10 Years Ago · Dec. 24, 2001
With no snow, the question of how fast snowmobile riders can legally go on public roads is moot. However, that did not prevent a number of riders from attending a public hearing for a new snowmobile ordinance. Pressure from snowmobile enthusiasts carried the day as an ordinance to limit the machines’ speeds to 30 mph and to a specified number of roads failed by a 3-2 vote.
Cook County joined with 13 other counties in northern Minnesota to purchase a sonar system that will reduce the amount of time it takes to find drowning victims. The system, called a side scan sonar, costs $50,000. It will be used to scan the bottoms of lakes in an effort to locate bodies, vehicles or other items being searched for on a lake bottom. The equipment will be housed in Itasca County.
Grand Marais City Council held a short discussion of the city’s dog kennel. According to Mayor Andrea Peterson, the kennel is so poor that law enforcement isn’t even taking dogs there any longer. Also, the kennel is full of lost and stolen bicycles.
20 Years Ago · Dec. 23, 1991
An adamant Cook County Board of Commissioners rejected giving its members a salary increase for next year. The board also turned down the idea that an increase in the per diem pay for attending out-of-county meetings would be justified, and even turned a deaf ear to the suggestion that it round off the odd pennies of its current salary to the nearest dollar. The current salary of a commissioner is $10,000 a year, plus a medical reimbursement allowance, bringing it to $10,981.12. In addition, commissioners receive a per diem pay of $20 for attending in-county meetings, and $50 a day for out-of-county meetings.
The fate of the Northwest Passage Expedition is still unclear after a 325-mile passage in harsh weather cost the lives of nearly half the sled dogs and generated a storm of negative publicity. Two of the four members of the expedition, which lost 15 dogs between Tuktayatuk and Paulatuck in the Northwest Territories of Canada have local connections. Team leader Lonnie Dupre plans to build a home near Grand Marais in the coming year, while Tom Viren is a graduate of Cook County High School. They and two other members of their team are at Paulatuk, where they and their remaining dogs are recuperating. Dupre told the News-Herald that the expedition has covered 800 miles of a proposed 3,250. “We’re in a dilemma now about what to do,” he said, explaining that the major problem is the negative publicity in the media stirred up by animal humane groups who are trying to stop the expedition by boycotting the group’s sponsors.
50 Years Ago · Dec. 21, 1961
Chief Robert Gordon, U.S. Coast Guard, Grand Marais, reports that the station here is now on a “closed status” for the winter. However, he adds that it is always available for emergencies. The normal nine-man crew has been reduced to six, he said, with the married men remaining here.
The village Christmas tree shines a beautiful welcome to all coming into town from the west. As last year, it was placed on the triangle near the harbor.
Mrs. Ted Jacques has another notch on her gun stock. She shot a wolf Tuesday. Mr. and Mrs. Jacques were returning home on the Gunflint Trail when a pack of five timber wolves suddenly appeared on the highway about five miles north of Hedstroms’. Mrs. Jacques stepped out and took aim, and got one of them.
Mrs. Birgit Tveekrem will live in Minneapolis this winter with her daughter Carol, who is employed there.
85 Years Ago · Dec. 23, 1926
The new garage of the North Shore Fish & Freight Company, just west of the Arrowhead Hotel, was burned to the ground last night. An alarm was turned in about 7 o’clock. By the time the fire department had a stream of water turned on, the building and truck were nearly consumed by the flames. It was demonstrated that the fire department hose will reach three blocks, but the building was a total loss.
Lost — a cast aluminum tea kettle somewhere in the village last week. Finder please return to Andrew Shold.
Science has discovered a ray so powerful that it will cause a mouse to fall to pieces at once. Along about next August, when there is a dead rat in the wainscoting, this should prove a boon to suffering humanity.
Harry Helmerson came in Tuesday from his trapping line north, where he is spending the winter.
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