Paul Lundgren
Seletive Focus: Sea Smoke
Instagram
159 likes, 9 comments - drone_grown_photography on January 2, 2022: "Sea Smoke 💨 #destinationduluth #captureduluth #visitduluth #exploreminnesota #lakesuperior #greatlakesshipping #canalpark #duluth #minnesota #minnesota365 #aerialliftbridge #northshore #lakesuperiormagazine #dji #drone #dronephotography #dronestagram #picoftheday #picture #seasmoke #sunrise #instagood #instagram #travel #cold #winter".
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Lake Superior sea smoke is all the rage on Instagram. (more…)
Duluth’s Emerson School
Emerson School, located at 1028 W. Third St. in the Observation Hill area of Duluth’s Central Hillside neighborhood, opened for classes 130 years ago today — Jan. 2, 1892. The school closed circa 1982 and became apartments. The building was purchased by the Emerson Tenants Cooperative in 1994. (more…)
2021: The Year in Duluth Gig Posters
It wasn’t quite the wild and crazy return to rawk that Duluthians longed for, but 2021 did mark the transition away from livestreams to in-person concerts. Sometimes outdoors, sometimes masked, sometimes with vaccine cards required and often just with fingers crossed, music fans edged back into the concert scene in year-two of the COVID-19 pandemic. If one thing remained normal, it was that Perfect Duluth Day collected a bunch of gig-poster images to share at the end of the year. (more…)
Selective Focus: Snow Day 2021
Instagram
73 likes, 0 comments - bauer50km on December 27, 2021: "Checking conditions on Chester. Looks pretty good.
#perfectduluthday #befromduluth #authenticduluth #captureduluth #captureminnesota #northshoremn #exploremn #superiorhikingtrail #duluthmn #duluthparks #chesterpark".
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A few select images from today’s blizzardry via Instagram. (more…)
Postcard from Duluth’s Shipping District
This postcard was mailed 110 years ago today — Dec. 26, 1911. John Sisco of Scottsdale, Penn. was the recipient.
Not much is recognizable in this view of the western downtown area and waterfront. The steeple of Sacred Heart Cathedral still stands today at Sacred Heart Music Center. The Board of Trade Building is now Board of Trade Lofts. What other structures in this postcard have stood the test of time? (more…)
Saturday Essay: Select Gems from 2021
Typically the “select gems” feature on the last Saturday of the year has nothing to do with Google Analytics popularity contests, and instead is more of an “editor’s choice.” But 2021 wasn’t an ordinary year for Perfect Duluth Day’s “Saturday Essay” series. As reported last week, a single author swept our annual list of the five most-read essays.
So this year’s “select gems” are the five most-read essays of the year that weren’t authored by Jim Richardson. Because the rest of us aren’t exactly chopped liver.
In the past six years PDD has published 263 essays showcasing the work of 43 different writers, and we’re always looking to expand that roster. Anyone who has an original piece of literary excellence that seems to fit (or appropriately defy) the established format should email paul @ perfectduluthday.com to get involved.
And now, links to a few select gems from season six … (more…)
Postcard from the Wilbert in Cotton, 1961
The Wilbert Café was founded in 1922. This postcard bears the year 1961. The modern day version of the Wilbert is located at 9105 Highway 53 in Cotton — about 30 miles northwest of Duluth.
The Duluth News Tribune profiled the Wilbert in 2018, noting it “gets its name from its original owners, combining the first names of William Lyman and Bert Robinson. In 1941, John (Tobie) Lackner took over management after William Lyman’s death, and Tobie and his wife, Ann, went on to establish the famed Tobies Restaurant and Bakery in Hinckley, Minn. … The current Wilbert was rebuilt in 1991, and it was purchased in 2004 by longtime employee Sandy Simek and her husband, Steve.”
PDD Bandcamp Playlist: A Holiday Sampler
Assembled here for your holiday listening pleasure, a sampling of Christmas or “Christmasish” tunes by artists in the Duluth music scene. It’s not even close to a comprehensive collection of local holiday music, just a sampling of a few tracks available on Bandcamp. (more…)
The Most Read Saturday Essays of 2021
Never before has one author landed more than two works on Perfect Duluth Day’s list of the top-five most read Saturday Essays. And now, like some literary Muhammad Ali, Jim Richardson landed not three, not four, but all five. Total domination. He also had the sixth-most-read essay of the year, just to rub his popularity in the noses of every other writer in town.
