Deane Morrison is a science writer at the University of Minnesota, where she authors the Minnesota Starwatch column.

The Gunflint is closing in on its last days of 2012. This is happening under the watchful gaze of our “little spirit moon” (Manidoo Giizisoons).
 

Folks who fret that kids aren’t spending enough time outdoors ought to meet Mara MacDonell, a high school senior living in Grand Marais.

Sometimes the steady diet of bad news that streams in via radio, TV and Internet can be really discouraging.  The news cycle has been especially grim recently, causing me to worry about the state

Susan Zimmerman is a Grand Portage band member who spent her early childhood on Hungry Jack Lake.  She is an avid hunter, fisherwoman, and wild ricer who also makes baskets and decorative gourds that are rooted in traditional crafts. Anishinaabe Way series producer Staci Drouillard met with her last fall in Grand Portage, where she was in the final days of her annual moose hunt.

Keying this week’s Gunflint scoop, I find the heavens are aligned, finally signaling the first day of winter.

Christmas vacation once meant rabbits. Duluth's suburban outback where I grew up was bursting with bunnies. Cottontails inhabited backyards.

Lutsen native Molly Rider is planning to paddle the entire Mississippi River this summer, starting at Lake Itasca and ending in New Orleans.

Deane Morrison is a science writer at the University of Minnesota, where she authors the Minnesota Starwatch column.

When you think of Lake Superior shipwrecks, probably the Edmund Fitzgerald comes to mind. But there was another storm, one that was much more devastating, that took place 70 years earlier.