The character of Cloquet, Minnesota
Part of the Cloquet neighborhood guide. Back to the full guide.
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.
Landmarks
The only gas station Frank Lloyd Wright ever designed, built in 1958 and still operating, on the National Register of Historic Places. It is the single most architecturally significant building in Carlton County.
The paper mill on the St. Louis River, successor to the Northwest Paper and Potlatch operations, and the city's largest and most visible industrial presence.
The Fond du Lac Band's casino, hotel, and event venue at the I-35 and MN 210 junction in Carlton, one of the region's largest employers and entertainment venues.
The two-year college in Cloquet, operated in partnership between the Fond du Lac Band and the Minnesota State system.
Markers and memorials to the October 1918 firestorm that destroyed the city and killed hundreds across the region, the defining event in Carlton County history.
Character next door
Ten minutes east, a rural community with a small school district and noticeably higher prices for the same commute.
CarltonTen minutes south at the Jay Cooke gateway, the county seat and its own ISD 93 district, which absorbed the former city of Thomson in 2015.
ProctorFifteen minutes northeast up I-35, a railroad town with a small district and a shorter Duluth commute.
Fond du LacDuluth's far western neighborhood on the St. Louis River, the closest Duluth address to Cloquet.
Gary-New DuluthWest Duluth on the river corridor, similar prices and similar working-town character with ISD 709 schools.