It’s a part of the history of Bigfork that Gene Madsen didn’t want lost.

Log drives at the turn of the last century would begin at Bigfork and end 35 to 40 days later in Craigville. Two crews would follow the drive; one working the log jams and another moving the logs back into the river when they slid up on shore.

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On March 13, 1906 the first election for the Town of Turtle Lake was held, according to “Memories of a Small Town” by Curtis Newstrom.

One of the orders of business was to change the name – the post office had said that there were too many “Turtle Lake” names in the state. The name chosen was Marcell, thought to be after conductor Andy Marcell of the Minneapolis and Rainy River Railroad that accessed the area for the logging industry.

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The most important attraction are the cowboys and cowgirls themselves, but this year the 51st North Star Stampede will also feature the horses of Lynn Payne. It’s a fantastic act, said owner Howard Pitzen, and has been featured in rodeo national finals. Payne’s horses will perform all three days.

Summer is here and it is good to see all you snow birds back!

I’d like to talk to you a little this month about what to do if you experience any problems when you are trying to make a long distance call. If you are trying to make a call, and you get a recording that tells you that you have to dial a 0 instead of a 1 in front of the number to make the call, do not do it. Instead, hang up and try the call the normal way again. If you dial a number with the 0 in front it is considered an operator assisted call and you will be charged 90 cents on your bill from your local phone company. I’m not sure why this happens. It could be that someone is working on something, replacing or upgrading equipment, and that just happened to be the time that you were calling so your call failed. People refer to this as a burp in the long distance. It is such a rare occurrence that it is hard to track what caused it. I have only heard of this happening twice since I’ve been working here, but maybe it has happened more and no one called me to tell me about it. I thought I would mention this so if it happens you know what to do.

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It was a trip that recognized how important grass roots contacts still are` in Washington, D.C.

North Itasca Electric’s business plan is short and to the point, said Board Chair Jim Cox at the annual meeting: “We want to do our very best to continue to light the way. ...We want to do our very best to keep our communities connected.”