The present spell of rain appears content to linger a few days longer. I hope your copy of the News Herald reaches you dry. Another inch of rain seems likely across the village and much of the county before this latest soaker passes. By Saturday the skies should clear, leaving us with a week of seasonable July weather.
The Fourth of July celebration was by every account a success. Grand Marais took the ball game from Tofte, while Adolph Toftey won the hundred-yard dash and carried home the two-dollar purse. Violet Samskar claimed first in the ladies' fifty-yard dash. Ed Eliasen and Ralph Jackson won the free-for-all canoe race, while J. M. Blackwell and Don Brazell took honors in the doubles. Several townspeople have also informed me that Miss Fjell and I were seen enjoying fresh fry bread at the powwow in the Tourist Park. I have no corrections to offer that report.
The French philosopher Michel de Montaigne wrote, "La plus grande chose du monde, c'est de savoir être à soi" or "The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself." When I first arrived in Grand Marais, I believed that to be enough. One imagines a man discovers himself by climbing a hill alone, tending a stove, and watching the weather. But six months in this village have persuaded me otherwise. I suspect it is a finer thing to belong somewhere. This village has a curious way of introducing a fellow to himself. Perhaps that is why, though I was appointed to forecast the weather, I find Grand Marais has been quietly forecasting me all along.
Editor's Note: This image comes from the 1930s and shows CCC busses in downtown Grand Marais. In 1926, they didn't have any idea that the Great Depression was coming.
Humphrey, Milford J., 1909-1996. 1933 - 1942. "Buses and trucks with Civilian Conservation Corps enrollees in town, Grand Marais, Minnesota." Cook County Historical Society, Accessed July 8, 2026. https://collection.mndigital.org/catalog/p15160coll14:156