Photos
Daisy Roller Mill in Superior
A post on photographer Dan Turner’s Substreet website takes a peek at Superior’s old East End Milling District.
Daisy was the last of the flour mills to close in the Twin Ports,” Turner writes. “It closed in the 1970s when Peavey moved its durum operations to a new mill in Hastings, Minnesota. Today the mill is unused, though a company uses the silos.
Mystery Photo #59: Duluth Wau-Pse-Ke Club Cabin
What’s the deal with the Wau-Pse-Ke Club and its cabin? Though the stamp, and presumably the postmark with it, were torn off this old postcard, we know the cabin dates back at least to 1911 and was on the Lester River. (more…)
Mystery Photo #58: Steamer Perry G. Walker
Although the date Dec. 11 is recorded on this image, it’s not clear what year it was when the steamer Perry G. Walker arrived in Duluth covered in ice. It’s also not clear if this is a photo or an illustration … or an illustrated photo. (more…)
Selective Focus: #lutefisk
It’s a Northland tradition. Show your heritage runs deep enough that lutefisk is no big deal, or as a young, hard-driving journalist, prove you’re brave enough to venture into the depths of a Lutheran church basement to try it for the first time.
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Uncle Harvey’s Pillar, 2007
Tony Rogers posted this photo to Perfect Duluth Day ten years ago today — Dec. 7, 2007. It features the infamous round column from the sand- and gravel-hopper ruins known as “Uncle Harvey’s Mausoleum.” (more…)
Minnesota Point
Year unknown, photographer unknown. Appears to have been shot in the late 1800s.
Selective Focus: Dudley Edmondson
Dudley Edmondson is a photographer, videographer, writer, and a proponent of the great outdoors. This week in Selective Focus, he talks about what drives him to dig into a project, and some of the special projects he has worked on.
DE: I like to think of myself as working in many mediums from video, still imagery, written and spoken word. Media is my medium. I have always been a visual learner though. It’s very obvious to me that my brain translates a lot of things I hear or read into images for me to be able to fully understand and comprehend. I particularly like good writers (Ernest Hemingway, Kurt Vonnegut) who can create visuals in my brain with their writing style. Unfortunately I don’t think I have that gift yet but I am always working on it. (more…)
R.I.P. MP: Morgan Park School preliminary demolition underway
Demolition of outbuildings on the Morgan Park School site began this week. Developer Aaron Schweiger plans to construct several 12-plex apartment buildings on the property. It will be called Morgan Park Estates. (more…)
Dorothy Arnold Photo Gallery
In tribute to actress Dorothy Arnold — born Dorothy Arnoldine Olson on Nov. 21, 1917 — a gallery or glamorous promotional and press photos. Click any image to see it full size instead of as a thumbnail. (more…)
Mystery Photo #57: Duluth Swimmers
Here’s what is known about this photo: It was shot prior to 1997 and was part of the Budgeteer Press photo collection that was disposed of just before the name of the weekly paper changed to Budgeteer News. (more…)
Selective Focus: #galesofnovember
A handful of posts remembering the 42nd anniversary of the Edmund Fitzgerald sinking (November 10, 1975), and honoring the power in the big lake.
The Fisk Rubber Company, 1920
Fisk Rubber Company had retail stores in 40 states during the 1920s. The Duluth sales and service station was at 749 E. Superior St. The photo above was shot by Hugh McKenzie and dated Oct. 23, 1920. Below, the same location at Eighth Avenue East and Superior St., shot Nov. 7, 2017. (more…)
World’s only Frank Lloyd Wright service station
The R. W. Lindholm Service Station at 202 Cloquet Ave. in Cloquet, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1956 and opened in 1958, is still in use. These photos are from late 1950s and early 1960s. (more…)
Mystery Photo #56: Duluth Ice Sculpture
There’s not a lot to go on in the featured photo, but hold on … (more…)
Upset Duluth: UWS Edition
Part of PDD’s ongoing “Upset Duluth” series, in which we feature Duluth News Tribune photos of people who are upset.
Story link: “UWS students express frustration over program suspensions“
Postcards from Duluth’s Statue of Leif Erikson
The bronze Leif Erikson statue in Duluth was placed in 1956. It was designed by John Carl Daniels and sponsored by the Norwegian-American League. Erikson was a Norse explorer from Iceland and is considered the first known European to discover continental North America. (more…)
Selective Focus: Joellyn Rock
Multimedia artist and digital art professor Joellyn Rock has been combining traditional graphic art techniques, classical imagery and storytelling, and video and digital technology to create animations, interactive installations and other experiments. Her art takes advantage of and blends quickly evolving technical opportunities, and her curiosity draws her into constant new challenges.
J.R.: My creative medium has shifted dramatically over the years, evolving from traditional art forms like painting, drawing and ceramics to digital media formats such as web narrative, experimental video and interactive installation. One thread of continuity: I seek new ways to tell old tales. I often borrow from fairy tales and mythology, choosing to update an old story with social commentary or a revisionist spin. For me, old tales provide an anchor when working in digital media, offering the viewer a cozy narrative, reinvented for the distress of our digital age. I use a visual vocabulary that harkens back to the storytelling on ancient pottery or vintage children’s books … graphic compositions, intense colors, set off by crisp silhouettes of characters in action. Those familiar forms get remixed, layered with historical references or contemporary ephemera, juxtaposing ancient story with modern dilemma, part comfortingly old-school, part shock of the new. (more…)
View of Minnesota Point from Duluth Hilltop
Photographer unknown, year unknown. This appears to have been shot from near the edge of the parking lot at the hilltop Central High School location.
PDD Halloween Banners
Got any spooky, silly or stupid Halloween photos you’d like to share with the world? It’s time for our annual call for Halloween banners for the top of the page. Keep in mind, the photos get cropped to extreme horizontal proportions. If you want to crop ’em yourself and send them, that’s fantastic, or you can send them uncropped and I’ll do my best to make them fit.
Click here for complete submission guidelines, but the basics are: 1135 pixels wide by 197 pixels high, e-mail them to banners@perfectduluthday.com. We’ll put them in rotation in the next few days.
C.J. Ham’s “Fullback Life”
A tweet this morning by Duluth’s C.J. Ham shows the bent upper rim of his face-mask after the Minnesota Vikings hard-hitting victory over the Baltimore Ravens. Fullback life indeed.
Mystery Photo #55: Duluth Miniature Farm
Thanks to the labeling we know this miniature farm was located at a Conrad Service Station in Duluth. But where specifically in Duluth? And when?
Where in Duluth? (Stone Edition)
Who knows where this carving exists in Duluth? Bonus points: what is it depicting and why?
The Great Target Parking Lot Flood of 2007
Five years before Duluth’s most famous flood came Duluth’s least famous flood. Ten years ago today — Oct. 18, 2007 — heavy rainfall caused Miller Creek to swell and parking lot runoff to form a pool on the outer edge of Duluth’s Miller Hill Target store property. One driver managed to land in a sink hole; two Perfect Duluth Day contributors snapped photos. (Top photo by yours truly Paul Lundgren; bottom photos by Barrett Chase.)
Elevator Row at Rice’s Point in Duluth
Photographer unknown; date unknown.