Paul Lundgren
Duluth Liquor Stores vs. Tattoo Parlors
In recent years I’ve noticed a number of Duluth liquor stores have gone out of business while a number of tattoo parlors have opened. I like to joke that the latter business model depends on the former, but lately I’ve had the perception that at some point in recent history the number of tattoo parlors grew to exceed the number of liquor stores.
An ongoing count, however, suggests otherwise. The lists in this post show 16 liquor stores within Duluth city limits, but only five tattoo parlors. Of course, I tend to keep better tabs on where beer can be procured than on places to have my flesh artistically carved. So help me out. What liquor stores or tattoo parlors are missing from these lists? (more…)
Mystery Photo #46: Duluth-area Bowling Alley
From the depths of my wife’s closet comes this old photo from her family collection, presumably shot at a Duluth-area bowling alley roughly 50 or 60 years ago. Since we’re talking about a West Duluth family, Stadium Lanes would be the number one contender. Whatever bowling alley it is, it’s likely to have been remodeled and then closed since this photo was taken, so this might be a tough solve.
Sixteen Years on the Superior Hiking Trail: Duluth Sections
By the end of 2006 I had completed the northernmost 140 miles or so of the Superior Hiking Trail over three separate backpacking trips. My methodical march from one end of the trail to the other was broken up that summer, however, when newly cut segments of the SHT in Duluth demanded my immediate attention.
I can’t fully express how awesome it is to have the SHT through Duluth, how quickly I’ve taken it for granted, and how I never even dreamed of it before it happened.
Somehow I actually thought of Duluth as an outstanding hiking city before the SHT. In retrospect, it really wasn’t that special. There were several excellent options — Park Point Nature Trail, Chester Creek, Hartley, Lester River, Congdon Park, Lincoln Park, Western Waterfront — and then there were a few gravel railroad beds, old roads and paved trails for walkers/bikers. Mostly, however, there were many muddy unofficial paths, swampy ATV routes and overgrown ski and snowbobile trails crawling with ticks. So, not really outstanding back then; more like pretty good. (more…)
DTA Passenger Entrance Music
While riding a Duluth Transit Authority bus last night and listening to my head phones, I came up with a very simple way of amusing myself. Whenever the bus stopped to pick up a new passenger, I clicked my mp3 player forward to the next random track and imagined it was the chosen entrance music or “theme song” for that person. Try it out sometime. It’s my gift to you.
Coolerator: Acclaimed in Hollywood, built in Duluth
The Coolerator Company manufactured refrigerators and sold them in every state and 74 foreign nations. It began in 1908 as the Duluth Showcase Company, a manufacturer of store fixtures in Downtown Duluth. Operations moved to 50th Avenue West and Wadena Street in 1921. The focus switched to iceboxes in 1928 and the business was renamed Duluth Refrigerator Company. It became the Coolerator Company in 1932 and opened a manufacturing plant in New Duluth in 1935. (more…)
Downtown Duluth – Looking east on Superior Street
Readable business signs: Boyce Drugs, (?)ornser Hats, Bagley Jewelers, City National Bank and Miller’s Cafeteria.
Video Archive: Duluth East mid-1960s Film
A previous Video Archive segment featured a 1956 film from the Mark Bruzonsky collection. This time we skip ahead to the mid-1960s and his years at Duluth East High School. (more…)
Sixteen Years on the Superior Hiking Trail: Temperance River to West Branch Bar in Finland
By 2006 my life was in order and annual Superior Hiking Trail trips became a fall routine. The major development at the time, however, was that the SHT was being blazed through Duluth. So that summer, for the first time, I began covering sections out of order by simply knocking out a few day-hikes wherever and whenever nearby trail construction was completed.
I’ll have more detail on the Duluth hikes in future essays. This week the focus is on my fall 2006 trip, which began on the evening of Sept. 30 at Temperance River State Park. A short 2.7-mile hike through a birch and aspen forest brought me to a campsite at Cross River, where I’d spend the night before getting in a full day of hiking.
