story
After 21 years without a section win, the Esko High School One Act play is now returning to the State One Act Play Festival Friday, Feb. 10, for the second year in a row. After placing second at subsections on Jan. 28, Esko took first place at the Section 7A competition on Feb. 4. The 19-student cast and crew performed "The Inexplicable Chaos Factor of Mia Gregory" by Emily Hageman. The play tells the story of Liv, a brilliant teenage mathematician, who struggles to understand the one person... Full story
The County Seat Theater will open its new season next weekend with "Charlotte's Web," a story about friendship that ought to enchant audiences of all ages. The Children's Literature Association had high praise for the well-known book by E.B. White, calling it "The best American children's book of the past two hundred years." "This show is only about an hour long, which is great for our younger audience members, but I guarantee all ages will want it to go on longer," said co-director Joel... Full story
Talking from his northeast Minneapolis residence, Tony Petersen described the home studio he named Double Pug after his dogs Patti and Doug. There are powerful microphones and compressors, good sound baffling, and windows facing his backyard to the west. "It's a really powerful one-man studio," Petersen said. "Generally, the music happens between 7 p.m. and 3 a.m., so I get to catch the sunset." Petersen, 33, is a Cloquet native and founder of numerous projects, including Social Animals, the... Full story
Cloquet native's 2020 book with wolves is chosen There was an ease about Thomas Peacock as he made a presentation and later sat down to talk about his work as an author of revered books about the Native experience. He was at the Jan. 6 Dream Catcher Winter Gathering for educators from the region, talking about the use of "story" in teaching and learning about Native ways. It was the first such live gathering at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College in Cloquet since the pandemic hit. Peacock...
This was a fun photo we found while researching information on a story this past week. This photo is from the Carlton County News Graphic, dated Feb. 16, 1951. You'll find out that when digging for historic nuggets that information on women is always the most difficult to find, because names change from birth names. And to add insult, most women in newspaper archives are listed only as a Mrs. to their husband's first and last name. So your task this week is to tell us what became of the girls... Full story
There were three generations on the stage and at least three generations on the dance floor Saturday afternoon for the annual New Year's Eve dance at the Cloquet VFW. Duane and Sandy Olson of Two Harbors were a lively couple to watch on the floor. There was also a potluck for all the attendees. Jo Zack of Holyoke, 89, and Will Riendeau of Hibbing, 92, were enjoying a turn on the floor. Will said he has been dancing for 80 years. Dancers traveled from as far south as Sandstone and as far north... Full story
Kermit Nielsen of Cloquet had some interesting recollections spurred by the Dec. 16 History Mystery item about a pulpwood fire at Northwest Paper in April of 1963. News reports at the time said a lightning strike may have been the genesis of the fire, though there was no definitive cause of the fire that ate up at least 11,000 cords of wood. The loss was recorded as $250,000, or $2.4 million in today's dollars. Kermit said the lightning explanation may have been a ruse to recoup losses through i...
John Luomala, a reader in Thomson Township, recently brought in some physical black-and-white snapshots of a fire at a Cloquet lumberyard. Luomala figured he had taken the pictures in the late 1950s or early 1960s and was sure some readers would remember the huge pulpwood fire. Luomala was a forester for Northwest Paper Co. at the time. His photos show the efforts to douse the fire, including this one with the fedora-wearing president of the company, Harry T. Kendall Jr., looking back at...
Not so much a mystery this week. It was called the “Comeback of Cloquet,” and people here celebrated in style 100 years ago this month. While it may seem odd that a whole community came out to celebrate a street construction project, that’s just what people did on Nov. 4, 1922, after a mile of paving was completed on business arteries in the city. As the Minneapolis Journal reported, “The great forest fire of 1918 descended upon this city and left much of it in ruins. Now, the city has ‘come back’ and today finds this town with many prospe...
