Charlie Parr – “Running, Jumping, Standing Still”
Charlie Parr performed on the North Shore last week as part of the Silver Bay Music in the Park Concert Series. The song “Running, Jumping, Standing Still” is the title track to a 1969 “Spider” John Koerner and Willie Murphy album.
Mystery Photo: Cowboys and a Clown
The previous Mystery Photos post on Perfect Duluth Day featured four different fake cowboy photos shot at Owl Studio in Duluth circa 1912. Another recently popped up on ebay and quickly sold, this time with some kind of clown joining the cowboys. (more…)
PDD Quiz: Portorama
Test your knowledge of the bygone Duluth Seaway Portorama in this week’s quiz! To learn more about this festival, check out the Duluth Public Library’s Vintage Duluth blog.
The next PDD quiz sails your way on July 31; it will review this month’s headlines and happenings. Submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at aklawite@d.umn.edu by July 27. (more…)
Bike-a-Band Inaugural Ride
Tom Maloney built a rolling stage for a moving concert. Here’s a very brief montage of videos and photos from the inaugural ride of the Bike-a-Band.
Nantucket Sleigh Ride Via Loon
When I was young, my family went fishing on a lake south of Duluth. While casting our lines, we noticed a loon swimming nearby, calling in an unusual manner. As outdoorsy types, we had heard many loons before, but this one sounded more plaintive than normal, like it was in distress.
The loon kept circling near us, which was also odd for this rather standoffish species. My dad thought it needed help, so we canoed toward it.
We soon saw the problem. A homemade fishing pole crafted from a large branch trailed about fifteen feet behind the bird. My dad grabbed the pole, thinking he could just pull the loon toward us and find where the fishing hook was lodged.
Ha! He underestimated the power of the loon. Upon feeling the tug of the line, the loon took off and dove underwater. My dad kept his grip on the pole, and the loon proceeded to pull our canoe — and the three or four of us in it — through the water at a good clip. (more…)
Wholesale Flour, Feed, Grain and Hay
Recent work on the Duluth Plumbing Supply building at 322 W. Michigan St. — now SPS Companies — has made more visible the words painted on the back side more than a century ago. The bottom line reads “Wholesale Flour, Feed, Grain and Hay.” The top line originally read “Wright-Clarkson Mercantile Co.” but appears to have later been painted over with some other words.
The old-timey photo is via Shorpy and is dated “circa 1905.” St. Louis County property tax records list the building as constructed in 1910, but that’s potentially not accurate.
Selective Focus: Noihsaf Bazaar
Noihsaf Bazaar is a community-based resale marketplace focusing on independent designers and small labels. Founded in Duluth by Kate Lindello, Noihsaf has recently launched its own online platform to better provide a more curated experience for its unique community. (more…)
Duluth 2022 Primary Election Sample Ballot
Above is what the partisan side of the primary ballot looks like for Duluthians on the western side of the city. Those on the eastern side will see candidates for Minnesota State Representative for District 8B instead of 8A. The dividing line of the district is at First Avenue East and also runs north/south along Kenwood Avenue. (more…)
Postcard from Priley Fountain and the Radisson Hotel
This 50-year-old postcard shows what was then the new Radisson Hotel behind the also new-at-the time Priley Fountain at the Duluth Civic Center. The message on the back of the card was written July 14, 1972, and the card is postmarked the next day. (more…)
Monthly Grovel: July 2022
It’s festival season and the PDD Calendar has it all sorted out — from the various outdoor concerts and art festivals to all the county fairs and neighborhood parady street-dancey things.
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 items. So if you appreciate it, drop a few bucks in the PayPal account. (more…)
Locally Laid: A Business Saved by Storytelling
Owners of Locally Laid — Lucie Amundsen and her husband, Jason Amundsen
Lucie Amundsen’s journey to poultry success was not an easy one. The co-owner and marketing mind behind Locally Laid Egg Company dealt with the usual struggles of launching a sustainable farm — competing with bigger brands, a severely challenging profit margin and an audience that might not understand the importance of buying local. (more…)
Bay Days with the North Shore Mental Health Group
I attended Bay Days to table with Wilderness Health and the North Shore Mental Health Group. It is an active group of citizens committed to increasing awareness of and access to mental health resources up the shore. (more…)
Trampled by Turtles – “Burlesque Desert Window”
The new Trampled by Turtles music video, complete with bicycling owls, was shot and edited by Cooper Baumgartner. “Burlesque Desert Window” is on the band’s upcoming album Alpenglow, scheduled for release Oct. 28.
