History
Damn kids will make life miserable for older Duluthians
From the Duluth News Tribune, 1895:
Duluth’s old Mathisen Tire Co.
Here’s another photo from the Cliff’s Barber Shop Collection. It’s from the spring or early summer of 1962, and the location is 400 E. Superior St. in Duluth. (PDD all-star points go to the person who can explain what this parade is all about. It might be the Fourth of July, but that’s totally a guess on my part.) (more…)
Park Point Pirates
Hey Duluth history buffs! I heard a rumor that there were once pirates operating on Park Point, preying on ships in the harbor, and they were cleaned out in a big police raid. Does anybody know anything about this?
Looking for WIGL Jingles
WIGL radio was a daytime Top-40 music station covering the Duluth-Superior market from 1961 to 1964. I am a collector of radio jingles, and have many from WEBC and a couple of early WAKX ones. However, WIGL has been elusive. I e-mailed Lew Latto about it (who owned the station for a while), and he regretfully replied that he was unable to help me. I know some people taped the radio back then (I did) — maybe there’s an aircheck out there with a WIGL jingle or two. I remember they had purple promo signs on the backs of the city buses during that era, and their jingles always ended with “Wiggle!!!” Posting this in case somebody is unknowingly sitting on a piece of Duluth-Superior broadcasting history.
Bob Carlson: Businessman, Crusader or Smut-Peddler?
By Dave Hill | Sun Magazine July 15-16, 1970
Will the real Bob Carlson please stand up and identify himself? So far, there are conflicting reports about just who the real Bob Carlson is:
An enterprising St. Paul hustler who has made an opportune bundle as a publicity-wise smut-peddler;
A crusading champion of freedom who has been victimized by the harassment of St. Paul’s self-appointed guardians of public and private morality;
A modest, even earnest small businessman who runs a group of bookstores, putting in long hours of hard work, trying to make an honest dollar just like thousands of other men in the hardware, furniture or used car lines.
When the real Bob Carlson does stand up, the situation gets a little muddled. You see, to one degree or another, all three of those confusing caricatures seem to fit him, at least a little bit.
Duluth – Onigamiinsing
[This post originally included an embedded video that no longer exists at its source.]
I’ve since moved away, but I love coming back to visit my hometown of Duluth. I made this little video one evening this summer at Leif Erikson Park, I thought some of you might enjoy. (more…)
The Perilous Inlet
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqlQXrBMkcM
Finished version composed largely of scenes already posted here, with new material for interested parties.
Posting this here strips the titles and credits off, so please click the Youtube icon to view on Youtube with titles and credits intact. Thank you~
Reception at the Tweed Museum of Art
Saturday, Aug. 27, 2 -4 p.m. Opening reception for new exhibition, “Our Treasures: Highlights from the Minnesota Museum of American Art.”
Free and open to the public. Tweed Museum of Art is located on the campus of the University of Minnesota Duluth, 1201 Ordean Court.
Organized by the Minnesota Museum of American Art in St. Paul. Features 30 of the top artworks in the MMAA collection including works by artists such as Paul Manship, Robert Henri, Grant Wood, Louise Nevelson, George Morrison, Christo and Wing Young Huie.
Minnesota Point: Protector or Guide?
From the 1950 book This is Duluth, by Dora May Macdonald:
According to rumour, George Sherwood, one of the old-time real estate men, stood on the barren hills one day with an Easterner, expounding on the charms of the village and the advantages to be gained by investing in Duluth real estate. Pointing to the sandy stretch of land curving out into the water, he said, “There lies Minnesota Point. It looks like God’s arm protecting the town of Duluth.”
The Easterner, unimpressed by the rocky hills, sand, or sentiment, replied, “It looks to me more like God’s finger pointing the way out of town.”
Book Signing Party for Swinging Doors, A Memoir by Quinlan Michael Hampston
Saturday, Aug. 20, 4 to 6 pm., at R.T. Quinlan’s, 220 W. Superior Street. Easy access and parking at 221 W. Michigan.
