May 2019 Posts

Nine final designs chosen for new Duluth flag

Options for the new Duluth city flag have been narrowed down to nine. Finalists were selected by the city’s volunteer flag committee with consideration of input received from an online survey, flag design principles, artist descriptions of the meaning, and overall sense that the flag represents Duluth.

Thirsty Pagan transitions to new location; grand opening June 8

Photo by Lissa Maki

Photo by Lissa Maki

Thirsty Pagan Brewing entered its 14th year of business on May 1. There was no fanfare, simply because owner Steve Knauss was so busy he forgot. Knauss and his staff have been working around the clock to ready the brewpub’s new spot at 1615 Winter St. for opening.

Grandma’s restaurant owner buys building in Lincoln Park

The owner of a well-known Duluth restaurant and several other Canal Park properties has purchased a historic building in a Lincoln Park neighborhood booming with new breweries, eateries and art galleries.

Feodor von Luerzer painting of Lester River

This painting of the Lester River circa 1900 was recently sold on eBay, mislabeled as a painting of “Luster River.”

Goats in Trees – “Midnight Road to Duluth”

East Coast band Goats in Trees took the “Midnight Road to Duluth” on track five of the 2002 album Smoke and Mirrors.

Cycle lanes aren’t enough in snowy climes

Check this out. I came across this article in The Guardian written by a cycling advocate from Winnipeg. It’s a few years old now and you’re probably done with any mention of winter but it seems timely what with it being just a few days after National Bike to Work Day. 

Ice cycles: the northerly world cities leading the winter bicycle revolution

I don’t know how many of you read this Op/Ed piece in the Duluth News Tribune:

Local View: Balance needed to meet needs of bicyclists, pedestrians – AND motorists

Video: Duluth Great Horned Owl Twins

Duluth birder Richard Hoeg captured this video of twin great horned owls in the Lester Park area. On his 365 Days of Birds blog, Hoeg named the parent owls Les and Amy, after Lester River and Amity Creek. Hoeg wrote that the happy owl couple started dating last fall and would often sing back and forth, sometimes in his yard. “Over the course of the winter the relationship grew stronger,” according to Hoeg, “and the couple cemented the bond in early March!”

Mystery Photo: Duluth Grocers

This old photo shows two men standing in a grocery store. The back of the photo indicates it’s in Duluth, Minn. and gives the names of the men. Unfortunately, the photo of the back side of this photo is blurry and difficult to read, but it looks like Gust Hjelm is one of the names.

North Country Trail in Wisconsin: Crossing the Border

This is the third chapter in my quest to hike the North Country Trail across Wisconsin, but logistically it probably should be the first. As I’ve explained in previous chapters, the Superior Hiking Trail in Minnesota and the North Country Trail in Wisconsin aren’t properly connected yet at the border. The best thing a purist can do to fill the gap is hike on Minnesota State Highway 23 and a pair of county roads to get to a trailhead. So that’s what I did. Because I’m an annoying purist. Sort of.

It’s not so much that I’m determined to be annoying and pure. There are basically three reasons I wanted to hike on the roadways. 1) I know from experience that having a somewhat methodical goal inspires me to stay active. 2) If the pieces don’t all connect, it’s easy to lose track of where I’m at in the process, thereby thwarting reason #1. 3) Hiking on a trail in May is less fun anyway because of mud and ticks, so roads might be the best option anyway. (And if I were a true purist I’d strap on a backpack and hike across the whole state in a few days instead of breaking it up into numerous easy hikes.)

With all that in mind I parked my car on the side of Highway 23 near the Wild Valley Road sign and set out to connect my Superior Hiking Trail adventures to my fall 2018 North Country Trail hike at Nemadji River Valley.

Selective Focus: Jeffrey T. Larson

Jeffrey T. Larson is a painter and founder of the Great Lakes Academy of Art, located in the former St. Peter’s Church, 810 W. Third St. Larson has been working and teaching a classical style of painting in that location since 2015. There will be a student-instructor exhibit at the school May 24-26. Larson talks about his classical training and how working and teaching fit together for him.

JTL: I was fortunate to have found and be accepted into one of the last ateliers (studios) left in the world taking on apprentices and training them in the manner of the old masters. It was a sort of visual Julliard. I work pretty exclusively in oil paints. The tradition that I studied in is really more about retraining your eye to see nature honestly and truthfully as it is about learning how to paint. My style is really my reaction to what I see as beautiful filtered through my personal aesthetics. More simply put, I would call myself a classical impressionist.

Ingeborg von Agassiz – “Rebel Robin”

Videos from the 2019 Homegrown Music Video Festival are starting to make their way to the internet, and as usual Perfect Duluth Day has a page for that. In this post we spotlight Killy Kay‘s video for Ingeborg von Agassiz‘ “Rebel Robin.”

Fly High Duluth Flag

Duluth Flag Survey

Props to the person who answered “the phrase ‘fly high duluth'” on the city’s flag survey!

I’m also amused by “This town is dying. Thanks.” Savage, yet polite – quintessential Duluth!

Duluth Boat Club circa 1906

This photo from the Detroit Publishing Company shows the Duluth Boat Club on the bay side of Minnesota Point at South Tenth Street. A previous clubhouse existed where Bayfront Park is today, but the facility shown in the photo above was built in 1903 and was destroyed by fire in 1951.

Duluth Harbor Canada Geese Cam

Dennis O’Hara’s video of the lake freighter Walter J. McCarthy Jr. passing under the Aerial Lift Bridge features a couple of special guests.

Postcard from Thompson Hill Information Center and Rest Area

This undated postcard has the following text on the back:

The Thompson Hill Information Center and Rest Area is located at the junction of I-35 and US 2 on a 28 acre site overlooking the St. Louis River Valley and the Duluth-Superior metropolitan area. The Information Center is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with tourist and travel information and road condition reports available during the day as a service of the Minnesota Highway Department.

Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!