Hermantown History Center (Photo by Myotus used under CC 4.0)

When you Google Hermantown, the results are preceded by some questions people often ask about the place: Is Hermantown the same as Duluth? What is Hermantown known for?

The first question is easy to answer. Hermantown is no town at all. It’s been a city all its own since 1975. The second question is a bit trickier. When I think of Hermantown, I think of a bunch of big-box retailers like Menards and Walmart. But is that chain of enormous parking lots just beyond Miller Hill Mall really the heart of Hermantown? According to Wikipedia, Hermantown’s motto is “The City of Quality Living,” but where is the city? Where is the old town of Hermantown?

The answer seems to be that there never really has been one. Duluth has a population density of 1,200 people per square mile. For Hermantown, that number is 300, which reflects its rural origins. No one seems to know quite who Herman was or when it was decided the area should be called his town but it is known which two families first filed claims in the area under the Homestead Act, a policy passed in 1862 that rapidly expanded the number of settlers moving into Minnesota and displaced much of its indigneous population. In 1867, Lambert Acker and August Kohlts filed for homesteads on what is now Five Corners Road. Like so many that came after them, they commuted to work in Duluth, using a trail established by Native groups that later became Piedmont Avenue.

Lambert Acker and his wife, Emelie Wilke, one of the first Homesteaders in present day Hermantown. (Photo from Daniel Hass used under CC 4.0)

By 1900, the area had a population of 625, with passenger rail service between Duluth and the community of Adolph in the southwest corner of present-day Hermantown.

The population jumped up substantially during the Great Depression when the area was one of two locations in Minnesota selected for the United States Resettlement Administration’s Jackson Project. Addressing a recurring theme in the Twin Ports, a lack of affordable housing, the project allowed for Works Progress Administration workers to construct 84 brick homes in the present day Hermantown for low-income working families to purchase at prices they could afford. The large lot size allowed the families, many of whom held shipping and railroad jobs in Duluth, to supplement their income with farming. All of the homes but one are still standing today, reflecting its status as one of the most successful cases of the project.

Hermantown began to take on its current form in the 1950s, when, like so many other places in the U.S., widespread car ownership led some people to move to more suburban areas. Hermantown became a city of its own on Dec. 31, 1975, and has a current population of around 10,000.

Wayne Boucher has been the mayor since 2009. Fifteen years ago, on his very first day on the job, he had to cast the tie-breaking vote between two volunteers for his vacant seat on the city council. Both men had served on the council before. One had recently lost re-election. The other, the one Mayor Boucher chose, had stepped away from city politics in the previous election. Boucher explained his choice by saying, “He made me a better councilor.” The man he selected accepted the position and this time he stayed in politics. That man’s name: Pete Stauber.

The Geoguessr Challenge that follows explores some of the history described above, taking you to five Hermantown locations off of Highway 53 and showing a view of the city beyond what you see on the way to Menards.

Each round has a time limit of 5 minutes.

PDD Geoguessr Challenge #21: Hermantown

How to Play Geoguessr

GeoGuessr can be played on a laptop or desktop and on Android or IoS mobile devices with the GeoGuessr app. Just click on the link that fits how you play. You can create an account to keep track of your scores and see how you compare to other players or just click on the link above to play as a guest without having to create an account or log in.

Every game consists of five locations based on a theme chosen by the game creator. You are shown a Streetview image stripped of all the informational labels that are normally overlayed onto the image. Unless the challenge specifically restricts it, you can move around and look for clues like street signs and business names to find out where you are. The image below shows a basic overview of the Geoguessr screen layout and controls.

Once you think you know the location — or are nearly out of time — you use the inset map to place your marker where you believe the round started. After you hit “Guess,” you will see how close you were to the correct location and how many points your guess earned. The closer you are to the location, the higher your score, with a maximum score of 5,000 points. On a map that covers a small area, like the Gary-New Duluth neighborhood, being off by a few blocks will cost you a lot of points. On a map that has locations from around the world, you will get nearly all the points just for finding the right city. The maximum error for a perfect score also changes by map size, but in general if you are within 50 feet (15 meters) you will always get the full 5,000 points.

Not often, but every now and then, GeoGuessr gets a little buggy. If the underlying Streetview imagery has changed since the game was made, sometimes it repeats the last round, gives a black screen, or doesn’t allow a guess to be made. If that happens, please let me know and I’ll update the challenge.

At the end of the five rounds, an overview screen shows your score for each round in addition to your guessing time and how far off you were from the correct location. The correct locations and your guesses are also shown on a map and you can click on any of the round numbers to review the locations. Additionally, the final screen in a challenge will show how you rank compared to the top scorers of the challenge. When choosing your user name, keep in mind that your user name and score per round will be visible to other players of the challenge.

If you have feedback on this challenge or ideas for future challenges, please share them in the comments below.