Duluth, MN area
2026 President: Brent Blaede
January-February 2026 Chapter News
Happy New Year Everyone!!
From our wintery Northland, we have wrapped up our year with the Arrowhead Chapter’s 64th Annual Christmas Party. We met on Sunday, December 8th at the historic Dreamland Supper Club in South Range, WI. Over 25 members attended, making for a great turnout!
Now, I’d like to tell you a little bit about what I think is so neat about the Dreamland. It is about 6 miles south of Superior on Wisconsin Highway 35. Before the freeways, interstates and U.S. Highways, Wisconsin 35 was the main highway from Superior to Hudson, and back in the day. The Dreamland was a good stopping point for travelers and truck drivers to take a break and have a good meal. In continuous operation since around 1927, the place is antique! One of the last true supper clubs with mid-50s Jetson’s light fixtures to relish trays with breadsticks. It’s like a step back in time!
Back to our party. We enjoyed cocktail hour and socializing with classic shrimp cocktails for everyone provided by the club. We ordered off the menu. Some members ordered the famous 20 oz. lobster or any of the other classic supper club offerings…cold salads with dressing, Prime Rib, BBQ Ribs/Chicken, steaks, chops or seafood. After dinner, with everyone having a good time, our Chapter President paid tribute to our newest members, Jody & Peggy Ayers as well as our longest serving members Steve & Rosemarie Blaede. Every year, like reading “‘Twas the night before Christmas”, he reads the account of the very first Arrowhead Chapter meeting, held on December 12, 1961. Then, presenting our Charter, that is framed with the wood from Stevens-Duryea chassis # 193, he passed it around for members to see.
With a surprise up his sleeve, our President made an announcement and presented our “Spirit-of-the-Arrowhead” Award to this year’s award winner, Michele Haitli. Citing Michele’s contributions to our club from the first day of her membership, as well as displaying a “can-do” spirit, to serving on the Executive Board – thank you to Michele for everything you do and bring to our club. CONGRATULATIONS, MICHELE!! You deserve it!
Next we opened presents, had some good laughs, shared stories of Car Club Christmas parties in the past and are looking forward to what the New Year will bring to the Arrowhead Chapter.
As I was sitting down to write this article, I came up with the idea to write about our Arrowhead Chapter 2025 Year in Review, so here goes. Enjoy!
January-February – no events, snow birds have gone south for the winter.
March – Our first meeting of the year. On March 22nd & 23rd, some of our club members displayed their AACA vehicles at “Motorhead Madness” at the Duluth Arena. A huge, fun public event with lots of neat cars. Our chapter had an outreach table for the public to become acquainted with the AACA.
April – This was our annual breakfast at Ace’s on 29th in Superior. We had good meals, great service and lots of boisterous talking. Excitement was in the air for our tour season to come.
May – We held our club meeting where we got our “Nacho-On”. Members discussed and planned the Crank-Up Tour and our Slow Tour in July.
June – We held our club meeting and judged who has the best Coney dogs…oh… along with finalizing the Crank-Up Tour we hosted.
July – We met our members’ desire for a good old fashioned “Pic-Nic”. We toured in vintage cars to a beautiful park, each one bringing picnic foods. We had lazy sunshine, too much food and a lot of comments to do this again.
August – For our members who prefer car shows, we celebrated chapter member Gene Peterson’s Birthday Party & Car Show at O’Reilly Parts Store in Cloquet. There was a very large turnout of old cars, people, talking and sharing with others plus delicious birthday cake for all attendees.
September – We held our Annual Steak Fry. We enjoyed an easy scenic drive in old cars to an outdoor pavilion where we grilled steaks with fresh corn and all the fixins!
October – Our Chapter Fall Foliage Tour, hosted by Bob Moerke, was a colorful tour through Jay Cooke State Park, Minnesota Hwy 23 to Duquette to Moose Lake, where our lunch stop was at the Route 61 Restaurant. A total of 7 cars and 13 members enjoyed hot delicious food with great service.
November – We held our annual Potluck Supper. With the colder weather and tour season over, we always look forward to this event with all the different goodies brought by the members. We hold our Election of Officers at our November Potluck with Kent Oliver making a motion this year to accept the board as seated for the 2026 season. Motion passed. Our president had door prizes and AACA swag to hand out to members. We watched an old film from the AACA Library’s film archive, which I believe members enjoyed watching. Lots of neat old cars!
December – Christmas Party at Dreamland Supper Club.
Well everyone, that’s 2025 in a nutshell. We’re looking forward to 2026 as we have many ideas and momentum in our club.
Stay warm. Go South if you can. See you in the Spring. It is a new year everyone, so here is my new tag line for 2026.