At 10:06 p.m. on Saturday, July 4, 2009, about halfway through the town of Tofte’s fireworks presentation near Bluefin Bay Resort, a tube holding a round of fireworks ruptured, sending a five-inch round into the stockpile of pyrotechnics yet to be lighted. The resulting explosion sent the volunteers scattering and startled the crowds lining the lakeshore. Cook County Law Enforcement […]
Park board agrees on Master Plan
After months of opinion-gathering and discussion, the Grand Marais Park Board has decided on the basic components of the Recreation Area Master Plan it has been working on for months. At its regular meeting in the park rec hall Tuesday, July 7, 2009, each member of the park board weighed in on the ideas that have been generated throughout the […]
Grand Marais home damaged by fire
The damage at the Jeremy Somnis home on 934 Cut Off Road in Grand Marais would have been much worse if not for an overexcited Golden Retriever named Samson who alerted neighborhood teens to the fire. When the fire was noticed at around 3:00 p.m., on Thursday, July 2, the Maple Hill Community Fire Department responded and was able to […]
Ramsey man drowns at Temperance River
Independence Day weekend was once again touched by tragedy with a drowning on Temperance River in Tofte. On July 4, 2009 at 6:51 p.m. the Cook County Sheriff ‘s Office received a 911 call reporting a possible drowning at Temperance River in Tofte, Minnesota. Ari Benjamin Sommerfeld, a 45-year-old male from Ramsey, MN had been witnessed swimming in the river, […]
Weekly Weather
Date High L ow Precipitation From Dave Clutter, Poplar Lake June 30 48.55 45.95 0.70 0.00 July 1 57.20 44.40 0.00 0.00 July 2 60.60 49.50 0.00 0.00 July 3 57.20 44.05 0.00 0.00 July 4 73.05 39.75 0.00 0.00 July 5 69.95 46.50 0.00 0.00 July 6 69.60 48.15 0.00 0.00 From Joseph & Mary Routh, Hovland June 30 […]
Sobanja charged with passing emergency vehicle
According to an affidavit of probable cause filed by the Minnesota State Patrol, officerswere at the scene of a head-on crash near Cutface Creek on March 23 when they received a call from responding firefighters that they had been passed by a vehicle, driven by Frederick Rudolph Sobanja, 60, of Creechville Road, Grand Marais, chairman of the Cook County board […]
Open house July 16 to discuss Gunflint Trail road projects
TheCook County Highway Department will host an open house to discuss CSAH 12 (Gunflint Trail) projects slated for the 2009 construction season. The open house is scheduled for 3 to 5 p.m. Thursday, July 16 at the Gunflint Conference Center on the grounds of the Gunflint Lodge at 143 S. Gunflint Lake, approximately 43 miles north of Grand Marais on […]
Bluefin Bay’s firewood stockpile burns
The Tofte Fire Department was paged at 12:42 p.m. on Monday, July 6 to respond to a fire at 85 Tofte Homestead Road. Firefighters responded to fight the fire—not of a structure, but several massive piles of split firewood stored at the Bluefin Bay maintenance area. Lutsen and Schroeder Fire Departments and the US Forest Service were called to provide […]
North House dumpster fire extinguished quickly
A fire in a trash dumpster at North House Folk School in Grand Marais was extinguished quickly on Sunday, avoiding a disaster like the fire on March 19, 2001, which almost completely destroyed the campus “red” building. TheJuly 5, 2009 fire was spotted just a few minutes before midnight by Aaron Eubanks, an intern living in the apartment above the […]