A Look Back at THE TIMES

10 YEARS AGO
March 24, 2016
Members of the Turtle Lake Fire Department were able to use an emergency call as a unscheduled training session last week. The Polk County Sheriff’s Department received a call at 7:42 a.m. regarding a deer that had fallen through the ice on Horseshoe Lake. The Turtle Lake Fire Department was dispatched to 63 S. Horseshoe Drive and found the deer struggling in the cold water. Firemen Eric Russell and Travis Helling pushed their way out onto the thin ice in a jon boat and made it to the open hole that contained the deer. The ice had thinned during the warm weather of the past week and the deer was nearly exhausted from struggling. Russell managed to get a rope around the doe’s neck on his first attempt and the deer was drug back to shore, where it was released. After a short time the deer was able to stand and eventually walked away.
The motto for this year’s high school forensics team is “Public Speaking: what most people fear… we do for fun!” They proved this statement at district competition on Saturday, March 19, when all 16 members achieved scores high enough to proceed to state competition. At each tournament there are three rounds where individuals or groups perform before different judges, and are evaluated to receive a maximum score of 25. Last Saturday, districts were held at Hudson High School and teams had to attain at least two scores of twenty to qualify for state on April 15-16 at the UW-Madison campus.
The Turtle Lake/Clayton track team kicked off their season with the indoor Northern Badger Classic held at UW-Stout on Saturday, March 19th.
TC track member Erik Bauer took home first place honors in the high jump with a jump of 6’2” to lead TC.
Kirstan Keppen, a 6th grader at Turtle Lake schools, recently qualified in the top 12 in her age group, out of over 300 youth gymnasts, for the State Individual Gymnastics Championship in New Prague, MN on Saturday, March 19. Kirstan placed 1st on vault, 6th on bars and floor, 9th on beam and 4th all-around. Kirstan competes for Premier Complex Gymnastics, Clear Lake, WI under Coach Dianne Dietrich and is the daughter of Brian and Jolene Keppen.

20 YEARS AGO
March 30, 2006
Cats became the focus during the kennel license application discussions at the March 20th Village board meeting. Four applications were up for discussion, but it was the stray cat problem that drew most of the attention of the board and the Chief of Police. After departmental reports the Public Hearing was opened. Police Chief Al Gabe explained he had performed inspections in regards to the applications.
On Wednesday and Thursday, March 22 – 23, students at Turtle Lake Elementary jumped all over heart disease and stroke by participating in Jump Rope for Heart. The students went out and asked for donations to help fight the battle against heart attacks and strokes. The students earned prizes for the different tiers of money raised.
Lisa Dipprey and Lauren Hanson, of the Turtle Lake FFA, attended the Sectional FFA Speaking Contest held March 16th at the Bruce High School, where both placed in the top four in their respective category. At the sectional contest, Lauren received second place in the Discussion meet. Her topic was The Impact of Eduction on the Agricultural Community. Lisa received fourth with her extemporaneous speech on Biotechnology in the Agricultural Field.
The Turtle Lake/Clayton middle school wrestlers had two meets last week, one on the road at Bloomer on Tuesday, March 21, and one at home on Thursday, March 23. Coach Skubal said, “the kids are wrestling well. We have room for improvement but they are really giving it their all.” Leading the Lakers at Bloomer were Colten Kozial with a 3-0 record and Nick Herzan, Brent Johnvin, David Benitez, Collin Orf, Mitchell Wannter, and Nate Thornwall with 2-0 records. Hunter Cardinal was 3-1.

30 YEARS AGO
March 21, 1996
By reaching a zero defects level producing components for Motorola’s Paging Products Group, the plastics molding and electromechanical assemblies facilities of St. Paul-based Hartzell Manufacturing, Inc., at St. Croix Falls and Turtle Lake, received special recognition from their valued customer recently. “In our 36 year history, we’ve never had an experience of this magnitude,” said Hartzell’s President/CEO Dwain Kasel.
A discussion was held by the Village Board at Monday evening’s regular meeting regarding placing a weight limit on vehicles using Lindberg Circle on the western edge of the Village. This street is a cul-de-sac and was not constructed for use by large trucks. Public Works Director Carl Kleinschmidt stated he would like to see no heavier vehicles that a pick-up or automobile use the street. The board suggested looking into imposing seasonal weight restrictions, not only on Lindberg Circle but other village streets. They referred the issue to the Streets Committee.
Amanda McGrath, an eighth grader, is Turtle Lake’s 1996 spelling Bee Champion. Mon March 5 all students in grades 5-8 took a fifty word spelling test in their classrooms. On March 12, eight finalists took part in a ten round oral contest in the school auditorium. Amanda earned the highest combines score of the two contests.

40 YEARS AGO
March 20, 1986
Carl Kleinschmidt and Harry Jeska are two very happy men after catching some nice northerns this past weekend while in Canada. Carl’s weighed in at 23 pounds and Harry’s weighed in at 25 pounds. They caught the lunkers out of Al Yeske’s Resort on Salvant Lake, Ontario. The men, who have made several fishing trips to Canada, report that these are the largest fish they have caught while fishing there.
Donovan Niemann, a life-long resident of Turtle Lake, announces his candidacy for a position on the Turtle Lake School Board. Don is a ten-year veteran of the Turtle Lake School Board and has held the offices of President and Treasurer. He is very well acquainted with the problems of the area, both economically and educationally.
Winners of the 1st Annual Cross Country Pokere Run have been announced. Winning the first place of $350 was Becky Todd. Second and third place winners, who received $75 each, were Angelia Jeska and Jim Waite.
St Patrick’s DAy at Preschool Playhouse Child Care Center, located in St. Ann’s Center in Turtle Lake, was celebrated with a special treat. Green eggs and ham was served for breakfast. At lunch, somehow the pears served were also green, and green Jell-O was served at snack time. Everyone wore green clothes and all had a lot of fun on Green Day.

50 YEARS AGO
March 25, 1976
The Athletic Recognition Banquet, co-sponsored by the Turtle Lake Lions Club, will be held in the Turtle Lake High School gymnasium Tuesday, April 6 at 7:30 p.m. This annual event is held to recognize the high school students that participated in athletics, pom-pons, cheerleading and pep band. Mr. Don Paige, a professor at the University of Wisconsin River Falls, and a ranking Wisconsin athletic official, will be the featured speaker at his year’s event.
Barron County residents are responding well to the fund drive underway to move the 100-year old Ulysses School to the County Museum. Approximately $2,000 is needed for the project. The school, whose builder is not known, is located in the Town of Dyle, northeast of Rice Lake on Hwy. 48, then one-half mile south on “MM”.
Marv Dietrich, 6’ 2” starting senior forward was named Most Valuable Player for the Turtle Lake basketball squad. During the year Marv was the big man for the team. He was the conference’s leading scorer with a 23-point per game average and leading rebounder for the team. He was also named to the All-Conference team, along with Jim Wick.
There was no school last Wednesday, at least not for Turtle Lake’s fifty-three third graders. They were off at the circus to see a special school performance of the Shrine Circus in St. Paul. The hour and a half ride into St. Paul seemed to pass very quickly and before entering the Circus auditorium, the youngsters enjoyed their sack lunches and marveled at the huge city they suddenly found themselves in.