Wolves and Other Wildlife on the Mithrandir Trail
The Mithrandir Pack of wolves is the primary traveler seen on this trail camera footage from Voyageurs National Park, shot last summer and fall, but an array of other critters also pop in. (more…)
Steve Solkela – “If Heaven Don’t Have Saunas, I Don’t Wanna Go!”
Duluth’s Steve Solkela is back from touring Finland and has a new music video for one of the first songs he wrote back in his high school days.
Why escape rooms didn’t last long in Duluth
Solve Entertainment launched Duluth’s first escape room on Nov. 28, 2015 with a game called “Silent Night.” Pictured here is the first team to play. (Photo via Solve Enterntainment’s Facebook page.)
Duluth was right in step with the escape-room trend when it began to boom across the United States eight years ago. The city’s first escape room opened two days after Thanksgiving 2015. By the next summer, a second had opened. Both saw solid booking numbers early on and both made it through the pandemic, but by early 2022 both were out of business. (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…)
Postcard from Boulevard Lake
This postcard was sent from Scanlon by someone whose name looks something like “Alianine.” It was mailed on Jan. 21, but the year is not visible on the postmark. Clearly it’s about a century old. It shows what must be what is called Twin Ponds today, but is dubbed Boulevard Lake on the postcard. (more…)
Mayor Reinert puts hold on Duluth library plan
Northern News Now reports Duluth Mayor Roger Reinert is asking city councilors to rethink future plans for the Duluth Public Library.
EmbalmingEva – “Purity”
Duluth synth act EmbalmingEva released the video for “Purity” in December. It’s directed by Henriette Blade. The duo opens for Superior Siren on Valentine’s Day at Sacred Heart Music Center.
Big Into – “(Neil Young is) Thinking in the Negative (Again)”
So the story goes, Neil Young recommends chewing pieces of peppercorn to reduce marijuana-induced anxiety. And Big Into has a new song and video about that.
Mystery Photo: Nye’s Studio Couple
One thing that gets weird about photos shot with costumes, props and a fake background is that eventually the photo will become old, and then it’s more difficult to tell whether the people in the photo are dressed in their normal clothing, were being photographed to promote a play, or just having a novelty photo taken. So the image above might seem like an 1890s version of what a photo of someone in 2024 wearing disco clothes might convey in the year 2156. (more…)
Pronoya – “Sever”
Duluth metalcore band Pronoya has a new single, “Sever,” and plans to release an EP this summer. The next gig for the group is the Duluth Mid-Winter Metal Melter on Jan. 19 at Wussow’s Concert Cafe.
Another Postcard from the Duluth-Superior Hi Bridge
This early 1960s postcard, published by Gallagher’s Studio of Photography, shows the Blatnik Bridge before it was called the Blatnik Bridge. From 1961 to 1971 the bridge was called the Duluth-Superior Bridge and known colloquially as the “High Bridge,” though the name was often rendered as “Hi Bridge.” It was later named for Congressman John A. Blatnik. (more…)
Superior Porchfest 2023 Recap Video / 2024 Application
Planning has begun for the 2024 season of Superior Porchfest. Organizers are looking for performing musicians and neighborhood pop-up porch hosts. An open-call application is online at superiorporchfest.org.
Porchfest is a free, family-friendly music and art series in which attendees can bring a blanket or lawn chair, pack a picnic and/or simply stop by to enjoy the show. The performances are typically held either on a residential porch or at a city park.
PDD Quiz: 2024 Coming Attractions
Take a peek into the future with this week’s quiz, which previews anticipated events and openings of 2024.
The next PDD quiz will review headlines from Jan. 2024; it comes your way on Jan. 28. Submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at aklawite@d.umn.edu by Jan. 25. (more…)
The Lost Coast and the Ghost Choir of Mount Shasta
My one unexplained “paranormal” encounter happened on a trip to the so-called Lost Coast of Northern California. I camped there the summer of 1994 with my girlfriend Mary, in one of our relationship’s great death spasms. Near the end of this expedition, I heard the singing of a ghostly choir in the woods around Mount Shasta. It was singing Mary said she couldn’t hear.
