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This tiny Minnesota town’s wild legacy: 2 bank robberies, a train derailment, unsolved wildfires

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This tiny Minnesota town’s wild legacy: 2 bank robberies, a train derailment, unsolved wildfires


PINEWOOD, Minn. — Eighteen miles northwest of Bemidji, within the backwoods of Buzzle Township, is Pinewood — as soon as an operative logging camp stuffed with lumberjacks and early settlers. All through its historical past, this as soon as vigorous neighborhood has turn out to be a spot of unsolved mysteries, two financial institution robberies, a weird practice derailment and a number of wildfires.

The city was formally settled within the early 1900s, its huge forests turned dwelling to the lumber trade and the Soo Line Railroad introduced settlers and lumberjacks from everywhere in the nation. Because the logging camps grew, Pinewood’s inhabitants grew with it. East Pinewood Faculty was constructed, together with a church, a saloon, a submit workplace and even a movie show. However with time all of those buildings have been deserted, left to rot, destroyed by hearth or torn down for brand spanking new development.

At the moment a big stone construction sits within the brush beside Pinewood’s outdated principal avenue. Cracked and left to crumble, this stone was as soon as a secure contained in the Folks’s State Financial institution, and its story entails a gang of robbers, a lacking bag of cash and a gunfight.

The Folks’s State Financial institution served the residents of Pinewood till its closing within the Thirties. The primary theft that befell in late November 1921 was not profitable. The entrance door was damaged into, and the notorious secure’s lock was damaged, however no cash had been taken. However recountings of the second theft could be informed for years to return.

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On Sept. 29, 1922, an explosion rattled the sleeping residents of Pinewood. The secure contained in the Folks’s State Financial institution had been blown to items and the entrance door of the financial institution was blown off its hinges. The entrance web page of that afternoon’s Bemidji Pioneer gave an account of the theft:

“Armed with shotguns loaded with massive dimension shot, a band of no less than 5 financial institution robbers invaded Pinewood early this morning, blew the secure of the Folks’s State financial institution and escaped with about $1,100 in money and a amount of bonds. Efforts on the a part of the folks of the city to halt the theft failed, the robbers continued their work even after being fired upon, and making their getaway in an vehicle, or probably two, which they’d left a few quarter of a mile east of city. After slicing all phone and telegraph wires main out of the city, the bandits started their work on the financial institution between 2:30 and three o’clock, wrecking the secure with three separate expenses, one of many blasts blowing out one facet of the financial institution constructing.”

Al Thompson, a Soo Line agent, was concerned within the gunfight with the bandits. A stray bullet shattered a close-by window and Al’s brother was wounded. Fortunately nobody else was injured that night time.

Years later, in an interview performed by the Works Progress Administration, Carl Clauson, a cashier who was in command of the financial institution on the time, defined the theft in higher element within the Works Progress Administration Mission Journals in 1937.

“The precise quantity of the loss was by no means decided, as there have been a number of bonds and different helpful securities taken in addition to about $30,000 in notes, beside the money readily available,” he recounted. “All the things within the secure was eliminated, however solely a small a part of dynamite had blown the contents of the secure into bits of paper, and it seemed like a rat’s nest.”

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The following morning a bag of pennies was discovered between Pinewood and Solway and a few burned checks close to Lake Itasca, the one cash recovered from that night time. The burglars had been by no means discovered, nobody ever got here ahead and nobody was ever charged for the crime.

“It wasn’t the James brothers that robbed the financial institution!” Lois Jenkins says. Jenkins, a researcher for the Beltrami County Historic Society, grew up close to Pinewood.

The outdated Pinewood Faculty is pictured in April 1967. In accordance with Lois Jenkins, the varsity continues to be standing at present hidden within the brush.

Courtesy / Beltrami County Historic Society

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When the Soo Line Railroad was discontinued in 1963, the tracks that after ran by means of Pinewood had been ripped from the bottom or buried within the earth.

“The trestle west of Pinewood sits on Nelson Dam street. It’s earthen now, they lined the tracks with a timber body within the early Nineteen Fifties,” Jenkins defined. “However there’s a rumor that there was an accident on that trestle a few years in the past. Leon Olson claims that he was there to see it occur.”

Leon Olson, who grew up close to the Pinewood space, claims {that a} practice derailed and fell from the trestle west of the city into the Clearwater River. In accordance with Olson, it was a good distance down, however fortunately nobody was harm within the incident. Olson supplied an image to show that the accident occurred, however the picture is difficult to make out. A file of the accident has but to be discovered.

Wildfires additionally ravaged the realm, typically from causes unknown, taking hundreds of acres of their wake. The latest hearth was in 1973 and it destroyed over 2,700 acres. Some suppose it was began by a dumpster hearth gone dangerous, however nobody is definite. Jenkins tells of one other rumor that the fireplace was began by a gaggle of Bemidji State College college students.

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A screenshot shows a run running between about five old buildings in Pinewood, Minnesota

Pinewood, Minnesota, is pictured on this screenshot of an August 2009 Google Avenue View picture.

Submitted / Google Maps

“They known as themselves ‘Rangers.’ A bunch of scholars bought a church on Buzzle street and used it for events within the early Nineteen Seventies,” Jenkins says. “And due to vandalism or misadventures, the church caught hearth and burned. This fireplace may have probably began the Pinewood hearth of 1973. That is all rumour after all, however that may have made an attention-grabbing story.”

At the moment what stays of the city are only some deserted buildings, the rundown saloon, what’s left of the financial institution, the Buzzle City Corridor, and the Pinewood American Legion.

