A Look Back at THE TIMES

10 YEARS AGO
June 30, 2016
Two young ladies will vie for the title of Queen of the Lakes and Snows at this year’s Turtle Lake Inter-Co. Fair, Friday through Sunday, July 8-The new Queen and princess will be crowned by outgoing Queen, Colleen Stanley and Princess Athena Hiemstra, Saturday evening during coronation ceremonies beginning at 7:00 p.m. The following day the new royalty will attend a Queen’s Tea at Brothers Restaurant and then will ride through the Grand Parade.10, 2016. This year’s contestants are Makayla Fagerlin and Bailey Peterson.
In addition to the two Queen of the Lakes and Snow contestants, five contestants have registered for the title of Little Miss Turtle Lake. The candidates for this year’s Little Miss Turtle Lake are Ryanne Nykanen, McKayla Pittman, Kylie Schaber, Jade Schallock and Riley Tempel.
July 9th marks the date for the All-School Reunion which will take place beginning at 3 PM at the Turtle Lake School. “The event has been in the planning stages for many months and we feel that it will be a great opportunity for alumni to visit their school and as well as their classmates, teachers and other alumni.” stated school personnel. “Many individuals have registered on-line; however everyone one is welcome, whether they have regis- tered or not.”
The graduating class of 1951 had their Annual Gathering at the VFW in Almena on June 16, 2016. Several classmates were not able to attend due to illness or previous commitments. The classmates had a good time and look forward to meeting again next year, along with members who were unable to attend this year. This was their 65th class reunion. Attending were Leonard Hervas; Melvin Steffen; Ronald Fortmeyer; Evelyn Stuntz (Wanzong); Doris Fisher (Kohn); Leona DeGolier (Diers); Hazel Merle (Mewes); Gayle Hughes (Peterson); Barbara Seeger (Leisz); Gail Anderson (Potvin); Pat Hoffman (Blechinger); Donna Klatt (Schramski); Mardell Schnell (Fredrick).

20 YEARS AGO
June 29, 2006
Eight young ladies, entering the grades three and four at Turtle Lake Elementary School, will appear on stage at the Turtle Lake Inter-Co. Fair, July 7 – 9. The girls will be introduced at 8:00 p.m. Friday night. They will then perform a dance to the music of Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy. At that time the present Little Miss Turtle Lake, Kimberly Gehrman-Martin, and her court, Princesses Karia Kittelson and Sadie Smith, will be introduced. This year’s contestants are Kelly Catlin, Alyssa Hassel, Taylor Imsdahl, Ashley Legget, Mikayla Mathiew, Mackenzie Murphy, Cassaundra Stanley and Toni Vono.
“The Turtle Lake Area Chamber of Commerce is pleased to be bringing back the tradition of having a parade during the Turtle Lake Inter-County Fair,” said Chamber member Jane Schradle, parade coordinator. The parade will be held on Sunday, July 9th and will begin at 12:00 noon.
The second, third and fourth grade Pee Wee team is off to a good start this year, winning almost two-thirds of their games thus far. What makes it more impressive is there were no coaches until three days before their first game. Participating this year are Austin Maasen, Cole Herzan, Nick Strenke, Tim Wohlk, Jimmy Varon, Tyler Ramelfanger, Andrew Davis, Max Molls, Hunter Moen, Tanner Arnold, Jason Buccholz, Ryan Longseth and Damien Blechinger. Coaches include Tom Buchholz, Jim Arnold, Jen Buchholz and Connie Blechinger.
The new FFA officers from the Turtle Lake and Unity chapters set out on their annual Officer Retreat Monday through Wednesday, June 5 – 7. The retreat was held at Jellystone Park in Warrens, Wisconsin. Turtle Lake FFA members attending this year’s retreat were President Katie Dipprey, Vice-President Lauren Hanson, Secreatry Tiffany Wanger, Treasurer Molly Stafne, Parliamentarian Allison Lutz, Chaplain Katelyn Mewes, Jr. High Advisor Randi Stoeberl, Reporter BreAnnaa Morton and Advisor Mr. Don Dipprey.

