Perfect Duluth Day

Postcards from U.S. Naval Reserve Training Ship Gopher

The undated postcards here show the USS Gopher at Duluth. The vessel had a 34-year history on the East Coast as the USS Fern before being renamed Gopher on Dec. 27, 1905, when it began duty with the Minnesota Naval Militia in Duluth.

In 1923, while in service with the U.S. Naval Reserve at Toledo, Ohio, the Gopher sank during a northwest gale in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.