This would be my first SHT trip with a digital camera, so plenty of color photos are available to document the scenery. (more…)
Mystery Photo #45: Dr. Jern
Well, there he is, Dr. Jern, standing on a porch in Duluth way back in 1910. Who is Dr. Jern? Is that house still standing? These are the mysteries we hope to unravel. (more…)
Sixteen Years on the Superior Hiking Trail: Nonchalance
After hoofing more than 90 miles of the northernmost sections of the Superior Hiking Trail in 2000 and 2001, I failed to hike a single SHT mile over the next five years. What went wrong?
Little tiny things, that’s what. In 2002 I was a freelance writer barely making rent. It was hard to turn down work to free up time to go on a hike. One weekend I planned a short trip, but the weather forecast indicated rain and I sissied out.
By 2003 I had made the mistake of accepting a fulltime position in the field of advertising, with no vacation time until after the first year — although I did manage to sneak off for a three-day weekend on Isle Royale.
Frustrated with my inability to get out of town for a good hike, and inspired by a discussion about how Duluth is a geographically wide city, I decided to organize a roughly 26-mile single-day walk from the Wabegon Supper Club in the Superior Township to the Lakeview Castle in Duluth Township. This complete traverse of Duluth was called the Nonchalant Jaunt.
Perfect Duluth Day was launched just three months prior to the 2003 jaunt, so there are a few posts about it in the archives. A group of seven hearty individuals completed the trek, which for the most part followed Highway 23, Superior Street and Highway 61. (more…)
Mystery Photo #44: A Handsome Home
Next to nothing is known about this photo, other than the claim it was shot in Duluth. Does this handsome home still exist? Does anyone recognize it? Who are these people and what are they doing?
Sixteen Years on the Superior Hiking Trail: Cascade River to Temperance River
The second leg of my Superior Hiking Trail journey began Sept. 14, 2001, at Cascade River State Park. Two friends dropped me off that Friday night at a campsite in the dark, then immediately turned around and drove back to Duluth. My first job was to get out a flashlight and put up my tent.
The big clumsy contraption I slept in the previous year had now been replaced with a fancy Marmot model I could scrunch into a tight bundle, which would make hiking a bit easier. This tent has gone on to serve me well for 15 years and counting, but I wasn’t impressed the first time I set it up. Yes, I broke a tent pole before I ever slept in the thing. Perhaps setting it up for the first time in the dark led me to force things too much. Whatever the case, a single broken pole is not a big deal and did little to hamper my experience.
The next morning I was up early and on my way. Maybe an hour into the hike, a bit of morning mucus had built up and I did what anyone alone in the woods in such a situation would do: I pushed one finger against the side of my nose, turned my head and blew snot out the other nostril. It was at that moment I noticed a female hiker was right behind me, and this would be how we would get to know each other. (more…)
218-955-3416 | Breckenridge MN
The PDD Headquarters has been flooded with calls from this number. I’ve answered twice and no one responded.
In a meeting yesterday my cell phone rang with the same number. “Breckenridge again,” I said.
“I just got that call five minutes ago on my cell,” was the response from across the table.
Mystery Photo: SS Columbia of Duluth
This postcard image bears the ink stamp of the Russell Photo Co. of Fond du Lac, Minn. on the back, along with a handwritten note: “The ‘Columbia’ of Duluth, Minn.” There have been numerous S.S. Columbia’s throughout the world, but this one seems likely to be the same as the one profiled on Zenith City Online, which was launched in 1885 as the Mascotte. There are numerous physical differences between the ship in the image shown there and the one shown here, but the article notes “in 1912 Duluth’s Clow & Nicholsen purchased the vessel, lengthened it by over thirty feet, and renamed it Columbia.” If they are the same SS Columbia, why do both images (presumably before and after the redesign of the ship) bear the name Columbia and neither Mascotte?
Mystery Photo: Family Portrait from the Zweifel Studio
Quick internet searches indicate John Rudolph Zweifel was a Duluth-based photographer from the very late 1800s to the mid 1900s. He had a few different offices on West Superior Street and was in the Phoenix Building circa 1918-’20. His home was at 4231 McCulloch St.