The County Seat Theater Company will bring "A Christmas Carol" to the stage again, but a more spirited and fanciful version, featuring a swirling, dancing chorus of ghosts who weave through this uplifting holiday story of redemption, magic and hope. "The show starts with Scrooge in bed, surrounded by the ghosts and spirits, having a fitful, nightmare-filled sleep atop the bed covers," said County Seat general manager Joel Soukkala. "Throughout the whole show, the apparitions are constantly... Full story
When Thomlin Swan moved to a home on the Fond du Lac Reservation in early 2021, the theater artist was astounded by the lack of visible Ojibwe culture within the city of Cloquet, "despite having a reservation as part of its borders." Swan wanted to change that. In 2021, they received a West End Flourish grant to produce a piece of youth puppet theater that would help bring Ojibwe stories to downtown. After a slow start, things started coming together last summer when Swan connected with two... Full story
There will be no place like Cloquet High School to see the production of the popular "The Wizard of Oz" this weekend. A cast and crew of nearly 80 students will bring Oz to life with the familiar and not so familiar. Inspired by the children's novel written by Frank Baum in 1900, "The Wizard of Oz" film was released in 1939 and became a classic for the ages. "Its theme of love and hope is timeless. Who doesn't love that?" said Lily Rosen, who plays a Munchkin in the Lullaby League trio. Those... Full story
The Esko theater department turned back the clock to the turn of the century on Thursday night for their debut of the Pulitzer Prize winning drama "Our Town." Set between 1901 and 1913 in the fictional small town of Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, the show explores the universal struggle of the human race to understand the big picture of life and death from the perspective of a rural community living during that time. "You get to follow the same characters at different snapshots in their life,... Full story
Carlton resident Galyna Tuttle is headed to Ukraine next week for the second time this year. Born and raised in the now war-torn country, Tuttle is bringing more medical supplies, warm clothing and sleeping bags, and will purchase food to bring to rural villages once she's there. However, this time she has plans for her return trip to Minnesota as well. She's bringing two young women and a toddler back with her. They will join another refugee, Gloriiya, who arrived three weeks ago from Ukraine.... Full story
For many of us, the opportunity to tell people how much we admire them or recognize their accomplishments slips away when that person passes from this life. Ozhaawashkogiizhigokwe Janis Fairbanks found herself in this predicament after the death of her brother, Abajiins-ba Ralph Charles Fairbanks, in 2020. "I didn't know the impact he had on people until I saw the collection of beadwork that was returned to me about 16 months after Ralph passed away," Janis said. Ralph, a member of the Fond du...
The Pine Knot Gallery is calling for September/October exhibit pieces featuring cityscapes and townscapes. All genres considered: photos, paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures and more. Please send applications to Ann Markusen at markusen.umn.edu by Tuesday, Sept. 6. Include a few images of your works. Haven’t yet visited our gallery? Stop by at 122 Avenue C, Cloquet, between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. weekdays. The new cityscape exhibit opening reception is planned for late afternoon Friday, Sept. 16 at the Pine Knot.... Full story
The Minnesota State Fair is upon us, and all of that food can be daunting. So we called on Minneapolis St. Paul Magazine food writer Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl to get us prepped for what to eat — and also what to avoid. For you, what makes an ideal state fair food? For me — and I'm very passionate about this — fair food should give you a feeling that you can only get at the fair. The sweet corn roast is the perfect example. Sweet corn is only in season one time a year. It's specifically grown for us at the fair, so it’s ripe every single day. An... 
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A new musical created by two Cloquet High School alumni sets a spotlight on women's health along with the pitfalls of navigating a complex healthcare system through the lively, upbeat lens of musical theater. Soon to make its debut in Minneapolis at the Minnesota Fringe Festival, "Endometriosis: The Musical" is the hilarious and heartfelt passion project of co-authors and lifelong friends Maria Bartholdi and Kristin Stowell. The duo have been writing music together for about as long as they've... Full story
