Gaelynn Lea’s video from Microsoft’s 2023 Ability Summit
Duluth’s Gaelynn Lea provided the opening keynote yesterday to Microsoft’s 2023 Ability Summit. Her video included a performance of the song “Watch the World Unfold.”
Northern Exposure was fun
I dropped by the Depot last night for about twenty minutes of the Northern Exposure festival. Popcorn, beverages were available, and the audience appeared to have a good time. (more…)
Giant Expectations: The Nimrod Giant Ski Story
Many people come to Hayward to ski, but only an elite few dare to giant ski. Last week Perfect Duluth Day shared the previews, the music video, the news coverage and the overall hype; this week we present the full-length feature documentary on the most storied team in the history of the American Birkebeiner Giant Ski Race. It chronicles the team’s past success, the rise to fame and stardom, struggles with selling out, and the uncertain comeback. (more…)
St. Paul nonprofit is new owner of Duluth North Pierhead Light
Mail
Rethos, a St. Paul-based historic preservation nonprofit, is the new owner of a historic 43-foot-tall lighthouse at the entrance to the Duluth Ship Canal.
mprnews.org
Minnesota Public Radio reports the historic lighthouse at the entrance to the Duluth Ship Canal is St. Paul-based Rethos, a nonprofit that plans to open the lighthouse to tours.
The Slice: Ski Jumping in Cloquet
The Cloquet Ski Club promotes ski jumping and cross-country skiing at Pine Valley Ski Area.
In its series The Slice, PBS North 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.
Poetry Slam Dunk
On March 5, the Duluth Poetry Chapter, working with Caddy Shack Indoor Golf & Pub, hosted a Poetry Slam Dunk, a play on the usual open-mic format of a poetry slam. Poetry slams are typically held in bars, with the alcohol making the reading of poems less intimidating and the listening more relaxed, too. (more…)
Al Church – “Into the Willows”
Duluth native Al Church has a new album, Party Sounds (From Another Room), due out March 18. The record is about post-pandemic socializing. “Into the Willows” is the first single.
The band features Mike Gunvalson on drums, Ryan “The Ripper” Rupprecht on keys, Izzy Cruz on vocals and percussion, Pete “The Boy” Lavoie on sax, and Evan Foxphace on bass.
Postcard from Tugboats Record and Sinclair
Icebreaking in the Duluth Harbor is expected to start this week, with the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Spar clearing the way for the start of another shipping season.
The postcard above is from the early 1900s and shows the tugboats Record and Sinclair breaking ice in the Duluth Harbor. (more…)
R.I.P. Dave Hill
Legendary sound designer Dave Hill passed away recently. Driving by his humble-looking shop/studio in the East End of Superior, few would guess that an electronics genius was in there designing high-end audio equipment and selling it to the stars. More at fohonline.com.
AP Photo: Sixty-year-old plane crash near Duluth
March 3, 1963: Four Wisconsin men flying home from a fishing trip in Canada died as their small plane crashed in a field near Duluth. The plane, a Cessna 180, crashed at the edge of an open field a half mile west of Proctor and eight miles southwest of Duluth. (more…)
Efforts revived to assess mercury in St. Louis River watershed
Agate, an online magazine focused on the environment and people of Minnesota and the surrounding Great Lakes region, published a story this week about the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s recently revived effort to calculate how much mercury the St. Louis River watershed can handle and still meet established water quality standards. The goal is to determine the mercury reductions needed to meet water quality standards and support healthy consumption of fish.
Duluth Book Releases in 2023
Complicated Warding
Michelle Matthees
Jan. 1
Press This!
Available at michellematthees.com
I Think I Know You
Julie Gard
Jan. 2
FutureCycle Press
Available at barnesandnoble.com
White Pine: The Natural and Human History of a Foundational American Tree
John Pastor
Jan. 5
Island Press
Available at islandpress.org
Northern Waters Smokehaus moving to Amazing Grace spot
Northern Waters Smokehaus To Move Into Former Amazing Grace Café Space
Fox 21 is reporting that Northern Waters Smokehaus will move its business from the main level of the DeWitt-Seitz Marketplace into the basement-level space formerly occupied by Amazing Grace Grocery and Café.