How did he do it? Well, for starters he wrote more essays than everyone else. But ultimately it was the quality of the goods that made him PDD’s click hog in 2021. Many of his works fell into a genre we might describe as “Duluth fan fiction,” but at least one in the top five is about something that really happened. And another one could be fact based, but we can’t prove whether the author wants to see naked women or not. (more…)
Lyceum Theatre, 1961
This photo of Duluth’s Lyceum Theatre is dated Dec. 17, 1961, and credited to Clarence Sager. It shows just a portion of the large building at 423-431 W. Superior St., which was demolished in 1966. (more…)
Postcard from the Arthur M. Clure Public Marine Terminal
This postcard was mailed on Dec. 14, 1971 — 50 years ago today. Mrs. W. A. Gramley of Wheaton, Ill. was the recipient. The sender’s name looks something like Evie. (more…)
Postcard from the Lakeview Castle
Lakeview Castle, 5135 North Shore Drive in Duluth Township, got its start circa 1914 as a fish stand and coffee shop, eventually growing into a restaurant, lounge and motel. It ceased operation at the end of 2009 and the Clearwater Grille opened there in the fall of 2010. (more…)
Postcard from the lobby of Duluth’s McKay Hotel
This undated postcard, published by Bloom Brothers Company of Minneapolis, offers a view of the lobby of the Hotel McKay, which stood at 430 W. First St. in Downtown Duluth from 1901 to about 1965. (more…)
Monthly Grovel: December 2021
Oh, holy night and joy to the flippin’ world! The halls of the PDD Calendar are so decked with holiday events that you can’t even find the Clem Snide show you’re looking for. That just means PDD’s merry elves are doing their jobs, publishing enough events to keep your bells completely jingled.
Each month we reach out with one beggarly blog post to remind everyone that human beings and not machines are at work editing and publishing calendar events. So if you appreciate it, drop a few bucks in the PayPal account. (more…)
Postcard from the Famous Aerial Bridge
This undated postcard of Duluth’s Aerial Lift Bridge appears to be circa the 1960s, but perhaps there is a clue in there somewhere to narrow the date down. (more…)
Sledding Duluth’s Avenues in 1921
One hundred years ago there were far fewer cars on Duluth’s streets, but it was still considered dangerous to sled down the city’s steep avenues. So Duluth Police Chief Warren E. Pugh surveyed the city and selected a few recommended avenues that posed “the least danger to life and limb,” according to the Duluth Herald of Nov. 22, 1921. (more…)
Kingsbury Creek has a new bridge, snowmobile trail restored
The bridge over Kingsbury Creek in West Duluth that was washed away in the Historic Summer Solstice Flood Disaster of 2012 has been replaced. The snowmobile route that runs across the bridge and snakes through the hillside south of Interstate 35, roughly from Keane Creek to Knowlton Creek, has also been restored after years of neglect. The lost ridgeline snowmobile route is part of the St. Louis River Corridor snowmobile trail system and links to the Hermantown trail system.
Duluth’s Parks and Recreation Division and the Hermantown Night Riders are hosting a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the bridge on Dec. 17.
Postcard from the Lyceum Building
This undated postcard of Duluth’s Lyceum Theatre does not appear to have been mailed, though it does have a message on the back. (more…)
Talkin’ PDD on For the Love of Duluth Podcast
Get ready for self-referential blabber and Perfect Duluth Day shop-talk galore. Yours truly, Paul Lundgren, is the guest on the sixth episode of the For the Love of Duluth podcast.
Tom Jamison, a former lawyer turned local business owner, started the podcast in August as a passion project. Yvonne Myers is co-host and Lauren Wells handles the techy stuff. The focus is on Duluth art, culture, food, beer and natural amenities.
When Wausau was the Christmas City of the North
This 70-year-old article from the Wausau Daily Herald, published Nov. 17, 1951, serves as a reminder that before Duluth had its parade and “Christmas City” song, a Wisconsin city more than 200 miles to the southeast had already branded itself the “Christmas City of the North.” (more…)
Postcard from the old trading post in Fond du Lac
This postcard was mailed on Nov. 13, but the year on the postmark is blurred so we’re going to estimate it was about 80 years ago.
The American Fur Company began trading on the St. Louis River at Fond du Lac in 1817 and continued until 1847. A replica was built as a tourist attraction in 1935, and that’s what is depicted in the postcard image. The replica was demolished in the late 1960s. (more…)
Selective Focus: November Gales 2021
Instagram
209 likes, 3 comments - tonecoughlin on November 11, 2021: "One of the neat images from today.
Gales of November 11, 2021.
#galesofnovember #galeforce #lakesuperior #lakesuperiormagazine #destinationduluth #befromduluth #waves #lakesuperior #greatlakes #greatlakesmn #storm".
instagram.com
Whether it’s Ten November, Eleven November or Any-day November, it’s no surprise when the gales roll in, yet it’s always eye opening. Waves crashed along the shores of Lake Superior today causing flooding in downtown Grand Marais. Collected here are select photos from Instagram showing the raw power of the big lake they call gitche gumee. (more…)
EEssented
Is it art? A descent into madness? Or just a scrap of paper with some notes on it, dropped on the sidewalk at the corner of Third Avenue West and Superior Street?
Armistice Day Parade, Football and Moonshine Mishap of 1921
In addition to the parade in Downtown Duluth, Armistice Day of 1921 featured two big football games. The Denfeld High School eleven traveled to Coleraine to play for the northern section championship, while the Duluth Kaycees hosted the Minneapolis Marines to determine the state’s professional championship. But the hilarity of the day occurred three miles outside of Floodwood. (more…)