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Mill fire was a big loss

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 Luomala.

Readers won't have to scratch their heads for too long. A look at newspaper archives shows that th...