Postcard from the Moose Lake Fire of 1918
This postcard shows the aftermath of the infamous Moose Lake Fire. Written in white across the image is the date of the fire, Oct. 12, 1918, though the photo was almost certainly shot in the days that followed, not during the blaze. (more…)
Weekend Update: Dateline Duluth
Duluth made a brief appearance in Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update this week. The appearance is at the 2:54 mark.
PDD Quiz: Halloween High Jinks
Duluth News Tribune, Oct. 29, 1922.
There are more tricks than treats in this week’s PDD quiz, which looks back at bygone Halloween pranks reported in the Duluth News Tribune. All articles, photographs and cartoons come from database America’s Historical Newspapers, which covers the years 1855-1922. For a look at more recent Halloween shenanigans, check out Mike Creger’s 2014 Duluth News Tribune article.
The next PDD quiz will review this month’s headlines; it will be published on Oct. 25. Submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at aklawite@d.umn.edu by Oct. 21. (more…)
Duluth You & Me: Glensheen Mansion
Use the link below for a printable PDF for your drawing and coloring pleasure.
Duluth You & Me: Glensheen Mansion
Follow the Duluth You & Me subject tag to see additional pages. For background on the book see the original post on the topic.
Ripped on Sunday in 2000
[Editor’s note: For this week’s essay we’ve once again pulled out a relic from the archive of Slim Goodbuzz, who served as Duluth’s “booze connoisseur” from 1999 to 2009. Twenty years ago our anti-hero took a Sunday-night tour of drinking establishments in Proctor and nearby townships.]
“Oh yeah, now, Flip’s Bar, I’d stay away from that place,” this inebriated wastoid in a Motorhead T-shirt told me about three months back. “No, Flip’s is the roughest place in Proctor. It’s a real dive. You don’t wanna go there.” Naturally, after hearing this, I did want to go there. So when Sunday boredom started to get the best of me, I decided to stir things up and head to Flip’s.
There were two cars in the parking lot when I arrived, and one of them was for sale. I walked in the door to find no one there except an old guy behind the bar, who I presumed was Flip himself. I didn’t hang around to find out. Before the old dude even knew I had opened the door, I was back in my El Camino, swearing to milk this night for whatever I could get. (more…)
R.I.P. Mike’s Western Cafe
In an Oct. 7 Facebook post, Mike and Deb Pracher announced the closing of their family restaurant at 2803 W. Superior St. in Duluth’s Lincoln Park Craft District.
“With heavy hearts, we will be closing the doors of Mike’s Western Cafe after 38 years of business,” they wrote. “Thank you so much for your support over the years. We have met so many people, made lots of great friendships and made MANY lasting memories. We appreciate all of you more than you know. Thank you for everything.”
Mike Pracher told Fox-21 he was 23 years old when he bought the restaurant. He said the COVID-19 pandemic led to its demise. “I thought it was going to be a week, two, or three,” Pracher said. “It’s already been six months and I just can’t wait it out.”
Pracher also told Fox 21 he might someday open a restaurant in Carlton County.
The Slice: Virtual Opera with LOON
Duluth-based Lyric Opera of the North is creating a virtual experience during the COVID-19 pandemic. The theater group is teaming with the newly formed Decameron Opera Coalition, comprised of nine U.S.-based companies, to premiere Tales from a Safe Distance, a multi-week virtual opera inspired by an historic text, Boccaccio’s The Decameron. LOON presents the first act tonight, Oct. 9, at 7 p.m. (more…)
Steve’s Overpopulated One-Man Band – “Productivity”
Iron Ranger Steve Solkela lives for ripping up a to-do list. His overpopulated one-man band expands to two on this track, with Matti Jarva on percussion.
Creating Apart: Karen Savage-Blue
Karen Savage-Blue is one of the artists featured in the Tweed Museum of Art’s upcoming exhibition, “Creating Apart: Local Artists Respond to a Global Pandemic.” In this video by documentary filmmaker Mike Scholtz, Karen talks about a painting she created as a direct response to the pandemic. (more…)
Video: Henry V in Ordean Court at UMD
Theater students at the University of Minnesota Duluth recently finished a run of outdoor performances of William Shakespeare’s Henry V. Auditions were in May, about three months into the COVID-19 pandemic.
Postcard from Duluth Harbor South Breakwater Inner Light
This undated postcard features an image of the lighthouse on the Minnesota Point side of the Duluth Ship Canal. The card must be from the first half of the 20th Century, because the postage rate noted on the back is one cent and the U.S. postcard rate switched to two cents in 1952. The lighthouse was first lit in 1901 and remains there today. It was sold at auction in 2008 to Steven Sola and Matt Kampf, but the U.S. Coast Guard continues to maintain it.
Jeff Tweedy – “Gwendolyn”
Look for Duluthian Gaelynn Lea — or at least part of her — singing along in this new video by Jeff Tweedy.
There are also other people you may have heard of.
Monday Night Trivia at Earth Rider
So I’m looking for outdoor activities during the pandemic, and while Souptown is in Wisconsin, it is host to some of the coolest events. (more…)
Dave Mehling – “Show Biz Kids”
The latest release from Duluth native Dave Mehling‘s forthcoming album, Beach Boy, is this Steely Dan cover.
