Crime Scene and Trauma Cleanup in Cook, MN

Cook is a small city in St. Louis County in northeastern Minnesota whose motto is 'Gateway to Lake Vermilion' — it serves as the gateway to the western half of the lake.

The town began as Little Fork, after the Little Fork River that runs through it, and was later called Ashawa, a name meaning 'by the river' or 'across the river.'

The name was changed to Cook on August 1, 1908, at the request of the U.S. Postal Service because it was being confused with a village in southern Minnesota named Oshawa.

Cook was named in honor of Wirth Cook, an owner of the railroad built through the town in 1903 and 1904, and the city was incorporated on May 13, 1926.

U.S. Highway 53 and Minnesota State Highway 1 are the two main routes through Cook.

The 2020 census counted 534 people in Cook, down from 574 people in 268 households in 2010 and a peak of 800 residents in 1980.

Cook covers 2.53 square miles, all of it land, in the lake-and-forest country of Minnesota's Arrowhead region.

Cook began as a logging and railroad town on the Little Fork River and later reinvented itself around tourism and recreation on Lake Vermilion.

Camp Vermilion, a Lutheran summer camp on Lake Vermilion near Cook, has operated for more than half a century.