Northeastern Minnesota Book Awards announce nominees
For the past three decades, the Northeastern Minnesota Book Awards have recognized books that substantially represent the history, culture, heritage and lifestyle of northeastern Minnesota. In 2021, longtime award coordinators at the Kathryn A. Martin Library at the University of Minnesota Duluth announced that due to staffing changes, the university library would no longer organize the awards. In early 2022, Twin Ports-based nonprofit, the Lake Superior Writers, announced that it would be the new NEMBA coordinators. (more…)
Anna D. Oleson, first female major-party nominee for U.S. Senate
The photo in this clipping from the Duluth Herald is dated July 10, 1922, and appears in the July 14 issue of the paper. That summer — one hundred years ago — Anna Dickie Oleson of Cloquet was campaigning to represent Minnesota in the United States Senate. (more…)
To Fight for Ukraine’s Freedom, He Went Back Into the Closet
The July 7 episode of the New York Times’ new podcast, First Person, was produced by Duluth’s Courtney Stein. Titled “To Fight for Ukraine’s Freedom, He Went Back Into the Closet,” the episode features Stein talking to a gay Ekrainian soldier during the first months of the Russian invasion.
“I got to know him through the voice memos he sent me in between shifts on guard duty,” Stein wrote in the Times’ Opinion Today newsletter. “He told me that it had been difficult to decide to enlist, not only because he feared fighting the Russians, but also because he was afraid that his fellow Ukrainian soldiers wouldn’t accept him.”
Dave Mehling – “Country, USA”
Duluth native Dave Mehling has a new EP in the works titled 100 Percent Denial. The single “Country USA” features Stacy K on vocals and Jason McGlone on drums. The track is mixed by McGlone and mastered by Rob Schlette.
West Superior Street, Spalding Hotel, Lyceum Theatre
This photo from Detroit Publishing Company is a similar perspective to a shot previously posted on PDD. It shows Downtown Duluth at Superior Street and Fifth Avenue West at the turn of the 20th century, with the Spalding Hotel at right and the Lyceum Theatre at left.
Almanac North: The Wall that Heals in Chisholm
The traveling Vietnam Wall was on display in Chisholm recently. WDSE-TV Producer Megan McGarvey visited the wall and produced an emotional report for Almanac North on the importance of the memorial in remembering those who paid the ultimate price during the war.
Escape From Wisconsin
If you’re wondering where I’ve been, three years ago I survived an assassination attempt on the Blatnik Bridge. Locally called “the High Bridge,” it is in fact 120 feet high over the St. Louis Bay. It is co-owned by Minnesota and Wisconsin, and when you cross the state line, you have a bird’s eye view of the bay, Park Point, and Lake Superior. For a moment, I thought it would be my final view.
Earlier that morning, I swam through the ruins off of Washburn, the tiny Wisconsin town with big secrets. On the way back to Minnesota in my blue 1976 Lotus Esprit S1 — the Aquamobile — I stopped at the Anchor Bar in Superior. Time: 11 a.m. The streets were quiet, church was still in session. I parked across the avenue and went inside. Joining my confidential informant for a burger in a booth, he slipped me a list of every crooked cop in Wisconsin. I put it in my shark-themed backpack, returned to the Aquamobile, and put the backpack in the passenger seat next to the speargun. I got in and rolled my window down. Now for a little drive to the U.S. Marshals office in the Federal Building at the Duluth Civic Center. (more…)
Mystery Photos: Duluth Owl Studio Cowboys and Cowgirls
Yes, more mystery fake cowboys from Duluth. Previous cowboy mystery photos were presented in the post “Mystery Photos: Wide Awake and Green Dragon Studios.” Cowboy nostalgia was apparently all the rage in the early 1900s, even though the Old West wasn’t quite that old at the time, because the photos featured here are from yet a third photography enterprise in Duluth, Owl Studio. (more…)
Lake Superior Brewing to open soon; no beer until Labor Day
Lake Superior Brewing opening soon - WDIO.com
Lake Superior Brewing will open soon in Duluth's Lakeside neighborhood. It will be a restaurant, bar, and brewery.
wdio.com
A specific date hasn’t been set, but WDIO-TV reports that Lake Superior Brewing will open soon. It will initially be just a restaurant and bar, however. The brewery’s beer won’t be ready until September. “Hopefully by Labor Day,” co-owner Sarah Maxim told WDIO. (more…)
Postcard from the Rex Hotel
This postcard was mailed 100 years ago today — July 7, 1922. The illustration presents an aggrandized version of the Rex Hotel, which later became the Curtis Hotel, then Milner Hotel, then Seaway Hotel, and then briefly the Esmond Building. It was actually a three-story building, not four like the postcard shows, and the ground floor wasn’t so ridiculously tall as to dwarf any people or automobiles in front of it. (more…)
SS Meteor: The Last of the Whalebacks
Built in 1896, the SS Meteor is the last surviving above-water whaleback ship in the world. It operated until 1969 and is now a museum ship on Barker’s Island in Superior. The documentary embedded above was created by Duluth Film Company, a division of GOV Productions. (more…)