Lake County past: Aug. 5

Talk about it

100 years ago, 1911

Today saw the commencement of road work that will mean much to the city of Two Harbors.

Work started with the macadamizing of the state road commencing at Fifth Avenue and extending north one mile to the city limits with widening of the roads with crushed rock and the hills cut down as much as possible. The other project is the graveling of the Knife River road on the side track. With the present pace of road building maintained and increased, in a few years Lake county will be able to boast of as good roads as will any of the northern counties.

Putting on the miles

Iver Amundsen and Ben Puent have run the Kissel car over 5,000 miles since its purchase this spring without the slightest accident. They have it figured out and are demonstrating that the Kissel car is about the last word in automobile value.

75 years ago, 1936

The Lake County Development Association has met for the purpose of bringing every means to bear to inaugurate a paving program for the highway between Two Harbors and Grand Marais. President August Omvtedt points out that the condition of the highway is the worst in the history of the road. The plan is to invite Commissioner of Highways N. Elsberg to Two Harbors to make a study with a view to obtain special federal appropriations for this particular highway.

Island fight

The U.S. Coast Guard ship Crawford left Friday noon to carry firefighting equipment for the CCC men who are fighting the forest fires which have raged on the island for the past two weeks.

50 years ago, 1961

The Bomarc Base at French River held the ribbon cutting and became an official site of the 74th Air Defense Missile Squadron and an active unit of the Duluth Air Defense sector. The unit will be manned by approximately 240 men who will maintain the IM-99B missile. They are our silent sentinels.

Chilly water

Most locals know that taking a dip in Lake Superior makes for a cold swim but not for a recent Two Harbors visitor from Casablanca, Morocco. Francine Alepee, who has been visiting the Jack Ray family, took a daily dip in Lake Superior for a week and didn’t think the water was cold at all. She explained that swimming is a normal year-around pleasure in Morocco where winter consists only a warm rain.

Update: Jack remembers Francine and her daily dips. His sister, JoAnn, who lived in Tennessee, had met Francine while working with the Red Cross in Morocco. They were helping with a widespread outbreak of poison victims due to bad cooking oil. JoAnn, Francine, and Ray’s parents made the trip up in the summer of 1961.

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