20 YEARS AGO
FEBRUARY 7, 2000
As the top local finisher in the Grand Portage Passage 2000, Mark Nordman is excited to see this new race progress as quickly as it has in only its second year. Nordman, a resident of Grand Marais, placed ninth in the event that has grown in stature both in the region and in the nation. “Dog mushing is on a roll. It is getting national media coverage and it’s great,” Nordman said last week. “The race is wonderful and the people are so warm. They always open their arms to mushing.”
Like a psychic at a poker game, the Cook County High School boys’ basketball team can’t seem to lose. Fifteen games into the season, the boys have yet to taste defeat, and their perfect 15-0 record has seldom been challenged. Their winning ways continued last week when they soundly defeated Silver Bay, Two Harbors and Wrenshall.
30 YEARS AGO
FEBRUARY 5, 1990
Reductions in the Superior National Forest budget won’t affect plans to build a new Gunflint District office. The Organizational Analysis Committee formed to study the forest budget reaffirmed the need for the Gunflint District and gave a go-ahead to plans for a long-anticipated new office. In a related story, the Isabella Ranger Station is expected to close this spring as part of the Forest Service’s internal effort to reduce $2.4 million from Superior National Forest’s $12 million annual budget. The closure is expected to save $200,000 per year.
Suspended in bureaucratic limbo, the fate of the Schroeder Post Office has been put on hold. Internal affairs are being dealt with before the U.S. Postal Service moves to the next step of posting for bids for a community office. A postal official said everything is on hold for a new facility, and nothing is expected to happen for at least four to six weeks.
Grand Marais firemen used shovels to put out a Dumpster fire behind the Midway building. The unofficial cause was listed as “doggoned smokers.”
60 YEARS AGO
FEBRUARY 4, 1960
The Third Annual Lions’ Club Trout Derby is definitely going to be bigger and better this year. The Trout Derby, which is very likely the only winter trout fishing contest in the country, will be held March 13 on Clearwater Lake on the Gunflint Trail. In spite of poor ice conditions earlier in the season, it looks as if things will be in fine shape for the Derby. In fact, even the big fish are in fine fettle. Lloyd Warn reports a half-hour battle with a monster near the Palisades, with the trout the final victor.
When it was first proposed to 10th, 11th and 12th graders that an opportunity would be offered them to speed up their reading, the response was quite amazing. Over 60 students indicated their willingness to spend three afternoons a week after school working on developing speed in reading. For various reasons — and probably the most prevalent one is the fact that the course starts at too high a speed for some, about 35 are now enrolled. The course starts at 270 words a minute and brings them up to 450.
100 YEARS AGO
FEBRUARY 4, 1920
Isn’t this fine weather we are having? Yet some people can’t enjoy it for fear we are going to have a late spring. The local merchants and fishermen commenced this week to put up ice for next summer. The ice is not very heavy but of good quality.
The Two Harbors’ editors are having a very interesting newspaper fight. They are calling one another some pet names and both seem to be determined to fight it to a finish. Well, it makes their papers a little more interesting, but we fail to see where any good can come from it.
We cannot say we didn’t get any mail last Thursday. Two big trucks from Two Harbors brought in about four tons! We received newspapers over three weeks old and magazines and parcels till we couldn’t rest. Since then, however, we have had only one delivery of fourth-class mail which came last night.
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