Month: January 2026
Skating the big lake
I saw ice houses out there so I got my skates.
Dopey tune on a junky guitar
I’ve become an old man who putters around in the garage. Or the basement — the garage is really cold right now. I built a guitar out of garage stuff.
Making it Up North: Northern Waters Smokehaus
Northern Waters Smokehaus founder Eric Goerdt shares the journey of turning a lifelong passion for food preservation into a cornerstone of the Duluth community. From the early days of an “honor system” cooler and a coffee can for cash to employing more than 75 people today, Goerdt discusses his obsession with detail, his “northern spin” on the traditional deli, and why sustaining people is just as important as sustaining the land.
Making it Up North is a PBS North series that explores stories of creative artists, artisans and entrepreneurs engaged in honing their skills, following their passion and realizing their dreams.
Souvenir Folder of Duluth circa 1923
The Duluth Photo Engraving Company published a “souvenir folder” in the early 1920s featuring images previously published by the company as postcards. (more…)
Hermantown wellness center plans expansion into Lincoln Park
The Well Co. owner Melanie Dubbin purchased the former Kaski Inc. headquarters at 2321 W. First St. in Lincoln Park. She will be relocating her business into the historic former Duluth Public Market building this spring. (Photo by Mark Nicklawske)
A Hermantown hub for healing massage and holistic health is adding a natural food cafe to its services and will relocate into a remodeled, historic building in Lincoln Park this spring.
The Well Co. owner Melanie Dubbin purchased the former Kaski Inc. construction headquarters at 2321 W. First St. in November. St. Louis County property records show Dubbin paid $742,000 for the 6,800-square-foot building which was constructed in 1925. (more…)
Chad Elliott – “Minnesota”
“Iowa’s Renaissance Man” Chad Elliott has released an updated version of his song “Minnesota” with a video referencing the unrest in Minneapolis. The original version of the song appeared on his 2007 album Humbled at My Door. Kathryn Severing Fox, Elliot’s bandmate in Weary Ramblers, adds viola and harmony.
PDD Shop Talk: Some things are broken; Bob Dylan exaggerates
This ol’ website is getting clunky after all these years and a few things aren’t working. We’re trying to fix it. We really are. It’s complicated.
Here’s a summary, so you know we know what you know and you know what we know but maybe you didn’t know. (more…)
The Last Duckbilled Dinosaur in Duluth
Final entry in the field journal of UMD paleontologist Franklin Hall Moore, Sept. 1, 1984
The last duckbilled dinosaur in Duluth, down and out on the sand beach in the tropical climate of the late Cretaceous, feels drunk from the fermented newly-evolved berries of a now-extinct genus. Minnesota is closer to the equator, the constellations strange. He chases the scent of increasingly rare juicy ferns along the beach toward prehistoric Wisconsin.
The duckbill whips his tail against the harassing blue-feathered velociraptors trying to run him down like a pack of dogs. He’s ten feet tall at the hip but they see he’s got a small limp from a wound that won’t heal on his right foreleg. They also see the sore tumor on his tiger-striped orange back. So they’d separated him from his herd — over the hill in what will evolve into the mallscape of Hermantown — and chased him to this strip of sand, the border between a retreating lagoon and the forested rift valley that will become Lake Superior. (more…)
St. Louis County Historical Society Strategic Planning Survey
The St. Louis County Historical Society is in the discovery phase of a major strategic planning initiative. The goal is to transform how the organization preserves more than 13,000 artifacts, stabilizes operations and ensures its storytelling is inclusive. A new community survey is designed to offer feedback to shape the society’s new mission and strategic goals for the next three to five years. (more…)
Minnesota State Arts Board announces application deadlines
The Minnesota State Arts Board has posted application deadlines for all of the grant programs it will offer in the fiscal year 2027 grant cycle. Deadlines, decision dates, and grant periods can be found on the Arts Board calendar. (more…)
Making it Up North: North Shore Sauna
PBS North journies to Park Point on the shores of Lake Superior to spend time with Chad Lipka and Dustin Efrainson of North Shore Sauna, a Duluth based company reimagining what sauna can be. They create portable sauna tents with accessibility at the heart of everything they do.
Making it Up North is a series that explores stories of creative artists, artisans and entrepreneurs engaged in honing their skills, following their passion and realizing their dreams.
Postcard from Superior Street at Fourth Avenue West
This undated postcard shows buildings on the 300 block of West Superior Street in Downtown Duluth. The building in the foreground is the St. Louis Hotel, which was demolished in the early 1930s and replaced by the Medical Arts Building. The trio of buildings to its left — the Torrey, Alworth and Lonsdale buildings — are all still standing.
