Paul Lundgren
Mr. Bierhalter, what is bock beer?
As bock season kicks into high gear — Earth Rider celebrates this weekend; Fitger’s is waiting until April this year — we look back 110 years to get Fitger’s brewmaster John Bierhalter’s definition of the strong, dark beer traditionally brewed in fall and consumed in spring. (more…)
Mayor and Common Council, City of Duluth, March 10, 1913
Seated to the left of the mustached gentleman at far right appears to be Duluth’s 23rd mayor, Dr. John A. McCuen. Win the internet by identifying anyone else in the photo.
Postcard from Tugboats Record and Sinclair
Icebreaking in the Duluth Harbor is expected to start this week, with the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Spar clearing the way for the start of another shipping season.
The postcard above is from the early 1900s and shows the tugboats Record and Sinclair breaking ice in the Duluth Harbor. (more…)
AP Photo: Sixty-year-old plane crash near Duluth
March 3, 1963: Four Wisconsin men flying home from a fishing trip in Canada died as their small plane crashed in a field near Duluth. The plane, a Cessna 180, crashed at the edge of an open field a half mile west of Proctor and eight miles southwest of Duluth. (more…)
Duluth Book Releases in 2023
Complicated Warding
Michelle Matthees
Jan. 1
Press This!
Available at michellematthees.com
I Think I Know You
Julie Gard
Jan. 2
FutureCycle Press
Available at barnesandnoble.com
White Pine: The Natural and Human History of a Foundational American Tree
John Pastor
Jan. 5
Island Press
Available at islandpress.org
View of Duluth from Northern Pacific Docks circa 1880
This photograph shows a view of the Duluth hillside circa 1880. It was shot by Paul B. Gaylord from the Northern Pacific railroad dock. (more…)
Postcards from Sellers Mine, north of Hibbing
The Burt-Poole and Sellers mines were the first to ship iron ore out of Minnesota’s Iron Range in the summer of 1895. In its first five years the Sellers Ore Company shipped 188,000 tons. By 1919 the figure had shot up to 8.9 million tons, according to the 1921 book Duluth and St. Louis County, Minnesota; Their Story and People by Walter Van Brunt. (more…)
Selective Focus: Having an icy PDD
Select photos from Instagram spanning mid-January to mid-February 2023, all hashtagged with the name of a certain website. #perfectduluthday (more…)
Postcard from Elmgren Motor Court on North Shore Drive
This postcard, published by the Curt Teich Co. of Chicago, shows the Elmgren Motor Court in the tiny hamlet of Clifton, just outside Duluth’s city limits on the North Shore of Lake Superior. (more…)
Paddling the Pier
Photographer A. Hoppenyan of Noct Studium studio took this photo last night at sunset on Lake Superior next to the Duluth Shipping Canal. The identity of the person in the shot is unknown. Hoppenyan would like to get a print of the photo to the mystery paddle boarder, so give a shout if you can provide a clue.
The Repairmen – “Duluth Song”
Duluth-based folk rockers the Repairmen released their contribution to ever-growing collection of “Duluth Songs” in 2019 on the album Garage.
Old Softball Field in Midway Township
On Midway/Becks Road, about a quarter mile south of Interstate 35 and just west of the former Nopeming Sanatorium, sits a softball — or perhaps youth baseball — field that doesn’t appear to have been played on in about 40 years. These photos are from November. (more…)
Duluth Incline Magic Lantern Glass Slides from 1893
Car on the Seventh Ave Incline Duluth Minn. 1893
Images here of the Duluth Incline Railway are from three lantern slides, also known as “magic lanterns.” According to the website of the Magic Lantern Society of U.S. and Canada, the slides generally “consist of two sheets of glass, one of which has the image on one side of it and the other which covers the image, and bound all around by a black paper tape.” (more…)
Cut- and Burned-over Timber Land near Duluth
This image is from a stereograph published circa the early 20th century by the Keystone View Company of Meadville, Pa. (more…)
Selective Focus: Having a PDD at the start of 2023
Select photos from Instagram spanning the first days of 2023, all hashtagged with the name of a certain website. (more…)
Mystery Photo: The Ritcheys
This cabinet card photo of the “Ritcheys” is listed for sale on eBay. Who were the Ritcheys? Well, that’s our primary mystery. The photo was presumably shot in Duluth, being marked with the logo of the Robinson Studio … although the “and New York” below the address is a little confusing. Anyway, it’s supremely likely the Ritcheys either lived in or near Duluth, or visited Duluth about 125 years ago, and that’s about all there is to go on. (more…)
Postcard from the Spalding Hotel Lounge
This undated postcard shows the stylish design and furnishings in the lounge at Duluth’s Spalding Hotel circa the early 1900s. (more…)
2022: The Year in Duluth Gig Posters
The age-old technique of using images to promote music is as popular as ever. More and more of the artworks, however, exist solely as compressed digital images for use on the internet rather than taking up space in the physical world as actual “posters” taped to restroom walls and thumbtacked to bulletin boards. Either way, they’re all JPEGs on Perfect Duluth Day. (more…)
Postcard from the Rustic Bridge at Lester Park in 1912
This postcard of the Rustic Bridge at Lester Park was mailed on New Year’s Eve of 1912 — 110 years ago today — to Mrs. Frank Larson of Stockholm, Wis. (more…)
Saturday Essay: Select Gems from 2022
We stand on the precipice of a magnificent achievement in the category of literary endurance. Next week Perfect Duluth Day will launch the eighth year of its “Saturday Essay” series by publishing the 300th essay. Did we think when we launched with the first essay in 2016 it would last this long? Of course we did. We like to write; you like to read. Duh.
At the end of each year we briefly rest our typing devices and look back at some of the highlights of the previous year. Last week we focused on the most read essays of 2022. This week we ignore the numbers and look back at a few select essays of similar quality that might have been missed by non-compulsive followers. (more…)
PDD Shop Talk: Last call for 2022 donations
Perfect Duluth Day will celebrate 20 years of being Duluth’s Duluthiest website on June 29, 2023. At some point this year, we’ll be relaunching the site under a new WordPress theme and hoping we don’t break everything in the process. But before we get further into explaining that, we lead with the standard plug for donations to ensure the whole operation remains solvent.
So if you appreciate the thorough listings of hoopla on the PDD Calendar and/or the features on the PDD Blog, kindly drop a few bucks in the PayPal account. (more…)
The Most Read Saturday Essays of 2022
Season seven of Perfect Duluth Day’s “Saturday Essay” series has drawn to close, and it’s time to look back with the usual popularity contest. In 2021, Jim Richardson pulled off an unprecedented sweep of the top-five most read essays; this year he remained the click hog, but holds a more reasonable three out of five works deemed by Google Analytics to be your favorites.
Next week we’ll highlight a few “select gems” judged by attributes other than page views, but this week it’s all about which ones had the most people tap the Read More button. (more…)
Postcard from the Lakeview Castle circa the 1940s
Lakeview Castle, 5135 North Shore Drive in Duluth Township, got its start circa 1914 as a fish stand and coffee shop, eventually growing into a restaurant, lounge and motel.
It ceased operation at the end of 2009 and the Clearwater Grille opened there in the fall of 2010.