March 2023
Join the Nation … thank a Vietnam veteran!
The Two Harbors Anderson-Claffy American Legion Post 109 will be hosting an open house on Wednesday, March 29th, from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. This is a community event open to the public, all veterans, and their family members. A free light lunch and non-alcoholic beverage will be provided for Vietnam War-era veterans and one significant other. The Post is located at 614 First Avenue. There will be country maps, displays, informational tables, and a DJ providing background music from the era. Everyone is invited to attend. March 29th is a fitting choice for a day honoring Vietnam veterans. It was chosen to be observed in perpetuity as March 29, 1973, was the day the United States Military Assistance Command, Vietnam was disestablished and also the day the last U.S. combat troops departed Vietnam. In addition, on and around this same day Hanoi released the last of its acknowledged prisoners of war. The 2008 National Defense Authorization Act (Public Law 110-181 § 598) empowers the Secretary of Defense to conduct a program on behalf of the Nation that commemorates the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, of the Americans who served on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces during the period of the Vietnam War, approximately 7 million are living in America and abroad today.
Hauschild and Zeleznikar working across the aisle
In one of their frequent public meetings that the newly elected legislators have been holding in their districts, the pair showed that they are accessible and willing to work together for greater good.
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
worked with CO Williams on a birch theft investigation. A search warrant was drafted and executed, and charges are pending on two individuals for timber trespass.
From the Outside
Winter Images As I write this the snow measures 48 inches deep at my house, and in this latter part of winter the natural world seems to be in a state of suspended animation, with an unusual lack of bird diversity at the feeder, few tracks in the woods, and spring seemingly far off in the future. My mind flashes back to last year when a foot of snow still lay on the ground at the start of May here in the North Shore Highlands, and my fishing opener lake trout trip was scuttled by ice.
Masked Fan Speaks
With all NHL teams down to 14 games or less left on their regular season schedules, what can one deduce from a dive into the stats and standings right now? This afternoon the Minnesota WILD beat the WAS Capitals in St. Paul in a 5-2 game that had a bit more excitement than the score would lead you to believe. For the week just ended the club also won at STL in an 8-5 lesson on how not to prepare for the playoffs. The WILD regressed to not playing shutdown defense as they had in the few weeks before this game and took quite a few penalties to top it off.
Runoff Report
Reluctant editor’s note: As the Exalted Shack Master was preparing the Armistice Agreement to end the championship of the Intergalactic Major Junior Hockey League, now in its 114th overtime, he ordered the Camp Shack Marching Band to be prepared to play after all parties had signed paperwork.
BEYOND
The hair upon the head Sampson was a biblical character, a Nazarite, last of the Judges. He could slay a lion and massacre an army of Philistines with only a donkey’s jawbone.
Pet of the Week
In Hawaiian 'Kona' refers to the side of an island sheltered from the wind, and in Old Norse it means woman or wife. This Kona enjoys ruling her household and hoarding pig ears.
Lost locomotive found in Duluth
Manufactured in February 1964, General Electric diesel-electric locomotive No. 34584 rolled off the assembly line and straight into the Magma Copper Company’s bustling mine complex near San Manuel, Arizona. There it served venerably until the mine shuttered in the early 2000s, ending a decades-long run of shuffling railcars at what once reigned as the continent’s largest underground copper mine. How that little locomotive –Magma No. 6–escaped the desert heat only to arrive in the frigid climes of Duluth is quite a leap, but escape it did, having been sold to Ag Processing Inc. (AGP), which owned an 1880s-built grain elevator on Rice’s Point. That elevator property became Magma No. 6’s new home. When the Duluth Seaway Port Authority purchased the property in December 2020, it inherited ol’ No. 6. According to Ken Buehler, executive director of the Lake Superior Railroad Museum, General Electric produced about 550 of these 25-ton locomotives from 1941-1974. Just 16 feet in length, they deliver 150 horsepower and travel no faster than 20 mph. They’re used primarily for switching railcars, which is what it did at the Duluth grain elevator in addition to the Arizona copper mine and its 29.4-mile San Manuel Railroad. Marc Pearsall, a researcher with the Arizona State Railroad Museum Foundation, somehow ascertained the whereabouts of Magma No. 6 last fall. His foundation is working to establish a railroad museum in Williams, Arizona, along the Grand Canyon Railroad. Pearsall reached out to the Duluth Seaway Port Authority asking if the stout little steed could migrate back to Arizona and become a cornerstone of the museum’s collection, repainted and restored with its 1970s Magma livery. The Port Authority agreed to the deal and is presently planning an Arizona homecoming for this unlikely traveler, which will become one of approximately 12 such specimens preserved in railroad museums nationwide, according to Buehler. “From a curatorial aspect, the engin