Dan Kraker

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Dan Kraker is a reporter for Minnesota Public Radio.

Latest Stories (17)

Spruce top thieves illegally cutting a northwoods cash crop

Dec 23, 2020
So far this season conservation officers have seized well over 15,000 spruce tops illegally harvested in Minnesota.
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources conservation officer Shane Zavodnik examines an illegally cut spruce tree while standing in a frozen swamp on Nov. 23, 2020, on private property near Eveleth, Minnesota.
Derek Montgomery/MPR News

Minnesota grapples with returning "snowbirds"

May 25, 2020
More than 44,000 people leave in the winter and return in the summer, boosting local economies but raising COVID-19 fears.
Terry Teich and Mark Walters pan for gold in a dry creek bed in Arizona. The "snowbirds" returned to their home in Duluth, Minnesota, in early May.
Courtesy of Mark Walter and Terry Teich

Indie booksellers innovate to survive the age of Amazon

Jan 7, 2020
The holiday season is the busiest time of year for many retailers, including the country's 2,500 hundred independent bookstores. Some, despite Amazon's dominance, are flourishing.
Angel and Bob Dobrow opened Zenith Bookstore in Duluth in 2017.
Dan Kraker

Recreational trails are seen as an economic boon

Jan 3, 2020
Cities around the country have long had to worry about roads. Now, with the help of volunteers, they’re also investing more heavily in trails.
Retired Olympic gold medalist Kikkan Randall leads dozens of young Nordic skiers on a workout at the Grand Avenue Nordic Center in Duluth, Minnesota.
Dan Kraker

Rising Great Lakes water levels benefit some, but cost others

Aug 15, 2019
The shipping industry is profiting from rising water levels in the Great Lakes, but homeowners and city parks are struggling.
The city of Duluth, Minnesota’s construction projects supervisor Mike LeBeau looks down at the rebuilding of a section of the popular Lakewalk pedestrian and bike trail. The trail was damaged by a series of huge storms, compounded by high water levels on Lake Superior. The rebuild is costing about $3 million.
Dan Kraker/Marketplace

The market for clean wood-burning furnaces might heat up

Apr 29, 2019
New environmental rules could transform stove makers' business.
Dave Karki welds an "airbox" for Lamppa Manufacturing's EPA-approved wood-burning furnace.
Dan Kraker/MPR News

Passing on a tradition of wild rice harvest in northern Minnesota

Oct 18, 2017
Native Americans migrated to Minnesota centuries ago “where food grew on the water,” 500 years later, the wild rice harvest tradition is still being passed on.
Bruce Martineau poles his father Francis Martineau to the shore of Deadfish Lake after harvesting wild rice on the Fond du Lac reservation on Sept. 5, 2017.
Dan Karker/ for Marketplace