Paul Lundgren Posts

Big League Manager Baseball Game from West Duluth

To mark the start of the 2024 baseball season we take a look back at the Big League Manager Baseball Game, which was made in Duluth beginning, as near as can be determined, 70 years ago in 1954.

Selective Focus: When the winter that wasn’t, suddenly was

Select images from Instagram showing scenes of what might normally be considered a very typical late-season snowstorm … if there had been a winter in winter.

Postcards from the Fish Fry Lodge

The undated postcard above, published by W. A. Fisher Company, shows the Fish Fry Lodge on Highway 61 near Duluth.

Duluth Book Releases in 2024

Every year a gob of books by Duluth-area writers and/or about Duluth-area topics hit the shelves of local bookstores and warehouses of e-commerce corporations. Here’s a look at what’s new and coming soon in 2024.

Fred W. Erickson, Duluth Grocer

This postcard image shows the Fred W. Erickson grocery store at 2029 and 2031 W. Third St. in Duluth.

Postcard from a Rest Point Overlooking the St. Louis River

The text on the front of this undated postcard, found listed for sale on eBay, reads: “St. Louis River from Beautiful Rest Point 1/2 mile from Kum Bak Tourist Camp, Duluth, Minn.”

Anyone who has ever heard of Kum Bak Tourist camp, please enlighten in the comments.

PDD Shop Talk: Help Perfect the Perfection

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For more than 20 years, Perfect Duluth Day has remained committed to serving up its content with no paywalls and without overly obtrusive advertising. That doesn’t make paying the bills easy, but with modest income from sidebar advertising and the generous contributions of readers we continue to get it done.

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Postcard from the Duluth Boat Club

This undated postcard, published by E.C. Kropp Company, depicts a sailboat race on Duluth’s waterfront with the Duluth Boat Club in the background. This version of the club building was on the bay side of Minnesota Point at South Tenth Street. It was built in 1903 and destroyed by fire in 1951.

Selective Focus: When Winter Was

Apostle Island Ice Caves, 2014, photo by Chris Plys

There is still time for the winter of 2023/24 to show its stuff. For now, all we have is the past.

Destination Duluth, a nonprofit that shares images and stories on social media in an effort to promote the city and region, recently declared “We want winter back!” A group of photographers have contributed photos from “when we had real winters,” posted with the hashtag whenwinterwas.

Mystery Photo: Western Duluth and God’s Favorite Band

Twin/Tone Records, a Minneapolis-based record label active from 1977 to 1994, has an artist page for God’s Favorite Band that features the image above.

Mystery Photo: Boy behind the wheel circa 1924

The postcard photo above is dated 1924, making it 100 years old. It shows a boy driving a car with a sign on the grill that reads “Western Steel Products Company, New Duluth, Minn.” That doesn’t technically mean the photo was shot in the New Duluth neighborhood, however, so the primary mystery of the photo’s location perhaps hinges on whether the houses in the background match any present-day Duluth homes. The identity of the people in the car is the longshot mystery to solve.

Mystery Logo from Duluth Shirt

This sweatshirt logo is clearly connected to some sort of Duluth organization, but what? Does that symbol represent some combination of letters or some concept? Does anyone recognize this logo?

Postcard from Boulevard Lake

This postcard was sent from Scanlon by someone whose name looks something like “Alianine.” It was mailed on Jan. 21, but the year is not visible on the postmark. Clearly it’s about a century old. It shows what must be what is called Twin Ponds today, but is dubbed Boulevard Lake on the postcard.

Mystery Photo: Nye’s Studio Couple

One thing that gets weird about photos shot with costumes, props and a fake background is that eventually the photo will become old, and then it’s more difficult to tell whether the people in the photo are dressed in their normal clothing, were being photographed to promote a play, or just having a novelty photo taken. So the image above might seem like an 1890s version of what a photo of someone in 2024 wearing disco clothes might convey in the year 2156.

Another Postcard from the Duluth-Superior Hi Bridge

This early 1960s postcard, published by Gallagher’s Studio of Photography, shows the Blatnik Bridge before it was called the Blatnik Bridge. From 1961 to 1971 the bridge was called the Duluth-Superior Bridge and known colloquially as the “High Bridge,” though the name was often rendered as “Hi Bridge.” It was later named for Congressman John A. Blatnik.

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