Lake County Past: April 20

100 years ago, 1912

The Easton touched at this port Tuesday afternoon on her first trip of the season to North Shore points. The people along the North Shore who are mainly dependent upon boats for their food supplies will welcome the boat. On account of the long and unusually severe winter all supplies are running low.

Titanic victim?

It is reported that Joseph Kelsall, a weighmaster for the D&IR, a former local resident and one well known in railroad circles, is among the lost passengers on the ill-fated steamer, the Titanic. As has been his custom for several years he has spent the winter in England and a few weeks ago a letter was received from him stating he would sail on the Titanic. His name does not appear however on the published passenger list so friends entertain some hopes that he did not sail on the boat.

75 years ago, 1937

April 21 brought 18 inches of snow at Beaver Bay and other points in Lake county, preventing several of the school buses from delivering the children at school. At Big Noise curve on state road No. 2, nearly two feet of snowfall was reported. Two Harbors waded through slush six inches deep which filled the gutters as the temperature rose above freezing at about nine o’clock.

Boat watchers

The Henry Fox boulevard and thoroughfare to the ore docks was thronged with people on Sunday watching the loading and maneuvering of ore boats which broke through the ice pack at Whitefish point early Saturday. Hundreds of cars bearing visitors added to the number of local people overjoyed with the activity of shipping and maritime sights. Thirteen boats were loaded and cleared the harbor during the day.

50 years ago, 1962

Fourteen years as a neighborhood institution will end in the near future with the close of Hessen’s 10th Avenue Store. Nels and Dagny Hessen have provided countless pieces of 1-cent candy, soft drink, and ice cream to nearly every child attending the John A. Johnson School located nearby.

Fancy cars

A series of 350 specially-built gold-painted 1962 Ford Galaxies is being assembled at Ford Motor Company’s Twin Cities assembly plant as a kick-off activity commemorating 50 years of Ford Motor Company assembly and sales operations in the Upper Midwest.

25 years ago, 1987

The smelters are running, if not the smelt. Since the weekend, supposedly sane people have been out in the middle of the night, wading into the cold waters wherever North Shore rivers meet Lake Superior, dragging nets in hopes of catching tiny silvery fish. The smelt season has started. But nobody told the smelt.

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