Four Pines Bookstore celebrates five years with week of events in Bemidji

Four Pines Bookstore has spent five years proving that an independent shop at 102 Third St. NW can do more than sell books. In downtown Bemidji, the store has become a regular stop for author talks, story times and local partnerships, and its anniversary week is built around that role as much as the milestone itself.

The celebration runs Saturday, June 13, through Saturday, June 20, at the bookstore on Third Street NW. All anniversary events are free, and in-store giveaways will be offered throughout the week. The opening day lineup starts with Sota Sips Coffee Cart from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on June 13, followed by a family story time at 10 a.m.

The schedule continues Tuesday, June 16, with a 6 p.m. discussion featuring Audrey Thayer and Colette A. Hyman on their collaborative work, Weaving Community: Indigenous Women and Leadership in the Twin Cities. The week closes Saturday, June 20, at 5 p.m. with author Byron Graves, who will discuss Medicine Wheels.

Gina and Jason Grinde opened Four Pines in June 2021, after Bemidji’s previous bookstore had closed a few years earlier. Gina Grinde has said the business began with mentorship from Bemidji’s Launchpad and the American Booksellers Association, and that community support in the store’s first year helped keep it alive. That early backing matters now: Five years later, Four Pines is no longer just a retail counter. It is a place where downtown traffic, literary programming and local identity intersect.

The store describes itself as Bemidji’s local independent bookstore since 2021 and the first bookstore on the Mississippi River. Explore Minnesota says Gina Grinde opened it after noticing a lack of access to reading in the area, and that the shop highlights Minnesota and Indigenous authors. That mission is visible in this year’s anniversary programming, which centers Indigenous leadership and Minnesota writers.

Four Pines has also drawn bigger crowds than a typical neighborhood shop. KAXE reported that an event with author William Kent Krueger brought in more than 100 customers, a reminder that books can still pull people into downtown Bemidji when the right author is in the room. Lakeland PBS reported that local artist Sarah Peterson created the bookstore logo and that Compass Rose made the store’s bags and cups, tying the business even more closely to the local creative economy.

As downtown Bemidji looks for steady foot traffic and durable independent businesses, Four Pines has become a useful test case. Its fifth year suggests that a bookstore can survive here, but only by acting as part retail space, part gathering place and part civic institution.