Who are the round-faced darlings in the photo? Well, that’s the Hail Mary pass being thrown here for the hell of it, just to see if anyone can figure it out.
Where in Duluth? #152
Time for another installment of Perfect Duluth Day’s ultra-thrilling photo-trivia sensation. Where in Duluth was this shot taken?
Sixteen Years on the Superior Hiking Trail: Swamp River to Cascade River
Digital cameras existed in the year 2000, but it wasn’t until about 2003 that using one became mainstream. I started my quest to complete the Superior Hiking Trail with a cheap 35mm pocket camera and a roll of black and white film … perfect for capturing lush fall colors. A grand total of four photos were taken during this five-day hiking trip.
By contrast, I have 35 photos and three videos from a five-minute window when I finished my hike in 2015. So the world has changed a bit. I worked for a newspaper then, I work for a website now. The World Trade Center buildings stood then, the National September 11 Memorial & Museum stands now. Time marches on at a faster pace than my hiking boots, apparently. My first trip covered nearly 60 miles of trail, however, and that’s not too shabby. Unfortunately, things slowed down after that.
On the sunny afternoon of Sept. 23, 2000, my friend Jeff and I drove the winding way of Highway 61 to Grand Portage. It’s not a place that is necessary or practical to go when seeking the start of the Superior Hiking Trail, but it’s a fun location to stop and look out over Lake Superior while there’s time to kill on the day before the adventure begins. (more…)
When Spirit Mountain had a pool
Spirit Mountain did away with its swimming pool in 1984. It was probably a maintenance nightmare, and the notion of a pool on a hill overlooking the tributary to the world’s largest freshwater “pool” might be considered a little absurd in retrospect.
Trust me, though. It was fun while it lasted.
Iff you vill come to Duluth ve vill lock up all de cops
Similar to the “Vilkome to our city of Duluth” version, this is another “Dutch Kid” pennant postcard, popular from about 1900 to 1920. The same cards were produced for various cities across the country. (more…)
Postcard from the Boulevard Around Duluth, Minn.
It’s difficult to read the names on this postcard dated July 13, 1907, so the transcript will represent them with blanks.
____ and I are having a glorious time. Took a beautiful drive this a.m. and saw this very spot. Be good till we get home.
_____
Sixteen Years on the Superior Hiking Trail: Preparations
At some point in the 1990s, I started hearing about the Superior Hiking Trail, a new footpath designed for hikers to see the sexiest peaks and rivers in the wilderness along the North Shore of Lake Superior. It didn’t come up very often in conversation until the year 2000, which is when it began to annoy me that I had never hiked a speck of it — other than maybe wandering away from the waterfalls at Gooseberry and noticing markings that told me I was on the not-yet famous trail I’d been hearing about.
It was April 2000 when an upstart Duluth newspaper called the Ripsaw began publishing weekly and I stepped up to be its managing editor. The paper had a weekly “Adventure” article and I suddenly found myself around people who had taken on parts of the SHT and heard stories about a handful of souls who had through-hiked the whole thing, which at the time meant trekking from Two Harbors to the Canadian border.
There was a rumor going around that Dusty Olson ran the whole trail in two days, which I found almost but not quite believable. The notion that such a feat could be close to true at least led me to think I could do it in fewer than two weeks. Then I heard the first documented person to conquer the trail had a fused spine and partially paralyzed legs, and hiked with forearm crutches. That made it hard for me to make any excuse that I wasn’t physically up to the task. (more…)
Job opening: Save the PDD Calendar editor from going batty
Are you ready to make slightly above minimum wage with no benefits while working in your pajamas at home? Then Perfect Duluth Day needs you. Running the PDD Calendar is sucking the life out of the editor and his previous assistant has too much collegiate stuff to deal with at the moment. So here’s a rare opportunity to get inside the PDD media empire. Read the full job description on the PDD employment page.
Wolvin Building in Duluth, Minn.
The Wolvin Building was constructed as the general offices of the Pittsburgh Steamship Company in 1902. It is shown here as a six-story building, but in 1909 an additional three stories were added. It still stands today as a nine-story building at 227 W. First St., known since the 1970s as the Missabe Building. (more…)