The postcard was published by the Duluth Photo Engraving Company with an image from McKenzie Photo Company.
Best Lynx Footage from Voyageurs National Park
The latest video from the Voyageurs Wolf Project is a montage of some of the best footage of lynx shot in the past year or so. The clips were captured in Voyageurs National Park, about 100 miles north of Duluth.
Wonderfully Rapid Growth of Duluth
The Cosmopolitan published an article about Duluth on Jan. 19, 1871 — 155 years ago today. It was during the period when the Duluth Ship Canal had been partly dug, so all shipping traffic to that point either went through the Superior Entry between Minnesota and Wisconsin points, or docked at the breakwater built on Duluth’s outer harbor. (more…)
Selective Focus: Tori Kaufman’s Visual Art
Wildlife biologist Tori Kaufman has drawn inspiration from her work outside and has curated a series of oil prints. Her exhibition at Wussow’s Concert Cafe features boat-inspired vignettes, sturgeon and other critters, and other subjects. The prints are on display through the end of January. Kaufman is also a participant in the local literary scene, putting together type-written poetry in zine-like formats. A sampling of her work and a recent interview are below. (more…)
Engelbert Hattenberger: Honarary Citizen of Duluth
On Jan. 17, 1986 — 40 years ago today — Duluth Mayor John Fedo issued a proclamation declaring Engelbert Hattenberger an honorary citizen of Duluth, “with all the rights and privileges appertaining thereto, as recognition of the high regard and esteem in which this distinguished personage is held by the Citizens of Duluth.”
Hattenberger was a 65-year-old Austrian ice sculptor who was in the city for about two weeks to create art on the Duluth Civic Center plaza during the Winter Sport Festival. It was the first in a four-year stretch of ice-carving trips to Duluth for Hattenberger. (more…)
Making it Up North: Y-ker Acres
PBS North has rebooted its series Making it Up North, which explores stories of creative artists, artisans and entrepreneurs engaged in honing their skills, following their passion and realizing their dreams.
The premiere episode of the new digital series profiles the Stamper family and Y-Ker Acres, located about a dozen miles southeast of Duluth in the town of Twin Lakes. The farm is home to heritage-breed beef and pork, raised on open pasture.
Then and Now: Denfeld High School
This aerial photo comparison shows Denfeld High School as it looked in 1947 and in 2025. The building first opened in 1926 — 100 years ago — and has seen several additions since then, including a gynasium wing in 1987 and a science wing and common area in 2011. The athletic stadium on campus saw a major renovation in 2002 when a new grandstand was built and the natural grass was replaced with artificial turf. (more…)
Pink Marlena – “Ishpeming” and “Akiing”
Pink Marlena, aka Makwawigwamikwe Marlena Boedigheimer, has a new album, Ishpiming, set for release Jan. 16 during a performance at the Dr. Robert Powless Cultural Center. (more…)
Postcard from the Kitchi Gammi Club in 1916
This postcard was mailed Jan 12. 1916 — 110 years ago today. It shows the Kitchi Gammi Club building at 831 E. Superior St., which opened two years prior. (more…)
Duluth Deep Dive #12: Ads from the Archives
Duluth Evening Herald, June 18, 1909; Sept. 5, 1899; Oct. 31, 1908.
While putting together the Duluth Deep Dives, I often come across ads in the Minnesota Digital Newspaper Hub that I find amusing, surprising, well-designed or a direct reflection of the historical period. When I see one of these ads, I make a clip and put it aside in a folder. In what seems likely to be a reoccurring topic, this Duluth Deep Dive goes into those files to present 20 somewhat remarkable ads. (more…)
DuluthiLeaks: MacArthur Elementary PTA Budget for 1979-80
For the seventh edition of DuluthiLeaks — Perfect Duluth Day’s series in which public documents are presented as if they contain secret information leaked from an anonymous whistle blower — we present the Laura MacArthur Elementary School Parent Teacher Association’s proposed budget for the 1979 to 1980 school year.
Pronoya – “Pull Me Closer to the Flame”
“Pull Me Closer to the Flame” is from Pronoya‘s 2025 EP All for the Sun. The video is directed and edited by Cristian Pastrana of D/E Design & Studio. It was shot at Pizza Lucé by Pastrana with additional camerawork by Austin Sherzberg.
Wizardstone – “People People”
From the great forests and lakes of northeast Minnesota comes Wizardstone, the musical alter ego of Chuck Olsen, who hopes the video for the song “People People” can “help envision the world we want to live in.”