10 Years Ago ·
Aug. 28, 2000 • A Thunder Bay man, 50, was presumed drowned on Aug. 19 while scuba diving with five friends off Hat Point, Grand Portage. The man was a 26-year diving veteran.
• TheCook County Fair held Aug. 16-20 at the fairgrounds in Grand Marais was fun-filled and chock-full of exhibits. In all, 445 exhibits were entered in the open class, while 245 projects were entered in the school class.
Birch Grove School came away with a Best in the category of school work for an anatomy project.
• An announcement last week that services might be reduced at some state forest campgrounds and day use areas was rescinded by the DNR commissioner.
The agency said that campgrounds will be opened and maintained, due to political pressure. “Our friends in the Legislature asked us to find a more creative solution and we are doing that,” said Allen Garber.
The DNR Division of Forestry operates 46 campgrounds and dozens of day-use sites, beaches and picnic areas. However, Forestry was not included in the legislative largesse received by other DNR divisions, including Parks & Recreation.
Unlike state parks, state forest campgrounds are generally rustic sites with parking, picnic tables, vault toilets and drinking water. Maintenance includes trash removal, providing firewood, cleanup and mowing.
20 Years Ago ·
Aug. 27, 1990 • Reports gathered from various parts of the county indicate that the summer of 1990 has been at least as good as 1989, and in the case of Grand Marais, considerably better.
Linda Zenk of the Lake Superior Trading Post, which is completing its second summer since being rebuilt, said it’s definitely been a good year. She attributes the good business to the “discovery” of Grand Marais.
“I think we’ve been discovered by some discriminating people who come here and see that this is a real, working town and not just something contrived for tourists. They see the log trucks running and the fishermen going out and they
to un ONE TIME th week be
know it’s a real place not some hing for tourists like you see
everywhere in Florida.”
• Editorial:
Last week we pumped gas for $1.35. This week it’s $1.45. Next week, who knows? One thing certain: with oil prices at $30 per barrel and climbing, the price of gas is not going to drop anytime soon.
You can moan and complain all you want, but it won’t change things. You can point a finger at Saddam Hussein as the culprit, or oil speculators, or the guy at the gas station, but it’s not going to save you one penny. The fact is, world oil prices are climbing not because America needs Saddam’s oil, but because the Europeans and the Japanese do, and they’re willing to pay more for it. So our prices climb, like everybody else’s.
50 Years Ago ·
Aug. 25, 1960 • TheVillage Council has voted to establish one-way traffic on that portion of First Street, between Highway 61 and Broadway. It is intended to relieve some of the traffic problems in the five-corner intersection near the new post office building, village officials feel.
• Neighborhood sleep was disturbed about midnight last Thursday when a driverless car careened down Second Avenue West from its parking place in front of the Mrs. William Olson home. Owner of the car was Thomas Cowette, who had just returned to his room at the Olson home from the art show.
The car knocked over a fire hydrant, ran over Betty Johnson’s bicycle, four trees, a garden fence, and came to a halt in Frank Cherry’s vegetable garden. It gathered momentum as it sped downhill, and with each crash and turn more residents were awakened. When the owner of the car arrived, quite a crowd had assembled.
Fortunately, no one was hurt. • Another important milestone in the development of Grand Portage will have been passed when the new blacktop to Mineral Center is completed late this week. The dust, washboard, rocks and ruined tires of the past can now be thankfully forgotten until we find later use for them in the telling of tall tales to our grandchildren.
90 Years Ago ·
Aug. 25, 1920 • Thesub-chaser Cook overtook a small gasoline boat near Isle Royale last Wednesday that was trying to run the blockade with 340 quarts of Canadian whiskey. The boat was towed into Grand Marais harbor and turned over to Customs officials here.
The two occupants of the boat, both Michigan men, were taken to Duluth for arraignment.
• Bert Farrell, city commissioner of Duluth, stopped over in Grand Marais Saturday while on a motor trip along the North Shore with a party of friends.
Mr. Farrell is a strong advocate for hard surface roads. He says a gravel road is expensive to build, expensive to maintain and unsuited for heavy traffic and bad weather.
• Johns Pherson returned on the America
Wednesday evening from an extended trip to New York, where he visited his daughter whom he had not seen for 35 years. He enjoyed his stay there so well that he decided to make his home there for a time.
• Thelarge plate glass window in the Grand Marais State Bank building was broken last Sunday during the ball game. It is estimated a new window will cost about $400.
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