Arriving in Duluth (Photo by Matthew James)
“Twenty-six miles long and an average of 2-1/2 miles wide, Duluth is squeezed between rocky bluffs and the waterfront of Lake Superior and the St. Louis River,” a National Geographic reporter wrote when describing the city in 1949. This post describes some of the stranger contours of our long and narrow city with a Geoguessr challenge at the end to test your knowledge of the city limits.
The lower falls of Chester Creek. (Photo by Matthew James)
Forty-two named streams run through the Duluth metropolitan area, from Mission Creek in West Duluth to the Lester River on the eastern edge of the city. This Geoguessr challenge looks at photospheres from five of the creeks within the Duluth Urban Watershed.
A gas station on the Fond du Lac Reservation (Photo by Matthew James)
In 2019, the University of Minnesota Duluth became the first in the University of Minnesota system to adopt a land acknowledgment, a formal statement recognizing that UMD “is located on the traditional, ancestral, and contemporary lands of Indigenous people.” The land acknowledgement references the 1854 treaty in which representatives of the Anishinaabe ceded some of their land to settlement (while retaining certain rights on that land) and came to an agreement about which areas would be governed under tribal sovereignty. This Geoguessr challenge briefly examines the significance of the 1854 treaty and includes significant sites from reservations throughout Northern Minnesota.
A monument to the battle at the Castle of Seneffe. (Photo by Matthew James)
Three hundred and fifty years ago, Daniel Greysolon Sieur du Luth first met Father Louis Hennepin in the aftermath of the Battle of Seneffe. While this battle is often listed as a footnote in the history of French colonialism in Minnesota, it was one of the most significant battles of the Franco-Dutch War. On Aug. 11, 1674, French troops fought in southern Belgium against an allied army of Dutch, German and Spanish soldiers. The battle shaped European history and the meeting of Du Luth and Hennepin at the site of that battle led to a story that, while almost certainly false, endures as one the foundational tales of Minnesota history.
The city center of Groningen, The Netherlands, not to be confused with Groningen Township, 70 miles south of Duluth (Photo by Matthew James)
There’s a lot of Minnesota history to be found in the names on a map. Some places, like Iron Junction, reflect the industry that created the town. Many names come from Anishinaabemowin, like Mahnomen, derived from manoomin, meaning wild rice. And some city names both reflect their primary industry and come from Anishinaabemowin, like Biwabik, which comes from the Ojibwe word for iron. This Geoguessr challenge looks specifically at places in Minnesota that took their names from locations from around the world.
No gas of any sort, leaded or otherwise, is to be found here. (Photo by Matthew James)
Some small part of the business history of Duluth remains written in the landscape. Names painted on the sides of buildings and logos atop poles on the edges of vacant lots promote businesses that saw their last customer some years ago.
Park Point in the summer. (Photo by Matthew James)
With the official start of summer upon us, any upcoming day has at least the potential of becoming a beach day. But where to go? Park Point is always an option but are there more interesting alternatives?
Highway 1 monument at 66th Avenue West and Westgate Boulevard. (Photos by David James)
A monument a couple blocks north of I-35 in the front yard of a quiet residential neighborhood commemorates the upcoming opening of Minnesota Trunk Highway No. 1. It was erected on June 13, 1924, 100 years ago today. A recent post on this site featured a photo describing a campground along this Highway, which led to a brief discussion of just what this Highway 1 was and what became of it.
Duluth’s sister cities
Five of the previous six Geoguessr challenges have looked one by one at Duluth’s sister cities: Ohara Isumi, Japan; Rania, Iraqi-Kurdistan; Växjö, Sweden; Petrozavodsk, Russia; and Thunder Bay, Canada. As a Geoguessr game has five rounds, it only makes sense to conclude the series with a challenge that includes all five cities.
Left: Private John Matthew McGillis, photo courtesy of Jasper van Kampen. Right: His burial place (Photo by Matthew James)
John Matthew McGillis, known to his family on Duluth’s Park Point as Jack, died on Christmas Day 1944, one day before the end of major fighting in the final German offensive of World War II. He wasn’t a combat soldier.
Thunder Bay, Canada. Photo based on an interpretation of aerial imagery by Microsoft Flight Simulator.
The last of the sister cities in this series is the first. Thunder Bay was the original sister city of Duluth, a relationship that formally began in 1980. While the Twin Ports is the largest metropolitan area on Lake Superior, Thunder Bay is the largest city, with a population of 110,000.
Petrozavodsk, Russia. Photo based on an interpretation of aerial imagery by Microsoft Flight Simulator.
Petrozavodsk, Russia became a sister city of Duluth in 1987. With a population of 250,000, its Duluth’s largest sister city. Petrozavodsk is the capitol of the Republic of Karelia and located on the western shore of Lake Onega. Like Duluth, Petrozavodsk has a lakewalk that features art from its sister cities. In 1991, artist Rafael Consuegra won a national competition to represent Duluth in a sister cities sculpture exchange with Petrozavodsk. Below is a picture of his sculpture, The Fisherman, that I took with a disposable camera during my brief visit to the city nearly 20 years ago.
Homegrown Music Festival starts next week with acts performing in venues across Duluth and Superior. You can read a detailed history of the festival on its website. And you can test your knowledge of this year’s festival by taking the PDD Quiz. And here you can test your knowledge of this year’s Homegrown venues by playing one of this week’s three Geoguessr challenges.
Växjö, Sweden. Photo based on an interpretation of aerial imagery by Microsoft Flight Simulator.
Växjö – pronounced Vequa according to the YouTube videos I watched — has been Duluth’s sister city since 1987. With a population of 80,000, it’s approximately the size of Duluth. Also like Duluth, it has a significant student population, with Linnaeus University just outside the city center. In 1991, Växjö became the first city in the world to set a goal of becoming fossil fuel-free. In 2007, it won the Sustainable Energy Europe Award for being the greenest community in the EU.
