10 Years Ago
Oct. 7, 2005
ISD 166 has agreed to let the Economic Development Authority continue working on a plan to develop the Blackwell Addition, property the school district owns along the new Gunflint Trail. Matt Geretschlaeger, executive director of the EDA, told the board at its meeting last week that the EDA was prepared to complete studies to develop the property for home sites free of charge. If and when the property is sold to a developer, the board would pay the EDA 15 percent of the sale price. If, on the other hand, the property doesn’t sell and/or it turns out that putting houses on the lot is not economically feasible, the EDA would absorb the costs it had incurred.
A total of 4,500 acres of blowdown patches were burned in prescribed burns on the Gunflint Trail Sept. 30 to Oct. 3. The burns included 515 acres at One Island Lake, 3,300 at Saucer Lake and 685 at Gunflint Palisades.
20 Years Ago
Oct. 9, 1995
The ceremonial groundbreaking at the Grand Marais Homestead Cooperative was completed under gray clouds and intermittent rain. The participants were not deterred though, as umbrellas and raincoats were donned to ward off the moisture. When completed next June, the onestory building will encompass 41,000 square feet and 26 housing units.
Faced with the need to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of administrator Larry Johnson, the Grand Marais city council decided Oct. 3 to initiate a search for city clerk-treasurer, instead of hiring another administrator. The major difference is that an administrator has responsibility for supervising department heads, but a clerk-treasurer does not. Council is also searching for a new police chief, with the target date of Nov. 27 to complete the process.
50 Years Ago
Oct. 7, 1965
An early morning fire of unknown origin leveled the main lodge and two other buildings at Wilderness Retreat at McFarland Lake last Saturday. The fire apparently started in the lodge and spread to the other buildings, said owner Carl Brandt. Sixteen other buildings were not damaged.
Axel Bergstrom, who reports the weather to the News-Herald, and whose weather reporting for the government dates back eight years, says this has been the wettest September he has recorded. Rainfall was 6.42 inches, compared with a normal of 3.06.
A mother bear and her two cubs have been visitors and performers all along the shore, foraging garbage cans and in one instance an outdoor icebox at the cottage of the Lee Smiths. The Smiths had just come up for a week and stored a ham among other things out on the patio. Saturday afternoon, while they were out for a drive, the bears helped themselves to a delicious meal.
90 Years Ago
Oct. 8, 1925
Morris Olson and P.M. Linnell left last Friday for Minneapolis with two live bears and a fox for the Minneapolis Ford agency, which they will use in advertising. The trip was made without mishap, but upon arriving at their destination, when the animals had been checked in and placed in the show room of the agency, one of the bears got out of its cage and at once began taking survey of its new surroundings. The office force and a few other spectators had made a picture of serenity hardly thought possible to be turned into a perturbed, highly excited and badly scared group which gave promise of causing a general panic extending to the street; something like what happens when a lion gets away at a circus. But for the calm assurances of Messrs. Olson and Linnell, who called for a bottle of honey and quickly inveigled the animal into a trap, it is hard to tell what might have happened.
David Wanless came in from Cross River yesterday with a wolf pelt and collected $22.50. He shot the wolf with a pistol.
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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