This vacation was important to us. Austin transplants, we’d been cooped up at retail jobs in the Berkeley-Oakland sprawl for a year. We hadn’t explored the wilds of California like it really deserved. So when she caught wind of the Lost Coast, we arranged a matching week off to go find it.
We drove north from the Bay Area in her white Chrysler minivan. We were listening to a mixtape of J.J. Cale, perfect road music with his driving early drum machine sound: “They call me the breeze, I keep blowing down the road.” We also had some Jerry Garcia Band, which we’d been seeing at the Warfield during its unofficial residency. And, we were still coming to terms with Kurt Cobain’s suicide a couple months prior, three days before my 25th birthday. His widow’s album Live Through This was released within days and we were listening to that too. We couldn’t believe she recorded the line “Someday you will ache like I ache” months before he died. Now that line screamed across the radio like live anguish. So those were the vibes. (more…)
Heart at the Duluth Arena in 1980?
I’ve searched high and low, but I cannot seem to locate any information about the Heart concert on March 5, 1980 at the Duluth Arena.
I was there with five friends but can’t seem to locate anything about it.
Nimrods: Prophecy of the Six Trailer
The Nimrods have won the American Birkebeiner Giant Ski Race a record five times. But just when it looked like their skiing days were over, fate had other ideas.
Yes, another Nimrod giant ski movie is premiering at the Park Center in Hayward on Feb. 16 at 7:30 p.m. and showing again during Birkie Week. All proceeds benefit the Share Winter Foundation to support youth winter sports programs.
Duluth Art Institute continuing search for new space
The Duluth News Tribune reports the nonprofit Duluth Art Institute is searching for a new home as it prepares to leave the St. Louis County Depot, where it has had galleries and workspace since 1975.
Duluth’s Revitalization: The St. Louis River Area of Concern
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant produced a video series featuring five cities along waterways deemed “areas of concern” that are in various stages of the cleanup process and are experiencing revitalization. This video highlights Duluth and the St. Louis River and features Minnesota poet Moheb Soliman.
Postcard from the Soldiers and Sailors Monument
This undated postcard, published by Duluth Photo Engraving Company, shows the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Priley Circle at the Duluth Civic Center. The monument honors soldiers who served during the American Civil War. Designed by architect Cass Gilbert, it was completed and dedicated on Memorial Day in 1919.
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 Nutcracker Christmases
Christmas gives me the blues. I miss the magic of childhood Christmases spent with my siblings, and I miss the magic of Christmas mornings I spent with my young children. I miss family and friends who have passed away, and the special Christmas traditions we had. Because nothing stays the same, nostalgia can be heart-wrenching.
So, I’m weaving some new traditions into some old ones.
The Nutcracker of the Past
When I was in my twenties, my mother-in-law took me to my first ballet, along with my two sisters-in-law. It was December, so of course, we went to The Nutcracker. I loved it. For two hours enchanting music, graceful dancing, sparkling costumes, and magical sets swept me away to another world. Attending The Nutcracker with my mother-in-law became a tradition for a handful of years.
This year I took my twelve-year-old granddaughter, Clara, to see The Nutcracker, her first ballet. My mother-in-law would be happy to know I’m reviving her tradition. If life were A Christmas Carol, my mother-in-law would have been Fred, the ever-cheerful nephew of Ebenezer Scrooge. She knew how to keep the spirit of Christmas in her heart all year long and how to rise above characters like Scrooge. (more…)
Mixed-use development planned for downtown Grand Marais
Minnesota Public Radio reports a 30,000-square-foot proposed development in Grand Marais seeks to replace three businesses that were destroyed by fire in 2020. Plans for the project include a restaurant, bar and retail space on the ground floor. The second floor would have 10 short-term rental units and an event center with a rooftop courtyard.
Seeking migration stories to teach, publish
This semester, I will be teaching a class focusing on migration stories. If you have a favorite such story (about human migration, bird migration, software migration), especially one with a Duluth connection, please send it my way: dbeard @ d.umn.edu, or comment below. (more…)
Former Duluthian writes about hockey-playing cousin
Former Duluthian Crystal Gibbins writes about northeast Minnesota hockey legend Henry Boucha on the Coffee House Press website.