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
Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 437
Aside from being a great show, the Northern Lights that lit up the world last weekend showed just how a simple change in geography can bring a totally different look to the aurora borealis. There were many of us out there, and we present an example here of just how varied the light was in different corners of just Carlton County. Late last week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Center issued its first G4 level geomagnetic storm watch since 2005. Word spread... Full story
The Minnesota fishing openeris Saturday and local Department of Natural Resources Fisheries staff have provided some advice on having a fun and successful opening day of fishing. The web The DNR has a fishing page to help answer angler questions. The page links to LakeFinder, which provides maps, special regulation information for individual lakes, other detailed information on lakes throughout the state, and the StreamFinder tool that provides a description, species list, regulations and access information for trout streams throughout... Full story
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is reporting that trout are once again finding a home in two small coldwater streams in Carlton County after water quality conservation work in the Nemadji River watershed. Watershed studies completed by the MPCA during the past two decades have shown that Skunk and Elim creeks, which begin in the west in Blackhoof Township, were degraded by excess sediment, the result of historical logging and other human activities that altered stormwater runoff and...
Frequent photo contributor Will Stenberg, whose work is also part of the current Knot Gallery showing at the Pine Knot office, captured emerging crocus blooms in his yard north of Esko late last month.... Full story
Our regular bird photo contributor Will Stenberg caught this wee robin getting itself together after dipping into the bird bath in his yard north of Esko.... Full story
A quick clipper was expected to bring snow to Carlton County late Thursday and into Friday, with a few inches expected. Despite it being meteorological spring, winter doesn’t seem to be quite done with the region despite some record warmth and a dearth of snow all season. The National Weather Service in Duluth predicted a “messy spring storm” to hit the area Sunday into Monday, with total snow of 4 to 6 inches, which would be the largest drop for the winter. There is a 70 to 90 percent chance that Carlton will get hit by the storm at the end of... Full story
Unprecedented. That was the keyword from Big Lake Golf Resort co-owner Bill Jaskari, regarding the opening of the golf course on Friday, March 1. It was 11 a.m., about 50 degrees, and a few curious players and their vehicles were trickling into the golf resort parking lot. "We've owned the course for four years and this is, by far, our earliest spring opening. In comparison to last year, when we experienced record snowfall, we opened for golf the second week of May," Jaskari said. There is...
It was nothing but good news coming from the Fond du Lac Resource Management Division last week, as the Band announced a stable moose population, as well as favorable results in a sampling of the local deer herd for chronic wasting disease. The CWD test results, announced on social media, showed the disease was not detected in any of 161 samples provided by the Fond du Lac band and state-licensed hunters or collected roadkill from Minnesota 1837- and 1854-ceded territories and the FDL...
Hunters in Minnesota harvested 158,678 deer during the 2023 hunting season, a lower total harvest than in recent years, down 8 percent compared to the 2022 season and 14 percent less than the five-year average. The greatest decreases were in the northern part of the state, where deer harvest compared to 2022 was 21-percent lower in the northeast region. But the numbers also reveal fewer hunters. The success rate for firearms season hunters was 28 percent across the state. The average the past five years is about 31 percent. There has been a... Full story
Local photographer Will Stenberg was scouting for birds along the St. Louis River in Jay Cooke State Park last weekend and eventually stumbled upon a surprise at Chambers Grove near Minnesota Highway 23: Otters in ice. "I had seen just a handful of birds this morning and had started back to the truck, walking along the St. Louis River," Stenberg said. "Was I ever surprised to see otters. They are a very rare sight for me. After they became tired of me, they moved down to the Highway 23... Full story
Photographer Will Stenberg was out at Jay Cooke State park last week and noticed what has become the way of our current winter. At Mont du Lac Resort there was a definite demarcation between the manmade snow and the barren ground we have across the region. Dave Anderson, from Northern News Now in Duluth, delivers our weather forecast each week and had some thoughts on February and March. "The long, warm winter is now being called Super El Niño because this is one of the strongest El Niño s... Full story
A week ago, the Pine Knot used a photo to highlight the earliest teardown of the Pinehurst Park ice rink on Feb. 13. Later the same week, we found a group of youngsters playing basketball in the park on Feb. 17, in subfreezing temperatures. It was 28 degrees at around 9 p.m., when the boys were playing pickup basketball - maybe the earliest day in a year in which we've seen ballers on the basketball courts.... Full story
Would you like to beautify your yard with showstopping flower blooms and grasses while protecting our lakes and streams, and attracting songbirds, hummingbirds and beneficial pollinators like bees and butterflies? If you said yes, we encourage you to think about installing a pollinator rain garden on your property. A pollinator rain garden is a small, depressional garden that collects rainwater from your roof, lawn, driveway and other impervious surfaces before it ends up in our groundwater,... Full story