30 YEARS AGO
June 27, 1996
At their regular monthly meeting Monday evening, the Turtle Lake Board of Education discussed several issues regarding the completion of the building project, and opened bids for a new roof on the high school gym and construction of the baseball field.
At a special meeting Monday evening, the Turtle Lake Village Board, on a 6-1 vote, adopted the proposed Rental Housing Code. Prior to the vote a Public Hearing was held at which several Village residents were allowed to ask questions and voice their opinions.
The boys and girls at Preschool Playhouse have been very busy already this summer. For Dairy Week we made butter and ice cream. We sampled a lot of different dairy products and made a large cow named Daisy that Michelle and Laurie pretended they were milking.
The FFA Alumni has been a supporting force behind the Turtle Lake FFA. Several years ago the Turtle Lake FFA Alumni began a Farm Toy and craft Show to go along with the Turtle Lake FFA Cropshow. This year two members of Mr. Dippery’s welding class, Sham Leisz and Mike Cass, built free-standing frames for the signs which are used the day of the show.

40 YEARS AGO
June 19, 1986
Once again Fair time is almost upon us and so it’s time to start choosing your team for the water fight competition. Area residents who are 18 years of age or older are encouraged to take their annual bath at the Fair, whether they need it or not. The preliminary competition begins Friday evening, July 11 at 8:00 p.m. and the semi-finals will be held on Saturday afternoon, July 12 at 1:00 p.m.
Timothy J. Byrnes of Turtle Lake, Wisconsin was ordained a Deacon of the Diocese of Superior on Jun 7, 1986.The sacrament of Holy Orders was administered by the Most Reverend Raphael M. Fliss, Bishop of Superior, at At. Ann’s Catholic Church in Turtle Lake.
State Treasurer Charles P. Smith, chairman of the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands, announced recently the disbursement of a state trust fund load of $135,000.00 to the Turtle Lake Public School District in Barron and Polk Counties for swimming pool reconstruction.
Last Saturday, eighteen engineer members of the National Guard from Spooner came to the Town of Almena for training in spreading gravel. Four large dump trucks, a lowboy with a tractor and front end loader hauled gravel for the township on one of their road projects. All the township has to pay for is the gravel. SFC Greg Rayment was in charged of the project.

50 YEARS AGO
June 24, 1976
Sunday, June 27 will be a good time to look around the two newest additions to our growing village. Both the new elderly housing project and the new Impact Seven building will be holding Open House in the afternoon between 1:00 and 4:00 p.m.
A large delegation from Beaver Township paid a surprise visit to the Polk County Highway Committee meeting at Balsam Lake Tuesday, June 15 to demand that County Road T be rebuilt. They presented a petition to the committee containing 226 signatures of users of the broken up road.
An old-fashioned 4th of July celebration will be held in conjunction with the Turtle Lake Inter-County Fair immediately following the parade on Monday, July 5. Events being featured include the Annual Turtle Derby and Kids Races, Sack Races, Wheelbarrow Races, Greased Pig Chase, Greased Pole Climb, Horseshoe Pitching Contest and a Tug of War for the adults.
The dedication service for the new addition of Zion Lutheran Church of Turtle Lake will be held Sunday morning, June 27 at 10:30 a.m.The speaker for the service will be Rev. Henry E. Simon of Wausau, President of the North Wisconsin District of The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod.
Tuesday evening, June 22, the Turtle Lake Legion baseball team traveled to Hayward and defeated the Hayward Legion team 7-2. Tom McQuillan pitched 5 innings of very fine ball. He had 5 strikeouts, gave up only 4 walks, and allowed 5 hits, and was the winning pitcher. Jeff Hoffman and Mike Schneider were credited with two stolen bases apiece, and Dave Slack had 3 rbis credited to him on a bunt.