View of Duluth from Northern Pacific Docks circa 1880
This photograph shows a view of the Duluth hillside circa 1880. It was shot by Paul B. Gaylord from the Northern Pacific railroad dock. (more…)
The Nimrods win American Birkebeiner Giant Ski Race 2023
This highlight video shows the drama from the qualifying run and finals of the American Birkebeiner Giant Ski Race, held last weekend on Main Street in Hayward. The Nimrod Giant Ski Team recaptured the championship this year. (more…)
PDD Quiz: February 2023
For such a short month, February was chockablock with news. Dig into this week’s current events quiz and see how many headlines you remember!
Another installment of Duluth movie mentions will come your way on March 12. Submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at aklawite@d.umn.edu by March 9. (more…)
JamesG – “Clingy”
Former Duluthian James Geisler, aka hip-hop artist JamesG, breaks out the plastic wrap and heads to the beach in his new music video.
Three academic papers on Duluth and the lost Confederate gold
The Hillside Irregulars. Clockwise from lower left: Buckminster Wilde, Fancypants Nettleton, Henri Enragé Cloquet, Babyface Bong
The Stolen Lost Confederate Gold: A Historical Analysis of Duluth, Minnesota’s Development
Abstract: This paper explores the historical claim that Duluth, Minnesota was built using stolen lost Confederate gold. Through a critical analysis of primary and secondary sources, including the research of historian Peter S. Svenson, this paper argues that the city’s development was aided by the illicit acquisition of gold by Union agents during the American Civil War. Specifically, this paper examines the role of Duluth native Buckminster Wilde and the Hillside Irregulars as Union assassins behind enemy lines, as well as the involvement of key figures such as Walt Whitman, the Pinkerton detective agency, and financier Jay Cooke.
Duluth Grill group plans new Lincoln Park burger bar
The Duluth Grill Family Restaurant Group will take over operations at the former Coach’s Bar and Grill, 2113 W. Superior St. The new restaurant will be called Burger Paradox. (Photos by Mark Nicklawske).
A popular Lincoln Park restaurant group is adding another bar and grill to its neighborhood food empire.
Duluth Grill Family of Restaurants co-owner Tom Hanson said this week his organization has secured a 10-year lease on the longtime home of Mitch’s Bar and Grill, 2113 W. Superior St. The site was most recently home to the short-lived Coach’s Bar & Grill. (more…)
Apostle Islands in National Geographic
The Apostle Islands, surrounded by the notoriously treacherous waters of Lake Superior, are home to thick forests, diverse wildlife, and the spiritual center of the Ojibwe people.
nationalgeographic.com
The March issue of National Geographic has a 16-page feature on Lake Superior’s Apostle Islands. The online version has the headline, “These Lake Superior islands are ‘no place for amateurs,’” while the print edition carries the title “Return to Wild Waters.” Writer Stephanie Pearson accompanied photographer David Guttenfelder on part of his August 2021 kayaking journey in which he paddled to 19 of the 22 islands.
Duluth Central High School 1975 Concert LP with Clark Terry
I picked up a box of LPs at a local estate sale a couple years ago. I was just going through them more closely and thought I would share this one. It’s a concert recording of the Central High School Jazz Ensemble with jazz great Clark Terry, recorded at Central High Auditorium on March 13, 1975. (more…)
Exploring Clark House Creek Tunnel
Duluth Urbex explores the underground creek beneath Cascade Park.
The Slamming Doors – “Goddamn Duluth”
Last April the Current released the eighth edition of its Sounds Like Home virtual festival series, which featured artists from greater Minnesota. Duluth band the Slamming Doors performed a Duluth Song during its set, embedded above.
Postcards from Sellers Mine, north of Hibbing
The Burt-Poole and Sellers mines were the first to ship iron ore out of Minnesota’s Iron Range in the summer of 1895. In its first five years the Sellers Ore Company shipped 188,000 tons. By 1919 the figure had shot up to 8.9 million tons, according to the 1921 book Duluth and St. Louis County, Minnesota; Their Story and People by Walter Van Brunt. (more…)