Shippee – “Sweet Emma”
The latest music video from Duluth’s Blake Shippee is a tribute to his daughter Emma for her birthday.
The latest music video from Duluth’s Blake Shippee is a tribute to his daughter Emma for her birthday.
“Iowa’s Renaissance Man” Chad Elliott has released an updated version of his song “Minnesota” with a video referencing the unrest in Minneapolis. The original version of the song appeared on his 2007 album Humbled at My Door. Kathryn Severing Fox, Elliot’s bandmate in Weary Ramblers, adds viola and harmony.
This ol’ website is getting clunky after all these years and a few things aren’t working. We’re trying to fix it. We really are. It’s complicated.
Here’s a summary, so you know we know what you know and you know what we know but maybe you didn’t know.
Final entry in the field journal of UMD paleontologist Franklin Hall Moore, Sept. 1, 1984
The last duckbilled dinosaur in Duluth, down and out on the sand beach in the tropical climate of the late Cretaceous, feels drunk from the fermented newly-evolved berries of a now-extinct genus. Minnesota is closer to the equator, the constellations strange. He chases the scent of increasingly rare juicy ferns along the beach toward prehistoric Wisconsin.
The duckbill whips his tail against the harassing blue-feathered velociraptors trying to run him down like a pack of dogs. He’s ten feet tall at the hip but they see he’s got a small limp from a wound that won’t heal on his right foreleg. They also see the sore tumor on his tiger-striped orange back. So they’d separated him from his herd — over the hill in what will evolve into the mallscape of Hermantown — and chased him to this strip of sand, the border between a retreating lagoon and the forested rift valley that will become Lake Superior.
The St. Louis County Historical Society is in the discovery phase of a major strategic planning initiative. The goal is to transform how the organization preserves more than 13,000 artifacts, stabilizes operations and ensures its storytelling is inclusive. A new community survey is designed to offer feedback to shape the society’s new mission and strategic goals for the next three to five years.
The Minnesota State Arts Board has posted application deadlines for all of the grant programs it will offer in the fiscal year 2027 grant cycle. Deadlines, decision dates, and grant periods can be found on the Arts Board calendar.
PBS North journies to Park Point on the shores of Lake Superior to spend time with Chad Lipka and Dustin Efrainson of North Shore Sauna, a Duluth based company reimagining what sauna can be. They create portable sauna tents with accessibility at the heart of everything they do.
Making it Up North is a series that explores stories of creative artists, artisans and entrepreneurs engaged in honing their skills, following their passion and realizing their dreams.
This undated postcard shows buildings on the 300 block of West Superior Street in Downtown Duluth. The building in the foreground is the St. Louis Hotel, which was demolished in the early 1930s and replaced by the Medical Arts Building. The trio of buildings to its left — the Torrey, Alworth and Lonsdale buildings — are all still standing.
The postcard was published by the Duluth Photo Engraving Company with an image from McKenzie Photo Company.
The latest video from the Voyageurs Wolf Project is a montage of some of the best footage of lynx shot in the past year or so. The clips were captured in Voyageurs National Park, about 100 miles north of Duluth.
The Cosmopolitan published an article about Duluth on Jan. 19, 1871 — 155 years ago today. It was during the period when the Duluth Ship Canal had been partly dug, so all shipping traffic to that point either went through the Superior Entry between Minnesota and Wisconsin points, or docked at the breakwater built on Duluth’s outer harbor.
Wildlife biologist Tori Kaufman has drawn inspiration from her work outside and has curated a series of oil prints. Her exhibition at Wussow’s Concert Cafe features boat-inspired vignettes, sturgeon and other critters, and other subjects. The prints are on display through the end of January. Kaufman is also a participant in the local literary scene, putting together type-written poetry in zine-like formats. A sampling of her work and a recent interview are below.
On Jan. 17, 1986 — 40 years ago today — Duluth Mayor John Fedo issued a proclamation declaring Engelbert Hattenberger an honorary citizen of Duluth, “with all the rights and privileges appertaining thereto, as recognition of the high regard and esteem in which this distinguished personage is held by the Citizens of Duluth.”
Hattenberger was a 65-year-old Austrian ice sculptor who was in the city for about two weeks to create art on the Duluth Civic Center plaza during the Winter Sport Festival. It was the first in a four-year stretch of ice-carving trips to Duluth for Hattenberger.
PBS North has rebooted its series Making it Up North, which explores stories of creative artists, artisans and entrepreneurs engaged in honing their skills, following their passion and realizing their dreams.
The premiere episode of the new digital series profiles the Stamper family and Y-Ker Acres, located about a dozen miles southeast of Duluth in the town of Twin Lakes. The farm is home to heritage-breed beef and pork, raised on open pasture.
This aerial photo comparison shows Denfeld High School as it looked in 1947 and in 2025. The building first opened in 1926 — 100 years ago — and has seen several additions since then, including a gynasium wing in 1987 and a science wing and common area in 2011. The athletic stadium on campus saw a major renovation in 2002 when a new grandstand was built and the natural grass was replaced with artificial turf.
Pink Marlena, aka Makwawigwamikwe Marlena Boedigheimer, has a new album, Ishpiming, set for release Jan. 16 during a performance at the Dr. Robert Powless Cultural Center.
