10 Years Ago ·
Jan. 3, 2000 • The Minnesota Historical Society has awarded a grant of $1,778 to make the Chippewa City Church on the outskirts of Grand Marais handicapped accessible. This is the second grant given for restoration of the old church by the state organization.
The grant will go into replacing the steep front steps on the south end of the building. Work will begin in the spring. • A Christmas Eve deadline for suspending certain federal procedures in dealing with timber downed by the July 4 windstorm has passed, but salvage logging, crushing and burning on acreage mapped and scheduled for treatment can continue.
This is good news to most living and working in the blowdown area, especially since most politicians, foresters and loggers have put only a dent into the over 3,000 acres of tangled wood targeted for treatment.
After the blowdown of timber, the Forest Service identified 3,251 acres outside the BWCAW in Cook, Lake and St. Louis counties needing extensive debris removal in order to avoid catastrophic fires in the future. In order to expedite that removal, the Council on Environmental Quality granted a relaxation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) rules, a period that ran out Dec. 24.
20 Years Ago ·
Jan. 1, 1990 • Ski racers from across the region will meet on the slopes of Lutsen Mountains Jan. 5-7 to compete in the Midwest Series Races.
In the past Lutsen Mountains has traditionally held the Moose Mountain Downhill the first weekend in March. Thisyear the ski hill has teamed up with the Midwest Masters Series in order to offer a fuller race schedule that weekend. • Due to unseasonably cold temperatures, Cook County schools were closed Dec. 21 and 22. As a result the Friday night varsity and junior varsity boys’ basketball games were cancelled. • Dec. 16 at first seemed a poor day for the annual Grand Marais bird count. The poor mountain ash berry crop, cold temperatures (high of 14 degrees) and a howling north wind did not promise much bird activity.
Nevertheless 10 birders in the field teamed up with six feeder watchers to come up with an astounding 38 species, just two short of the Cook County record. Four of the species had never before been recorded in the Grand Marais count: two harlequin ducks on Lake Superior, and a rufous-sided towhee, a red-billed woodpecker and a Harris’ sparrow at three feeders.
50 Years Ago ·
Dec. 31, 1959 • The clerk of the district court was injured Monday evening when he was struck by a car while crossing the highway in front of the post office.
He was taken to the local hospital where he was found to have a multiple fracture of his left leg and a fractured left arm. He also had a skull wound. • Les Engel, formerly the school mechanic, has opened his own garage near his home.
Engel, who is well known in this area, will do general repair work of all types. • A Los Angeles lady was recently willed two dozen red roses and a dollar each day for the rest of her life. Thislady is going to dislike red roses in a short time.
She would, no doubt, have preferred one red rose and two dozen dollars each day.
90 Years Ago ·
Dec. 31, 1919 • Mr. Iver Anderson of Two Harbors, accompanied by an auto truck dealer, was in town Monday and Tuesday gathering data on the amount of freight to be hauled along the shore this winter.
Mr. Anderson is contemplating operating a fleet of auto trucks between here and Two Harbors if he gets assurance that there will be enough business. • Buster, August J. Johnson’s pet dog, died Saturday. When asked the cause of the dog’s death Mr. Johnson said, “pneumonia.” • Plans are in the making that will give Two Harbors another industry that will give employment to many and form the nucleus of a manufacturing center that the city should have enjoyed for many years.
The Lake Superior Fish Company has under consideration plans for an abattoir for the storage of the product of 400 fishermen who are scattered along the North Shore and tributary to Two Harbors and who have shipped during the past month from this city as high as seven cars of herring alone per day.
There are at the present time 500 tons of fish held along the shore that the railroad will not accept on account of the rules of connecting lines in fear of soft weather.
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