Entries into the guest books at lodges tend to be kind of boring, but I like how this group made a comic out of their stay at Heston’s Lodge on Gunflint Lake a month ago. Flipping through the stack of archives reveals this group has been making the trip for at least a dozen years, and they always leave a comic behind.

When you look at old pictures of Duluth’s Cascade Park there is a creek that runs through it. Whatever happened to it? Why did people change it?

This list is just getting started. Click on any image to see it bigger and start a slideshow.

Duluth East High School A Cappella Choir
1964-65
1965
Directed by Robert D. Mix; includes the “East High Alma Mater.”

Don Yoder
Because He Lives
Year not listed, Word Records
Produced, as near as anyone can tell, through the everlasting love of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Moose Wallow Ramblers
The Moose Wallow Ramblers
1976, Half Moon Records
Engineered by John Berquist; band included Berquist with Charlotte and Greg Ham.

Gene Hill
That’s Just His Way
1976
Recorded and mastered at Sound 80 in Minneapolis; directed by C. Edward Thomas.

Various Artists
Trackin’ Up the North
1982, KQDS 95FM Radio
Features bands from the KQDS Miller High Life Rock to Riches Talent Search Contest.

Kim Solem & the Electric Spurs
In Just One Night
1993, Divine Bovine
Engineered by Jeff Nelson and Tom Heinonen.
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The Chester Bowl Improvement Group wants to hear from people who have been in the ski program.

From Thom Storm:

We are in the process of applying for different grants for our ski program. It was suggested that we have some Chester Bowl stories/testimonials to include with our applications. I would like to take that a step further, and have a Chester Bowl Stories section on our website, chesterbowl.org.
Many parents have told me that the ski program has made a big difference to their families. If you would like to share your story, we would like to post it on our site. Please send any stories/testimonials to:
chesterbowl@clearwire.net
and include your name for the posting.

If you’ve got any historical stories, photos or artifacts, you could submit them to the Chester Bowl History page.

Just a little something I happened across on the job today.

To read the story, click here for the PDF.

Here’s an interesting read from the Sept. 25, 1921 Duluth News Tribune.

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Today, at Super One Foods in Lakeside, there was an older guy wearing a Marines cap, so I asked him where he served. He said sixty years ago on this day in Korea, December of ’51, they had been in their bunker, which was warmed by an oil stove. Someone mistakenly threw gas on it, and everything went up in a blaze, his Christmas presents under his cot, his camera, some guys died. Another “even got a silver heart.” Probably for running back into the fire to save people.

So when I walk by these modest, quiet homes, and wonder who lives there, I’ll know many of them are old-time Duluthians who served their country in wars people easily forgot. And while I may be angered by the hypocrisy, failure of diplomacy, fear or greed that may cause them, I am equally amazed and humbled by the courage and selflessness of those who serve. Sometimes they just want their stories to be heard.

As most people know, the southern wing of the old MacArthur Elementary School was built in 1915 as Denfeld High School. (The modern Denfeld opened in 1926 and the old Denfeld became West Junior; MacArthur was built in 1957; West closed and became part of MacArthur in 1983; MacArthur was replaced with a new building this past fall). The photo above is of the 56th Avenue West entrance to the old MacArthur, which has always been considered the back door.

The section of the building that protrudes out and comprises the rear entrance is not original. It was built in 1994 to provide an elevator for improved handicap accessibility. There was a stone block over the entryway, covered by this addition, that read “Robert E. Denfeld High School.”

If anyone has old photos of the entryway, please post them. The old MacArthur is in the process of being gutted and prepared for demolition, so if that entryway exists under the current one and anyone would like it to be saved and either left on the current site as a monument to the old Denfeld or moved to the current Denfeld campus, the time to act is drawing short.

Update: All evidence points to the conclusion that the old Denfeld block was removed in 1994. Details in the comments.

The West Duluth ICO on Grand Avenue and 46th Avenue West has been torn down. A CVS pharmacy will be built in its place. I don’t have any ICO memories that are springing to mind, other than that one night in 2010 I decided to shoot a photo of it.

By the way, I think it might have technically been a Spur station, even though everyone called it ICO and there was an ICO sign on it. I’m not really sure how gas-station naming works.

When the Twin Towers were struck and fell on my birthday ten years ago, 9/11 was immediately being compared to another Day of Infamy sixty years earlier. What’s striking about the two events is how differently the news reached us. In 2001 Americans across the land were glued to their TV sets seeing replays of the horror and hearing commentaries of related unfolding events as they happened, with varying degrees of accuracy but instantly. With Internet access we could also watch reactions from around the world. Information about the 1941 attack came home to us in a far different manner, as this book excerpt shows.

During World War II my father-in-law Wilmer A. “Bud” Wagner kept a diary which years later he assembled into a book, with the help of his son Lloyd. And There Shall Be Wars is 536 pages in length with 178 original photos and illustrations. In many ways it is a remarkable document by the second man from this region of the country to enter the army, serving for the duration in North Africa, Italy and all points in between. The diary entries were made throughout, but the book’s additional value comes from the commentary added nearly fifty years later. My blog entry at Ennyman’s Territory this a.m. features the excerpt from Pearl Harbor Day through the ninth of December 1941… A thought provoking read.

