I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.
Dec. 28, 1999
By Devlyn Brooks
A Bemidji man was killed when the snowmobile he was riding collided head-on with a car Sunday in Bemidji.
Michael Scott Rognstad, 33, was pronounced dead at North Country Regional Hospital in Bemidji shortly after being rushed from the scene of the accident.
According to the Beltrami County Sheriff's Department, Rognstad and a person on a second snowmobile were northbound on Tyler Avenue Southeast near Mill Street East about 8:45 p.m. Sunday.
Rognstad was driving his snowmobile against the flow of traffic and collided with a southbound car driven by 19-year-old Joshua Collins of Bemidji.
the second snowmobiler maneuvered around the vehicle, according to Beltrami County Sheriff Keith Winger.
Rognstad was rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Collins was also treated for minor injuries at the hospital.
Winger said Collins tested negative for alcohol Sunday, but said test results determining whether Rognstad had been drinking were not complete.
Winger said no charges are pending in the case.
Rognstad's funeral arrangements were pending Monday with the Olson-Schwartz Funeral Home of Bemidji.
He was the brother of former Beltrami County Sheriff DeeWayne Rognstad, who served from 1995-98, after which he resigned to take a position with Leech Lake Tribal College in Cass Lake.
Rognstad is the second person killed in a snowmobile-related crash this winter in Minnesota.
Seventeen-year-old Joshua Adams Baldwin died when he drove his snowmobile into a utility pole anchor wire near Albert Lea, Minn., on Dec. 21.
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