The character of Cloquet, Minnesota

Cloquet feels like a working city that has kept its downtown, which is rarer in this part of the state than it should be. Cloquet Avenue still has storefronts, restaurants, bars, and civic buildings on it, and people walk to them. That is a real quality-of-life difference from the Duluth suburbs, where the commercial life is a highway strip.

The residential texture is a consistent 1920s grid on the north side, with alleys, detached garages, and porches, opening into postwar and later neighborhoods and a few newer subdivisions as you move away from the center. The river corridor is industrial and always has been. The neighborhoods closest to the mill live with it, and the ones on the north and east sides largely do not.

The social life runs through the school, the arena, the churches, and the bars. Cloquet's teams are the Lumberjacks, which is the most on-the-nose team name in Minnesota and entirely earned. Hockey is significant here, as it is everywhere in this region, and the high school's activity calendar organizes a lot of the town's winter.

A Saturday in Cloquet is errands in the morning and outside or downtown in the afternoon. In summer that is the river, Jay Cooke, the Munger Trail, or a ballgame. In fall it is football and hunting. In winter it is the rink, the ski trails at the Forestry Center or Jay Cooke, a snowmobile out into the state forest, and a burger at Gordy's if it is still open for the season. For a night with more range, Duluth is 25 minutes.

Character next door

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