Mischief and mishap figure into Quinlan Michael Hampston’s hilarious stories of how a kid who couldn’t read grew up to be a man who would write a book. Funny, yet poignant, Swinging Doors suggests, without apology, that steering a zigzag course can land a guy in a surprisingly good place.
Hampston, an owner of R.T. Quinlan’s, chronicles his life growing up in Duluth, serving in the Navy aboard an aircraft carrier in the Western Pacific, Desert Storm and his life of a barkeep. Along the way, Hampston travels with a goofy but lovable bunch of characters – kids chasing trains and cows, sailors chasing skirts and bar buddies telling tales and chasing their next drink. Read more at swingingdoorsbook.com.
Death-Defying Archeologists of Lake Superior
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf79PPLoPZE
Duluth Early History
A 1914 recap of Duluth history:
Proctor’s Yellowstone #225 circa 1963
The ol’ steam locomotive from the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railroad that sits in downtown Proctor has been there a long time. This photo is from the Cliff’s Barber Shop Collection, dated 1963. Below is a 2009 photo from the Minnesota Railroading Photos on minnesotajones.com. (more…)
All roads lead to Duluth
The location of the city at the head of navigation, in the center of a continent, 1,400 miles from the sea, gives it unequaled facilities (through 8,000 miles of railways centering here) as a natural distributing point for a great and prosperous section.
We have cheap power, cheap coal, cheap gas, cheap iron, cheap raw material of woods, in vast quantities with unequaled transportation facilities in every direction.
—Duluth News Tribune, Sept. 30, 1914
Tweed Museum showing 30 rare and collectable concert posters
This link — Poster Show — is to the article running this week in the Reader (the website article has many more pictures) that contains information about nearly every poster in the show and interviews with almost every artist. In the article on my site you can read about each poster from the artists’ perspective and how they viewed the art and the era. Print it out and walk through the show! (more…)
Past is prologue
Wool: 1911 > Debt ceiling: 2011
Hey Tourists, Welcome to Our City
In the search for info on the song “Welcome to Our City,” for the list of “Songs with ‘Duluth’ in the lyrics or title,” PDD’s Fairy Research Spy found this 1910 Duluth News Tribune illustration (which has the same title as the song, but predates it by six years). Note that the Aerial Lift Bridge is not a lift bridge … it was the Aerial Ferry Bridge back then, with a gondola car carrying cars/wagons across.
Global Goes Local
After 32 years, the founders of Global Village (from Minneapolis) have passed the torch to a long time employee and hometown girl. Friday, we celebrate this new chapter for the old downtown icon and present the Lotus Center, our new community yoga and dance (and more!) studio on the second floor. (more…)
Archeology of Lake Superior
[This post originally contained an embedded video that no longer exists at its source.]
Amusement seekers are well cared for by theatrical houses of the Zenith City
That was the headline above this photo collage from the Sept. 30, 1914 edition of the Duluth News Tribune. Of course, the Lyceum, Rex, Grand, Zelda and Empress are all gone now. Only the Orpheum remains — remodeled and renamed the NorShor Theatre in 1941.
The Duluth Economic Development Authority is working with Westlake Reed Leskosky and SJA Architects on restoration plans for the NorShor. Have patience; it’ll take some time.
Businesses of Duluth
UMD Library’s Northeast Minnesota Historical Center recently contributed 493 images of Duluth businesses to the Minnesota Digital Library. This is a great collection of images, selected by NEMHC curator Pat Maus. These images add to the over 2000 photographs, documents, and maps from the Center already in the Digital Library. (more…)
We are opposed to the notion that you are the first to be unopposed, Mr. Ness
At least one news organization reported yesterday that Mayor Don Ness is the first Duluth mayor to be unopposed in an election. Well, it’s not true.
Mayor Ness is indeed the only mayor in the past 126 years to go unopposed, but Maryanne Norton at the Duluth Public Library has found three Duluth mayors in the 1800s who were unopposed.
Sidney Luce was elected unopposed in 1872 and served one term.
Dr. Vespasian Smith was elected twice with no opposition — in 1873 and 1874. (Mayors served one-year terms until 1913, when the current four-year system began.)
Horace B. Moore was elected unopposed in 1885 and served one term.
(more…)
