Photos
Mystery Photo: Boy behind the wheel circa 1924
The postcard photo above is dated 1924, making it 100 years old. It shows a boy driving a car with a sign on the grill that reads “Western Steel Products Company, New Duluth, Minn.” That doesn’t technically mean the photo was shot in the New Duluth neighborhood, however, so the primary mystery of the photo’s location perhaps hinges on whether the houses in the background match any present-day Duluth homes. The identity of the people in the car is the longshot mystery to solve. (more…)
PDD Geoguessr #10: Northern Minnesota in Atlas Obscura
Devil’s Kettle, a location featured in Atlas Obscura. Photo by the author.
This challenge provides the opportunity to go on a road trip without leaving the warmth of your house. Billing itself as “the definitive guide to the world’s hidden wonders,” the website Atlas Obscura lists user-supplied travel destinations that the standard guidebooks usually omit. The site focuses in particular on unusual museums, folk art, natural wonders and memorials to otherwise forgotten history. (more…)
PDD Geoguessr Challenge #9: Duluth, Georgia
References to Duluth in the media are a regular feature on Perfect Duluth Day. But for every reference that does not include the state name, many are left with a lingering doubt about whether the reference is really about Duluth, Minnesota, or Duluth, Georgia, a city outside of Atlanta with about one third of the Minnesota city’s population. (more…)
The Lark of Duluth in Flight
It was 110 years ago today that the first commercial air-ship line took its inaugural flight. The Lark of Duluth didn’t lift off from Duluth that day, however. Tony and Roger Jannus brought the small hydro-aeroplane to St. Petersburg, Fla. by rail with the mission to develop the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line. The Lark arrived there on Dec. 31, 1913, and the inaugural flight was on Jan. 1, 1914.
The photo accompanying this post is presumably not from that historic flight in St. Petersburg, but rather from the previous summer in Duluth. (more…)
PDD Geoguessr Challenge #8: Midnight Mass in the Twin Ports
Cropped photo of a Christmas Eve service by Patrick Sweeney CC BY-SA 2.0
As this Sunday Geoguessr challenge is appearing on Christmas Eve, a topical theme seemed appropriate. I thought finding five local churches with midnight services would be a rather simple map to put together. It was not. (more…)
Superior Street 1963/2023 – Part Two: Change
The Providence Building, 332 West Superior Street, 11:11 a.m.
The first post in this series looked at locations along Superior Street that have gone largely unchanged over the past 60 years. This set of 10 photos looks at locations where the difference between 1963 and 2023 are a bit more evident. In some cases, that is because of major developments like the Gateway Renewal Program, the Holiday Center, the Skywalk system or the I-35 extension. In other instances, it is simply because at some point the building acquired a new façade. (more…)
Superior Street 1963/2023 – Part One: Continuity
In 1963 an unknown photographer systematically photographed Superior Street, capturing downtown buildings and businesses on both sides. Ninety-five of these images have been preserved on the Minnesota Reflections website. (more…)
PDD Geoguessr Challenge #7: Downtown on the Iron Range
W.F. Cannon (USGS)
As enough people played the original Geoguessr challenge series of six games for it to continue as a regular series, new Geoguessr challenges will now appear twice a month on Sundays, at least for the time being, so if you have any ideas for what you might like to see in the future, please share in the comments. As always, an overview of how the game is played appears at the end of this post. (more…)
PDD Geoguessr Challenges #5 and #6: Bookstores and Hidden Landmarks
PDD Geoguessr Challenge #5: Independent Booksellers of Northern Minnesota
When the days get shorter and the nights get colder, curling up on the couch with a good book becomes one of the best ways to spend an afternoon. But first you have to find yourself a good book. This GeoGuessr Challenge is all about independent bookstores in Northern Minnesota. And for the purposes of this challenge, Northern Minnesota is any city or town at or above Highway 2. (more…)
PDD Geoguessr Challenges #3 and #4: North Shore State Parks and Duluth Neighborhoods
If you missed the post introducing PDD Geoguessr Challenges, the concept and rules are summarized at the end of this post. That first post had links for two somewhat standard challenges. In this second post, the challenges get a little bit more complicated just to show the different ways Geoguessr games can work. (more…)
Introducing Perfect Duluth Day Geoguessr Challenges
GeoGuessr is an online game that challenges people to locate specific places in the world based on the environmental cues of Streetview. The mechanics are rather simple — you move around a Streetview environment stripped of all its informational overlays looking for clues that indicate where you are. Once you think you know, you mark the spot of your original starting location on the inset map. The closer you are, the more points you get. A game consists of five locations. (more…)
Postcard from Spruce Point Motel in Beaver Bay
Featured here are two undated postcards from Gallagher’s Studio of Photography that promote the Spruce Point Motel in Beaver Bay. The older card shows how it was originally a one-story structure before the second story was added. (more…)
Selective Focus: Fall Colors 2023
Instagram
97 likes, 5 comments - just_a_north_shore_girl on September 26, 2023: "“As long as autumn lasts, I shall not have hands, canvas and colors enough to paint the beautiful things I see.” – Vincent Van Gogh
#lutsen #lutsenmountains #vangogh #exploremn #destinationduluth #minnesota #minnesota_captures #justanorthshoregirl".
instagram.com
Chlorophyll, schmlorophyll; turn up the carotenoids and anthocyanin. The annual biochemical process is underway. Progression of fall and peak leaf colors can be tracked with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources’ Fall Color Finder.
