Store History

Northwind Book & Fiber opened its doors in May, 1993.  Alene and Norm Peterson turned their shared passion for books and Alene's passion for yarn & weaving into a bookstore/yarn shop. The original store was located across the street from its current location in space one-quarter the size.   When books and yarn overflowed the shelves in 2000, the store moved to 205 Walnut St.--in the historic 1915 A.D. Burnett building.  The space now occupied by Northwind Book & Fiber was a hardware store for its first 85 years. 

In April of 2007, Carol Blizzard Dunn, a long-time employee purchased the store.  She and her family--husband Jamie and children Max and Hannah--spent the spring remodeling and restoring some of the original features--floor to ceiling windows and part of the tin ceiling. Carol & Jamie manage the entire building, which includes the old corner bank, now a cabin & home decor store, and the original Masonic Temple & dance hall upstairs, which are now a dance & karate studio.

Carol has had a life-long love of books, so owning a bookstore is a dream come true.  She grew up in Elgin, Illinois and attended Kalamazoo College in Michigan.  After a detour through upstate New York, she and Jamie came back to the Midwest, where Carol earned her Master's in Public Policy & Administration from UW-Madison.  She worked for the state of Wisconsin until Jamie persuaded her to move up north for his job with the DNR.  Now, they can't imagine living anywhere else.