This postcard was mailed from Duluth on July 24, 1907, and arrived two days later in the mailbox of Mr. A. G. Pack, Jr. of 823 Colorado Ave., Colorado Springs, Colo. It does not necessarily depict a Duluth scene; versions of this postcard exist for Wildwood, N.J.; Atlantic City, N.J. and probably other cities.
For the 155th installment of Perfect Duluth Day’s ultra-thrilling photo-trivia sensation “Where in Duluth?” we cross the bridge to ask, “Where in Superior was this photo taken?”
Another round of NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest is underway, with the winner to be announced in March. Duluth’s Gaelynn Lea took top honors in 2016.
Local band Superior Siren‘s 2017 submission is for a song called “Nightmare.” (The video was embedded here but has since been removed from YouTube.)
The Superior Hiking Trail Association, headquartered in Two Harbors, is seeking a dynamic leader to serve in the role of executive director.
The SHTA is dedicated to constructing, maintaining and promoting a world-class 310-mile natural surface trail paralleling Lake Superior from Wisconsin to Ontario. The 5,000-plus member organization has a small knowledgeable staff, a passionate group of volunteers and a committed, active board of directors dedicated to the success of a new strategic plan.
How much do you remember about this first month of 2017? Take the quiz and find out!
Our next PDD Quiz, on the subject of robots and Duluth, will be published on Feb. 12. E-mail question ideas to Alison Klawiter at [email protected] by Feb. 8.
I would NOT do this further up the trail where there are sheer drops.
Not having grown up in Duluth, I missed the purported crosstown rivalry. My tribe lives next door, across the border: the People of the Cheese.
Duluth: “Where rail meets sail.” Where rustic meets rustbelt. Where woodtick meets moonbeam, and uphill meets down. You’re a microcosmic casserole, a dichotomous hotdish, Duluth, where stone meets water, and water meets sky. Actually, between water and sky is a thin slice of Wisconsin, appearing blue because of the way light scatters across the distance, and sometimes distance is good. You see, people often end a sentence with the phrase, “but there’s always Wisconsin,” as in, “we can’t get no drunker here, but there’s always Wisconsin,” or, “we don’t make lampshades from human skin, but there’s always
Wisconsin,” and so on, lending a certain comfort to the color blue, and the distance it conveys.
Driving into downtown from the west feels like entering an architect’s model, as the street burrows between stubby office buildings along the table of land between harbor and hill. When I moved here, freeway and mall had already drawn and quartered the business district, and it was the nadir of the Reagan recession. The industrial boomtown started busting as the high-grade ore played out in the 1950s, and by the late ’70s competition from abroad arrived, along with bumper stickers reading, “ Eat Your Foreign Car.” While the early ’80s were cloaked in a campaign slogan touting, “Morning in America,” around here we wondered if there was a bottom to this freefall, which might at least afford a dead-cat bounce.
The People’s Choice Award at the Duluth Art Institute’s 2017 Membership Exhibition on Thursday went to Annie Schweiger for her oil painting titled “The Winston.” The award recognizes the audience’s favorite work out of more than 175 on view in the Great Hall of the Duluth Depot.
Schweiger hails from Anoka, and moved to Duluth as a transfer student to attend the University of Minnesota-Duluth. She majored in graphic design and minored in studio art. Shortly after graduation she was hired by HTK Marketing as a graphic designer. She continues to work in the fine arts during her free time, and is available for commissions.
Her winning painting, “The Winston,” is a portrait of a long-haired Chihuahua, Winston, which her colleague Mike Scholtz brings to work every day. The pet portrait captures the dog’s sly glance and features the animal formally attired in a crimson beret with gold trim, a starched ruff and a jacket. The whimsy of the scene is countered by the photorealistic skill of the depiction and a subdued color palette.
The “2017 Annual Membership Exhibition” is on view through Feb. 24.
A couple cards I’ve not seen before. Both are postally unused.
Say it ain’t so. The Duluth News Tribune reports Germann’s Hammond Spur at the foot of the Superior side of the Blatnik Bridge is closing today. The convenience store has been known for years as the “Chicken Spur” because of its deli, which offered fried chicken, egg rolls, corn dogs and more. The DNT notes the store is holding a 50 percent off sale in hopes of closing out its inventory.
Shawn Thompson has been creating breathtaking images of Lake Superior and the surrounding area for several years. He talks about how he got into photography and getting up early for the perfect shot.
S.T.: I am mainly a digital photographer, but I also enjoy shooting film. Film is a recent endeavor for me. Both have their perks. Digital is fantastic for the instant gratification and ease of making an exposure in just about any condition.
Mike Michaels posted this image from The Mary Tyler Moore Show on Facebook yesterday, the date of Mary Tyler Moore’s death, noting the show featured the University of Minnesota Duluth’s Old Main building as the fictional high school of her character, Mary Richards.
“One of the show’s writers, Lorenzo Music, lived in Duluth and attended UMD. He married an actress who was a Denfeld grad,” Michaels wrote. “They both ended up starring in a CBS variety show and both wrote the theme song to The Bob Newhart Show. Lorenzo became even more famous as the voice of the doorman on the TV show Rhoda and the voice of Garfield the cat. He was also a TV producer.”
UMD’s Old Main building was destroyed by fire in 1993.
The cast and crew of UMD Theatre‘s One River play are in Des Moines this week for the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival’s Region V competition. One River will be performed four times in two days during the festival. Written by UMD Theatre Professor Tom Isbell, the show is one of six productions selected to compete in the six-state event.
Over the past 30 years, UMD Theatre has been selected 12 times to present at the KCACTF Regionals and has been chosen five times to perform at the National Festival held at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. As of 2011, productions no longer compete at the National Festival level.
The St. Louis River corridor will see a $10 million, 67-unit, market-rate rental housing development thanks in part to a contamination cleanup grant.
The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development announced last week it will award the Duluth Economic Development Authority $654,051 to advance the vision of Kuepers Inc. of Brainerd in constructing nine additional single-family housing units to accompany its two 29-unit buildings in western Duluth.
Kuepers is completing construction on its Grand Avenue Estates project at 9215 Zimmerly Ave., near Stewart Creek on the northern edge of the Morgan Park neighborhood.
U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar was one of 14 Democrats who sided with Republicans on Monday in voting to confirm President Donald Trump’s nominee for CIA director, Mike Pompeo.