Featured here is Perfect Duluth Day’s annual collection of select images from Instagram showcasing nature’s palette. (more…)
Selective Focus: More Summer PDDs
Instagram
54 likes, 0 comments - richhoeg on August 2, 2023: "Today marks the sixth month I have watched my local owls since they decided to nest near the end of my driveway in early March. I believe this is one of the parent Great Horned Owls enjoying our unusual 85F heat near Lake Superior this afternoon. I have now followed this family of owls for five consecutive years.
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#greathornedowl #perfectduluthday #destinationduluth #owl #duluthlakeside".
instagram.com
Select photos from Instagram spanning mid-July to mid-August 2023, all hashtagged with the name of a certain website. #perfectduluthday (more…)
Seeking Urban Ground Café Photos
Seeking photos/videos of the Temple Opera Block (inside and/or outside) from 1995-6 when it housed the Urban Ground Cafe.
Duluth Waterfront Aerial Photo Circa 1903
This image from the Minnesota Digital Library, contributed from the Kathryn A. Martin Library Archives & Special Collections is estimated to be from the year 1903 — 120 years ago. It shows the Duluth Shipping Canal prior to construction of the Aerial Bridge, along with views of Canal Park, Rice’s Point and the old West End. (more…)
Selective Focus: Full-on PDDs
Instagram
73 likes, 5 comments - thermes_dlh on June 28, 2023: "We’re so fortunate to live in a city where you can see wildlife right out your door
#duluthmn #befromduluth #perfectduluthday #destinationduluth #visitduluth #thisismymn #thelakeandcompany #upnorth #lakesuperior #lakesuperiormagazine #minnesota #mphotographer #exploremn #minnesotaexposure #minnesota #lakesuperiorphotography #midwest_captures #midwestphotographs #midwestexposure #photography #minnesotaexposure #onlyinmn #captureminnesota #keepthenorthcold #loveitlikewedo #freeairlife".
instagram.com
Select photos from Instagram spanning mid-June to mid-July 2023, all hashtagged with the name of a certain website. #perfectduluthday (more…)
Duluth Photos Featured on Twitter’s “Cars Destroyed Our Cities”
A friend let me know that Duluth recently appeared on Twitter’s Cars.Destroyed.Our.Cities (you might need to log in to see the Tweet; Twitter is undergoing some changes), an account that shows how the addition or removal of car infrastructure can dramatically change the urban environment. (more…)
Selective Focus: Pre-summer PDDs
Instagram
69 likes, 3 comments - douglas.kilen on June 17, 2023: "Loon time. #fujifilmx_us #fujifilm_northamerica #fujifilm #fujixpassion #captureduluth #fujixlovers #fujifilm_xseries #fujifilmimages #midwestphotographs #meinminnesota #landscapephotography #captivatemn #bestofminnesota1 #onlyinmn #moodyinminnesota #minnesotaexposure #capturemn #thisismyminnesota #mnphotographs #perfectduluthday #visitduluth #AuthenticDuluth #yesduluth #destinationduluth #befromduluth #lakesuperiormagazine #minnesota365 #GoOverboard #sotastories #hey_ihadtosnapthat".
instagram.com
Select photos from Instagram spanning mid-May to mid-June 2023, all hashtagged with the name of a certain website. #perfectduluthday (more…)
The Remnants of Daniel Greysolon’s 17th Century Childhood
In two previous posts, I described how to get to the hometown of our city’s namesake, Daniel Greysolon Sieur Du Luth, and wrote about visiting his childhood home. This final post in the series shows some of the places Daniel Greysolon would have almost certainly been familiar with during his youth in the French town of St.-Germain-Laval. It concludes with a few of the more modern sites of the town. (more…)
Selective Focus: Photos on Film
Photography exhibit in the windows of 313 West Superior St.
There’s a temporary photo show hanging in the windows of the old Bagley Building downtown, 313 West Superior St. The photos are all shot on film – a variety of formats from an equal variety of cameras.
(more…)
Hidehiro Otake, Photographer of the Northwoods
Hidehiro Otake first passed through Duluth in 1999, following a literal had-while-sleeping dream. He had been a college student and budding photographer living in Tokyo when he dreamt one night that he was in a cabin in an evergreen forest and outside was a wolf gazing back at him. (more…)
Selective Focus: Surfy, Smelty, Swirly PDDs
Select photos from Instagram spanning mid-April to mid-May 2023, all hashtagged with the name of a certain website. #perfectduluthday (more…)