Cook County News Herald

Down Memory Lane




10 YEARS AGO
MAY 2, 2003

More than 20 people turned out for the first meeting of the newly appointed Grand Marais Harbor Advisory Committee meeting on Tuesday. The meeting at the Recreation Center provided an overview of the Minnesota Safe Harbor program as well as gave committee members a chance to talk to representatives from the Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers about the program and how it could apply to Grand Marais.

Three Minnesota anglers have been fined $7,300 after pleading guilty to illegal fishing. The men were busted when two Minnesota DNR conservation officers were flying over Lake of the Woods, near the international border. As the plane landed on the ice the officers could see the three men attempting to hide buckets of fish. When the officers checked the men, they didn’t have Ontario licenses and two of the men were fishing with too many lines. The officers located 34 walleye and sauger in their vehicles. If the men had been licensed, they would have been legally entitled to a total of six walleye. They also had five walleye over 46 centimeters.

20 YEARS AGO
MAY 3, 1993

In a special meeting and public hearing April 27, the Cook County Board of Commissioners passed a motion supporting a continuation of vacation home rentals as they have been permitted consistently under the 1972 zoning ordinance. That ordinance said nothing to prevent a homeowner from renting to another party, so such rentals have been accepted practice throughout the county. A controversy over vacation home rentals had surfaced when the Planning and Zoning Commission, at the direction of the county board, undertook a revision of the county zoning ordinance.

The Cook County School Board approved a motion to award the contract for construction of new tennis courts on school property to Saginaw Construction of Saginaw, Minn. Saginaw was the low bidder at $51,676, with consideration for deductions on fence pipe and windscreen.

What is the most unattractive spot in downtown Grand Marais? The Woodland Committee thinks it is the slope across from the liquor store and the Midway building, and below South of the Border parking lot. Plans are completed to have the area landscaped after the city council agreed to donate $1,000 in matching funds; $1,000 will be solicited in donations. The cost will be kept as close to $2,000 as possible.

50 YEARS AGO
MAY 2, 1963

The new King Koin Launderette opens Saturday with a grand opening with Harold and Sherman Benson as hosts. The Benson brothers have just completed the installation of the new launderette equipment at Midway Service Station and will soon begin around-the-clock operation.

Don Lobdell of Rockwood Lodge reports that he has completed arrangements to have approximately 2,000 wild mallard ducklings available to Cook County residents about June 1. Leg bands placed on the ducklings last year were returned from Minnesota, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Illinois and Saskatchewan. They are still scratching their heads trying to figure out how our Cook County mallards ventured over to Saskatchewan last fall.

Dick Raiken was smelting from the dock near Poplar River Tuesday night when the cribbing gave way and he was pinned in the water for a time by part of the crib. He was freed by fellow smelters, but he walked with a limp yesterday. He lost about 25 pounds of smelt which could be considered a minor matter.

90 YEARS AGO
MAY 3, 1923

Sen. Knute Nelson died Saturday night on the way home to Minnesota from Washington, D.C. on a Pennsylvania train shortly after it departed from Baltimore. Heart failure was the cause of his death. Nelson was 80 years old and was born in Norway.

The storm signal tower forecasting all heavy storms at Grand Marais was put into operation Tuesday, May 1.

A shipment of horses arrived Sunday night on the America for the Campbell-Ames Co. There were eight animals.

The woods on Good Harbor Hill caught fire Tuesday and burned from Nels Dalbec’s to the bank of the Cascade River. The rain Tuesday night put the fire out.

The Motor Inn has purchased a new air gasoline pump which is an ornament to the place of business as well as being a labor saver and an accurate machine for measurement of the liquid gas. Altogether it is a thing of beauty and a joy forever. It works automatically.

Do you have an old picture or a story from years gone by that you would like to share with the Cook County News-Herald readers? We’d love to hear your Historical Reflections Call (218) 387-9100; e-mail starnews@boreal.org; or stop by our office at 15 First Avenue West.



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