And There Shall Be Wars is a worthy addition to any World War II library.

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Does anybody have any idea what might be in store for the old Washburn Edison Charter School at 201 W. St. Andrews St. now that it is no longer being used as a school? I have a hard time imagining it’s all that cost effective for the Duluth Bible Church to continue there alone.

It’s ladies’ night and the feeling is right. Hats off to Paul Broman for finding this video.

I recently recovered this photo from my attic. It’s dated July 18, 1992. That’s me on the left in my Minnesota Twins championship T-shirt, proudly raising a bag full of what have got to be bear claws. PDD co-founder Barrett Chase is on the right. In the middle, grabbing his junk, is Bob Schulte.

For most of its existence, and at the time of the photo above, House of Donuts was located just east of where the Whole Foods Co-op is now, at 624 E. Fourth St. Ronald and Michele Carter were the owners.
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Another classic Duluth radio jingle from Bob Halverson’s collection:

Go with WEBC, channel 56 — where you’re hearing things

For those of you interested in vintage images of the Twin Ports, I thought I’d share a Flickr group I started to showcase all the vintage postcards, photos, maps and images stored on that site. The vintage postcards from Superior are my personal favorites. Please peruse, join the group and add any images you might have — I’d love to see the pool grow!

For those who are too young to remember and/or didn’t live around here at the time, 20 years ago today our area experienced one of the craziest blizzards in history. The News Tribune Attic has a great retrospective, and you should check it out for photos and a timeline of local events.

The Halloween Megastorm was part of, or at least coincided with, what became known as The Perfect Storm, “a nor’easter that absorbed Hurricane Grace and ultimately evolved into a small hurricane late in its life cycle.”
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So, the brouhaha over the ski jumps reminded me about this project – some historical photos from Chester Bowl.

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From the Duluth News Tribune, 100 years ago.

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Anyone have any photos of the Brewhouse’s bar before it got remodeled into its current state? No better reason than that my nostalgia is flaring up.

Via Bob Halverson, here’s another old Duluth radio jingle.

WAKX 1320

Hey, someone had to lead at setting the pace.

Related link: Bob’s initial post about local jingles.

From the Duluth News Tribune, 1895.

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Here’s another photo from the Cliff’s Barber Shop Collection. It’s from the spring or early summer of 1962, and the location is 400 E. Superior St. in Duluth. (PDD all-star points go to the person who can explain what this parade is all about. It might be the Fourth of July, but that’s totally a guess on my part.)
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Hey Duluth history buffs! I heard a rumor that there were once pirates operating on Park Point, preying on ships in the harbor, and they were cleaned out in a big police raid. Does anybody know anything about this?

WIGL radio was a daytime Top-40 music station covering the Duluth-Superior market from 1961 to 1964.  I am a collector of radio jingles, and have many from WEBC and a couple of early WAKX ones.  However, WIGL has been elusive.  I e-mailed Lew Latto about it (who owned the station for a while), and he regretfully replied that he was unable to help me.  I know some people taped the radio back then (I did) — maybe there’s an aircheck out there with a WIGL jingle or two.  I remember they had purple promo signs on the backs of the city buses during that era, and their jingles always ended with “Wiggle!!!”  Posting this in case somebody is unknowingly sitting on a piece of Duluth-Superior broadcasting history.

by Dave Hill | Sun Magazine July 15-16, 1970

Will the real Bob Carlson please stand up and identify himself? So far, there are conflicting reports about just who the real Bob Carlson is:

An enterprising St. Paul hustler who has made an opportune bundle as a publicity-wise smut-peddler;

A crusading champion of freedom who has been victimized by the harassment of St. Paul’s self-appointed guardians of public and private morality;

A modest, even earnest small businessman who runs a group of bookstores, putting in long hours of hard work, trying to make an honest dollar just like thousands of other men in the hardware, furniture or used car lines.

When the real Bob Carlson does stand up, the situation gets a little muddled. You see, to one degree or another, all three of those confusing caricatures seem to fit him, at least a little bit.

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Skyline Parkway

I’ve since moved away, but I love coming back to visit my hometown of Duluth. I made this little video one evening this summer at Leif Erikson Park, I thought some of you might enjoy:

When I look out across the lake to the lift bridge and the city, I imagine what a beautiful place Duluth must have been just a few hundred years ago.

I’d like to learn more about Duluth’s pre-European, Ojibwe inhabitants and their written/oral histories related to the area. For example, I grew up near Point of Rocks. What is/was the significance of this area?

I’m far from the DPL, so can anyone recommend reading/viewing material I could access online to learn more about this?

Finished version composed largely of scenes already posted here, with new material for interested parties.

Posting this here strips the titles and credits off, so please click the Youtube icon to view on Youtube with titles and credits intact. Thank you~