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 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.