Bewildered Superiorites in the 1860s wondered who would ever want to build a city on "that pile of rocks" and called Duluthians "cliff dwellers."

Up until 1873, Duluth was known often as "Jay Cooke's Town" because most everything in Duluth was financed by the Philadelphia banker. That also prompted the nickname "Philadelphia of the West." (Duluth's St. Paul's Episcopal Church, named for Cooke's family church in Pennsylvania, was called "Jay Cooke's Church.")

Later West Duluth was considered "New Pittsburgh" or "Pittsburgh of the West" because of its promise as a center for metal fabrication.

And due to the fact that Duluth is roughly three miles wide and 27 miles long and curves along the St. Louis River, it once shared "Crescent City" with New Orleans. In the 1905 "Mataafa Storm," a bulk carrier named the Crescent City (letters on its stern read "Crescent City of Duluth.) She ran aground two miles east of Lester Park; the entire crew took a ladder to safety.

Shane, glad you mentioned "Air Conditioned City." It has been in use since at least the 1930s: I have a linen postcard featuring the slogan.

My favorite is still Dr. Thomas Foster's 1866 "Zenith City of the Unsalted Seas."