Pine Knot News - A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news

We received testimony, and physical proof, the past week that the mermaid fountain at Garfield School in Cloquet has been around at least since the 1950s. It was a goldfish pond at the bottom.

Sandy Strand provided this delightful picture of her first-grade class in October of 1950. There's the fountain in the back at far right, in Miss Campbell's classroom. Sandy, who is in the all-white dress under the "Happy Helpers" sign, behind the boy in the plaid shirt, clearly remembers the day the girl nearest the fountain once fell into it.

Steve Brown of Minneapolis recalls the fountain in his...