Photographer Will Stenberg was visited by Bohemian waxwings at his home in rural Saginaw this week. "They spent time bathing as well as eating flowering crabapples," he said. The Bohemian waxwing is a winter visitor from the far north, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. They nest from interior Alaska, east to the western shore of Hudson Bay, and south into the Rockies of the United States. Come winter, large flocks range across the northern United States, including the... Full story
While deer hunting in Minnesota has come to a close, searching for dropped antlers, called shed hunting, can be an extremely fun way to keep yourself outdoors. White-tailed deer begin to shed their antlers in winter, typically January through February, and the next set of antlers begin to grow shortly after. The first step in shed hunting is to locate good deer sign, such as heavily used trails, tree rubs and scrapes. These signs indicate higher deer activity which will increase your chances of finding sheds. Look for good bedding in these... Full story
Under the watchful eye of Scanlon employees Dave Line and Matt Baquette, Barnum's Pete Began gets warmed up during his first skate of the year Monday afternoon. Began, who once lived in Cloquet, made a special trip to Scanlon to meet a friend and skate, because there was no ice in Barnum. Line said crews started making ice as soon as the temperatures came down in the past two weeks after a record-warm December and early January. "It takes about 50,000 gallons of water," he said, adding that... Full story
The Carlton County land department took to social media last week to celebrate expansion of its trail network and partnerships with local “hook and bullet” clubs that proved invaluable to making it happen. “This partnership led to 11 miles of non-motorized recreation trails being established and reopened after suffering from winter storm damage,” the land department wrote on Facebook, showcasing pristine-looking hunter-walking and hiking trails outside Wrenshall and Moose Lake. The newest... Full story
It was a December like no other in Carlton County, not even the strange one in 1877-78 that augured a remarkable winter into the spring. In short, history was made as the region and the state had its warmest December. This comes after history was made last season in high snowfall totals. Cloquet saw temperatures average nearly 10 degrees warmer than normal last month at 25.1 degrees at the Cloquet Forestry Center. Recordings were higher at the Fond du Lac Reservation weather station (29.2) and... Full story
Roughly 300 hunters sat rapt Wednesday at Four Seasons Sports Complex in Carlton to hear a new grassroots group's plan to pressure the state to act against federal protection of the gray wolf. The group, Hunters For Hunters, formed earlier this year, in front of the Minnesota firearms deer season, which unfolded with disgruntled hunters throughout northeastern Minnesota complaining about seeing more wolves than deer. "Everybody coming out of the woods [was] going to be mad," said Steve Porter, o...
December was ushered in by the northern lights, pictured north of Cloquet on Keith Miernicki's Christmas tree farm at about 10 p.m. Friday, Dec. 1. Photographer Dan Malkovich said the half-moon had risen, offering just enough light to make out nearby trees. "The silence was broken by the recurrent hooting of a nearby owl," he said. "It was another relatively mild evening, with absolutely no air movement, but still cold enough to vaporize the moisture in my breath. It hung like fog about my head... Full story
Wolves and winters. Those are the theories being tossed around related to a Minnesota firearms deer season that data show, and most hunters say, lacked the robust deer populations of yesteryear. "I've got more wolves on my cameras than deer," said Trish King, 68, who hunts on 60 acres along Spring Lake Road in Cloquet. "That's a pretty good indication. They've all got collars on, all got tags on. And there's not a darn thing you can do." On Nov. 14, King harvested a 3-point buck - the only deer... Full story
With close to a billion ash trees in the state, the non-native emerald ash borer (EAB) insect threatens trees across Minnesota, but especially the northern part of the state. A wood borer that feeds in the phloem and disrupts the movement of nutrients, EAB infestation results in eventual mortality of a tree. The first discovery of EAB in Minnesota was in 2009 in St. Paul. It has now spread to 45 counties throughout Minnesota, including Duluth in St. Louis County in late 2015 and Carlton County in April 2022. Recently, EAB was found in Cass... Full story
Will Stenberg captured a chickadee, above, and red-breasted nuthatch this month in Blackhoof Township. They are two species that stick through Minnesota winters. They can provide some entertainment outside windows during bleak winter stretches. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has some tips on winter bird feeding, saying there are three main choices of food for winter birds: large seeds, small seeds, and suet. Large seeds include black oil sunflower, striped sunflower, safflower,... Full story
When I was young, we called them swamps, those low areas on the farms where grass for pasture or hay crops failed to grow. They were often wet and farmers said the soil was “sour” and the land worthless. However, in 1970 we learned the true value of these natural entities with the passing of the Environmental Protection Act and the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). According to the Carlton County Planning and Zoning guide, Carlton County has retained “over 94 percent of it...