The Slamming Doors – “Grown Man”
The Slamming Doors released volume one of a multi-part album titled Brown Bears this past summer. The video for the track “Grown Man” was shot at Quarry Park in West Duluth in early August.
Creating Apart: Joe Klander
Joe Klander is one of the artists featured in the Tweed Museum of Art’s upcoming exhibition, “Creating Apart: Local Artists Respond to a Global Pandemic.” He’s an artist and ophthalmology tech at St. Luke’s Hospital. In this video by documentary filmmaker Mike Scholtz, Joe talks about how the pandemic gave him time to work on one of his dream projects. (more…)
Duluth You & Me: Golf Courses
Use the link below for a printable PDF for your drawing and coloring pleasure.
Duluth You & Me: Golf Courses
Follow the Duluth You & Me subject tag to see additional pages. For background on the book see the original post on the topic.
Julie Gard’s Invocation for Learning and Safety
A professor's poem invokes learning and safety in a time of COVID (opinion)
insidehighered.com
University of Wisconsin-Superior Professor of Writing Julie Gard recently had a poem featured in the Career Advice section of Inside Higher Ed, an online publication focused on college and university topics. More information on the poem is available in the academics news section of the UWS website.
Mystery Photo: Duluth Public Library Reading Room
At one time for sale on Amazon, but now marked “currently unavailable,” is this photo labeled “Reading Room, Duluth Public Library, 1890-1930, Minnesota, MN, Chairs, People, Books.” (more…)
Twenty Years on the Superior Hiking Trail: Ely’s Peak Loop
The laziest and slowest record in endurance-sports history has been broken. Again. By me. Again.
As documented in numerous essays, I started hiking the Superior Hiking Trail on Sept. 23, 2000 and finished the 310-mile trek from the Canadian border to Jay Cooke State Park on Nov. 5, 2015. Obviously I took a lot of breaks along the way. Then, in 2016, I hiked new parts of the trail that hadn’t been built when I first went through, thus breaking the record I already held for the slowest unsustained complete traverse of the Superior Hiking Trail.
Was that an official record? Well, no organizational body really keeps track of such things. But I stand firmly in my declaration that no one who has hiked the entire Superior Hiking Trail has taken longer to do it than me.
And now I’ve taken even longer.
In the summer of 2018 a new loop trail was built at Ely’s Peak in Duluth. It was kind of late in the hiking season when I heard about it, so I planned to do it in 2019. Then I kind of forgot about it and got distracted with other things. I had also started a new quest to hike the North Country Trail through Wisconsin. I’m still barely started on that.
Anyway, this past July I drove out to the Ely’s Peak area with the intention of knocking out the new last bit of trail, but as I started walking it occurred to me that if I waited until Sept. 23 to do this loop my Superior Hiking Trail story would span a perfect 20 years. So I hiked other trials that day and saved the loop for the perfect day. (more…)
Zinsmaster Bread Company of Duluth
This undated photo shows the Zinsmaster Wholesale Bakery facilities at 2831 W. Superior St. in Duluth. (more…)
Creating Apart: Brian Barber
Brian Barber is one of the artists featured in the Tweed Museum of Art’s upcoming exhibition, “Creating Apart: Local Artists Respond to a Global Pandemic.” He’s an illustrator, animator and filmmaker. In this video by documentary filmmaker Mike Scholtz, Brian talks about how the pandemic gave him time to work on a series of instructional draw-along videos. (more…)
Monthly Grovel: October 2020
Whether or not 2020 has already been scary enough, October is here and Halloween will soon be upon us. The PDD Calendar is already sorting out the Halloween events, so everyone will know whether their plans should involve one mask or two.
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 on Perfect Duluth Day. So if you appreciate it, drop a few bucks in the PayPal account. (more…)
Duluth General Election Sample Ballot 2020
As usual, the ballot in this year’s General Election is not the same for everyone in Duluth. People who live on the western side of town will see the District 3 County Commissioner race shown above. Those on the east side of Duluth will instead see Patrick Boyle running unopposed in District 2. People in the center of the city will not see a County Commissioner race because District 1 Commissioner Frank Jewell is not up for reelection.
Voters in central and western Duluth neighborhoods will see the District 7B Minnesota State Representative race shown on the ballot above. Those in the northern portions of the Duluth Heights and Kenwood neighborhoods will see the District 3B Minnesota State Representative race between Republican Andrew J. Hjelle the Democratic-Farmer-Labor incumbent Mary Murphy. Voters on the eastern side of Duluth will see the District 7A Minnesota State Representative race between Republican Tom Sullivan and Democratic-Farmer-Labor incumbent Jennifer Schultz.
And don’t forget the judicial races are on the back side. (more…)
The Slice: Dark Skies Over the Boundary Waters
In August the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness became one of 13 places in the world designated as a “dark sky sanctuary” by the International Dark-Sky Association.
In its series The Slice, WDSE-TV presents short “slices of life” that capture the events and experiences that bring people together and speak to what it means to live up north.