In accordance with Jenkins, the city corridor was once a dance corridor the place all types of occasions had been held. Lumberjacks deserted the realm when the lumber was gone and the logging operations and sawmills had been shut down. And as different cities within the space grew in dimension, many moved from Pinewood to the place there have been extra employment alternatives.

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There are possible extra unsolved mysteries in Pinewood, shrouded in thriller, distorted by years of rumors or buried within the soil.

Editor’s Be aware: The Beltrami County Historic Society is partnering with the Pioneer on 

a collection of month-to-month articles highlighting the historical past of the realm.

 For extra details about the Historic Society, go to 

www.beltramihistory.org.

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Minnesota

Some of the new laws taking effect Jan. 1 in Minnesota

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Some of the new laws taking effect Jan. 1 in Minnesota


Some of the new laws taking effect Jan. 1 in Minnesota – CBS Minnesota

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The new year signals the start of new laws taking effect in Minnesota, which will impact Minnesotans’ health, wallets and safety.

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Goalie Nicole Hensley stars as league-leading Minnesota Frost top New York Sirens in shootout | CBC Sports

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Goalie Nicole Hensley stars as league-leading Minnesota Frost top New York Sirens in shootout | CBC Sports


Nicole Hensley made back-to-back saves in the shootout and the Minnesota Frost earned their fourth straight victory with a 4-3 win over the New York Sirens on Sunday in Newark, N.J.

It was the fourth time in seven all-time meetings that a game between the teams was decided in OT and the second this season. New York won the season opener in St. Paul, Minn.

Kendall Coyne Schofield scored two first-period goals to stake the Frost to the early lead and Taylor Heise beat Kayle Osborne, who relieved starter Abigail Levy in the New York net to start the second period, two minutes in to make it a 3-0 lead.

WATCH l Heise scores shootout winner:

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Minnesota captures shootout win over New York to remain on top of PWHL standings

Taylor Heise’s fourth round shootout goal turned out to be the difference as the Minnesota Frost defeated New York Sirens 4-3 Sunday in New Jersey.

But Osborne did not allow another goal in regulation and wasn’t seriously challenged in overtime while the Sirens staged a comeback. Brooke Hobson and Elizabeth Giguere each scored in the second period and Alex Carpenter pounced on a loose puck and lifted a shot over Hensley’s shoulder from deep in the face-off circle to tie the game midway through the third period.

Hensley was brilliant in overtime, turning away four close-in, open shots by the Sirens (2-1-1-1), two of them on breakaway chances.

Minnesota (4-0-1-0) got goals from Denisa Křížová, Grace Zumwinkle and Heise in the shootout. Noora Tulus and Carpenter each converted in the shootout for New York, but Hensley came up with a save on Sarah Fillier before stopping the final two shooters for the Sirens.

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Hensley finished with 33 saves on 36 shots to earn the win. Osborne made 18 saves on 19 shots over her 45 minutes in goal for New York. Carpenter’s two-goal effort lifted her past Coyne Schofield and into the league lead with four goals in her first five games and she now has a league-leading seven points.

WATCH l Sirens’ Fillier, Carpenter test their off-ice chemistry:

New York Sirens’ Sarah Fillier, Alex Carpenter test their off-ice chemistry

Host Anastasia Bucsis puts newest teammates and linemates to the test to determine if their chemistry on the ice, translates off it.



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Unique northern Minnesota border airport closing after 70 years

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Unique northern Minnesota border airport closing after 70 years


A northern Minnesota airport with an unusual claim to fame is closing after 70 years of operation.

The Piney-Pinecreek Border Airport near Roseau is the only airport with a paved runway crossing the U.S.-Canada border.

The border airport opened in 1953 to expedite customs processing for air travelers and was regularly used by hunters and anglers flying to Canada.

The Piney Pinecreek airport has the only paved runway crossing the US Canada border.

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Initially, the airport had a grass runway that ended at the border, but in 1978 a runway expansion added a paved runway that extended into Canada.

Customs agents would meet travelers on either side of the border.

But declining usage and significant impending repair costs led to the decision to close the one of a kind operation, said Ryan Gaug, director of the Minnesota Department of Transportation aeronautics office.

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“We know that the pavement condition has declined significantly over the years and will need a reconstruct most likely in the next one to three years,” said Gaug.

Short-term costs to bring the facility up to safety standards is estimated at $3.8 million.

Piney-Pinecreek is the only airport owned by MnDOT, and it is operated in collaboration with the Rural Municipality of Piney, Manitoba.

A Canadian official said the local government could not raise the money to pay its share of the planned improvement costs and Piney officials ended the joint operations agreement.

Gaug said an estimated 200 airplanes a year use the facility, far lower than traffic at similar sized facilities.

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There are six airports on the U.S.-Canada border, but Piney-Pinecreek is the only one with a paved runway.

“It’s always been the No. 1 fun fact that I’ve shared with friends, family, coworkers, colleagues here at MnDOT,” said Gaug.

“It’s a tough decision to close an airport ever, but the evidence was all there that now was the time,” he said.

concrete with black stripes

MnDOT officials said the runway at Piney Pinecreek border airport needs a costly reconstruction.

Courtesy MnDOT

There are no local airplanes based at the airport.

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“It’s very sad for the community to lose its airport,” said Marlin Elton, a local resident who served on the airport commission and helped maintain the facility for 30 years.

Elton said the closure hasn’t raised concerns in the community because “if you don’t fly, it won’t affect you. The ones who will be affected are the pilots who use it.”

Gaug said MnDOT reached out to pilots and aviation groups to gauge support for keeping the airport open but found “there just isn’t a strong user base for this airport and that also led to not a strong local support fighting to keep this airport.”

The final day of operations for the Piney-Pinecreek airport is Dec. 26.



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