Moments In Time

Millie Mainella moved to Cook County in 1910 at the age of two.  She grew up in Moose Valley, near Hovland, and remembers her childhood there.   Millie passed away in August, 2011 at the age of 103.

Moments in Time is about sharing stories and memories from our region’s past.  Produced by Carah Thomas.

Arts, cultural, and history features on WTIP are supported in part by funding from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

Isle Royale, off the North Shore of Lake Superior, was designated as a National Park in the early 1940's.  At that time, there was a vibrant community of commercial fishing families on the island.  One of those families was the Sivertsons.  In this edition of WTIP's ongoing series, Moments in Time, Stuart Sivertson of Duluth remembers his boyhood summers on the island and recalls his family's long connection to the place.  Produced by Carah Thomas.

The first liquor license issued in Cook County went to a Canadian woman who opened a brothel near the end of what is now the Gunflint Trail. Her name was Margret Matthews, but people knew her as Mag. She was a powerful woman with a big heart, always looking out for those in need.

The North Shore during the 1800s was an isolated place. For many Scandinavian immigrants who arrived during that time period, small family fishing operations were the main source of income as well as a connection to the outside world. Don Hammer is the director at the North Shore Commercial Fishing Museum in Tofte. In this edition of Moments in Time, Don talks about how these fishermen came to live on the North Shore, and what the place was like in the early days.

Photo by B.F. Childs, courtesy of the New York Public Library via Wikimedia.

There are still loggers in Cook County, but not as many as there once were. Buck Benson grew up in Grand Marais. In this edition of Moments In Time he recalls how lumberjacks would flood the town on weekends after a hard week of work. This was back when Buck was a kid, in the 1950s.

Howard Sivertson is a descendent of an Isle Royale fishing family. His family has a connection to the island that spans over 118 years. The lifestyle of Howard’s family changed dramatically over time when Isle Royale National Park was established in 1941. On this edition of Moments in Time, Howard shares his experience surrounding the decline of commercial fishing on the island, and the beginning of the park.

Photo courtesy of the National Park Service via Wikimedia, taken in 1896.