10 Years Ago • Aug. 6, 2001
The July 31 morning storm took out the transmission line from Great River Energy at about 10:30 a.m. The disconnection lasted approximately five minutes, however power continued to fail off and on for at least an hour. The Gunflint Trail took the brunt of that storm. Power and phone were out for most of Tuesday, with phone service staying out much longer. Dispatchers at the Law Enforcement Center said they got surprisingly few storm-related calls. Lightning set off fire alarms around Grand Marais, but they were all false.
With the financing secured, the board of the Whole Foods Co-op in Grand Marais last week announced they will close on their new building Oct. 8. The co-op, which is now housed in a corner of a downtown Grand Marais parking lot, between a gift and jewelry shop, moves to a much bigger parking lot with a correspondingly larger view of Lake Superior. The new building will triple the retail space for the co-op.
20 Years Ago • Aug. 5, 1991
Aided by a recovering Lake Superior fishery and a lot of hard work, the fledgling charter fishing industry in Grand Marais is coming of age. Four charter captains are again operating out of the Grand Marais harbor this summer, carving out a living they’ll describe only as “comfortable” and drawing new and returning tourist dollars to hotels and restaurants.
The first 75-megawatt generator of the LTV Steel Mining Company’s steam generating plant at Taconite Harbor is now online and producing power for the firm’s iron mining operation at Hoyt Lakes. The No. 3 boiler at the plant was started up shortly after the company got authorization from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
Sheriff John Lyght, in seeking a 26 percent budget increase for 1992, told the Cook County Board of Commissioners, “Our deputies are being overrun with calls.” He also said, “I am beginning to notice our crime rate went up 10 percent over and above last year.” Lyght seeks to have his budget increased by $122,571 from this year’s $463, 819 to $586,390 for next year.
50 Years Ago • Aug. 3, 1961
Northwestern Bell Telephone Company starts its long range program this month to gradually eliminate the two letters from Tofte telephone numbers. The only change is that the numerals will be substituted for the first two letters of the central office name in most cases. The letters MO will become 66. The program to change all Tofte telephone numbers to seven numerals is expected to take until 1965 to complete. The new seven-numeral numbering plan is being adopted throughout the nation to make more telephone numbers available due to telephone growth and expansion of the network.
One wonders if our uncivilized civilization is fast catching up with our part of the country. Recently outgoing and incoming guests of Art Schliep on Pike Lake had a head-on collision on a knobby hill a few miles from his place. He took the injured people to the hospital in his station wagon and found, upon his return to the scene of the accident, that the cars had been stripped of much of their contents including one of the car radios.
The folks atop Allard’s Hill, high above Taconite Harbor on the Cramer Road, are enjoying beautiful views of brilliantly lighted ore boats, standing off, waiting to enter the harbor to take on their load of iron ore pellets, especially on still nights when the brilliancy of the lights is doubled by their reflection in the calm waters.
90 Years Ago • Aug. 11, 1921
While Arthur Berg and Francis Drouillard were driving Sam Zimmerman’s Buick Monday evening, just beyond Chippewa Village the engine backfired and caught on fire. They were unable to extinguish the flames and the car was entirely destroyed. The damage was partly covered by insurance.
A crew is at work graveling the streets of the village. They are now working near the Sterling Hotel.
M.M. Arnold of the Pigeon River bridge was in town Tuesday, and has purchased 80 acres of land from T.I. Carter, about a half-mile from the bridge. He plans to improve the holdings for cultivation, and lots for cottages will be sold near the bridge.
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