Paul Lundgren
Saturday Essay: Select gems from 2018
Last week we highlighted the five most-read pieces from the third year of Perfect Duluth Day’s “Saturday Essay” series. 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.
In the past three years PDD has published 150 essays showcasing the work of 27 different writers; we hope to expand that roster in 2019. Anyone who has an original piece of literary excellence that seems to fit (or appropriately defy) the established format should email paul @ perfectduluthday.com to get involved.
And now, links to a few select gems from season three … (more…)
Postcards from Silver Creek Cliff
Before the Silver Creek Cliff Tunnel was built in the early 1990s, Highway 61 wound around the edge of the cliff. Drivers relied on skill and luck to avoid tumbling boulders or anything that might send them plunging over the edge into Lake Superior. The Gitchi-Gami State Trail was later built following the old Highway 61 path. (more…)
Mystery Photo: Miss Edna May Boyle
Here she is, Edna May Boyle, 120 years ago. Who was she? Why did she get her photo shot on Christmas Day 1898? Well, if we knew that it wouldn’t be a mystery photo, would it? (more…)
Mystery Photo #81: Markus Family, Christmas 1893
Some mystery photos are less mysterious than others. Often cabinet card photos have nothing written on the back, but this particular card comes with info suggesting the subjects are William Frederick Markus and his family. The photo was likely shot 125 years ago, around Christmas of 1893. (more…)
The Most Read Saturday Essays of 2018
Perfect Duluth Day’s “Saturday Essay” series has reached the end of its third season. As has become tradition, we now take a look back at some of the favorites of the past year. This week is part one, highlighting the essays that were read the most times according to Google Analytics. Because statistics should always be used to organize creativity, right? (more…)
Will Branch – “Duluth”
Milwaukee-based American roots musician Will Branch released a song called “Duluth” on his 2004 album Press On.
And the harsh wind is blowing up steep streets of old Duluth
Around the house you were born in, middle of World War II
Mystery Photo #80: Rust-Parker and its neighbors
Lars Waldner posted this circa 1916 image to Facebook, tagging PDD. It’s kind of a bizarre angle on Duluth, and for some reason identifying buildings in the photo is exceptionally challenging. The only cheater we’re given is the big sign on the side of Rust-Parker Wholesale Grocery Company, which was at 217 S. Lake Ave. (more…)
Postcard from Tweed Gallery
This undated postcard image of the Tweed Museum of Art appears to be circa the 1970s. The text on the back reads:
Tweed Gallery
The only major art gallery in Northern Minnesota, Tweed Gallery on the University of Minnesota, Duluth campus has attracted more than 300,000 visitors since it opened in 1958. Funds for the gallery were donated by Mrs. Alice Tweed Tuohy, now of Santa Barbara, California and her daughter, Mrs. John Brickson, Duluth. Twenty shows each year feature international, national, faculty and student artists in four separate exhibition areas.
The Feelin’ – “Bob Dylan Loves Duluth”
Before Nicholas David was a finalist on NBC’s The Voice, he was known as Nick “The Feelin'” Mrozinski, a singer-songwriter based in St. Paul whose band frequently backed up Duluth music-scene staple Teague Alexy.
The song “Bob Dylan Loves Duluth” first appeared on the Feelin’ Band’s 2008 album The Sacred Play of Life and was released again the same year on Mrozinski’s solo piano album, Oak Chase Way. The version above is from the 2010 compilation album Midwest Jam Season 1, on which Mrozinski is credited simply as the Feelin’.
Mystery Photo #79: Piper & Johnson
This cabinet card photo is from the Piper & Johnson studio at 227 E. Superior St., Duluth. Today that location is where Greysolon Plaza, the former Hotel Duluth, sits. Since cabinet cards were popular at the end of the 19th Century, the Piper & Johnson studio must have been in a building that predates the Hotel Duluth, which opened in 1925. (more…)
Video Archive: World Wrestling Federation 1988 Duluth Promo
The World Wrestling Federation’s sixth-ever card at the Duluth Arena featured …
Andre the Giant vs. Jake “The Snake” Roberts
Demolition vs. The Powers of Pain
“Outlaw” Ron Bass vs. Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake
Postcards from Duluth’s Radisson Hotel
When the Radisson Hotel was built at 505 W. Superior St. in 1970, it was Duluth’s first new hotel in 43 years. It would be difficult to count the number that were built in the next 43 years, but not impossible. Go ahead and try. (more…)
When did they put the lid on Enger Tower?
A 1954 film recently posted on Perfect Duluth Day led Lars Waldner to wonder about the roof that’s been on top of Enger Tower for decades, but isn’t there in the movie.
“I didn’t realize Enger Tower used to have an open top on it,” he wrote on Facebook. “Anyone know when that changed?” (more…)
Aerial Bridge raised to pass ore boat into Duluth Harbor
Based on the 3-cent postage rate, this postcard must be circa 1958 to 1963. The description on the back reads:
The Aerial Bridge in raised position for an ore boat passing into Duluth Harbor. When the span is lowered traffic may move without interruption between Minnesota Point and downtown Duluth. Through this canal pass about 4500 boats in a 7-1/2 month season, carrying a total tonnage of about 17 million tons. (Average for five years.)
List of Duluth Winters and What They Are Remembered For
Although Duluth is known for — and by some feared — for its winters, those blasts of snow and cold tend to run together in most peoples’ memories. Everyone who experienced it recalls the Mega Storm of 1991, and there was a long cold snap in 2014, but by and large the memories of various storms and other winter climate events get mashed together.
So, in an effort to sort them out, Perfect Duluth Day has tossed together a brief and somewhat vague list of some winter moments that have been marked on the website in the past (with links) or have been loosely referenced on the web as having been more wintery than other winters. (more…)
Hey there, Duluth, you hear us?
National Public Radio’s Scott Simon begins the Nov. 17 “Saturday Sports” segment on Weekend Edition asking: “Anybody here want to host the 2026 Winter Olympics? Hey there, Duluth, you hear us? Are you just going to stand there with your hands in your pockets?”
Mystery Photo #78: Trio by the Transfer Bridge
It’s not known who shot this photo or the names of the people posing in it, but based on the woman’s flapper outfit and the fact that the Aerial Bridge in the background isn’t a lift bridge yet, it must be circa the 1920s. Can anyone find other clues?
Duluth Harbor Basin, 1925
This photo from the National Archive was taken on an airplane from the McCook Field aviation experimentation station in Dayton, Ohio, which was flying in the region for a photographic mapping expedition of the Canadian border in October and November of 1925.
The caption on the photo reads:
Duluth Harbor Basin, the main business section and portions of Lake Superior, showing the “Eighth Wonder of the World,” the Aerial Bridge connecting Duluth proper with a long neck of land known as Minnesota Point, which really makes the Duluth Superior Harbor.
Postcards from Turk’s Clearview Court
The undated postcard above shows an aerial view of Turk’s Clearview Court at 8015 Congdon Boulevard in Lakewood Township, just outside Duluth’s northeastern border. (more…)
“Cincinnati Dancing Pig”
The song “Cincinnati Dancing Pig” was released by everybody and their brother in 1950, and in this post several versions are gathered. The words were written by Al Lewis and the music by Guy Wood. The internet purports the first recording was by Dick Jurgens and His Orchestra in May 1950, but the first release was by Red Foley in August 1950.
The Duluth-related lyric:
From Duluth to Birmingham
He’s the pork chop Dapper Dan,
He’s the keenest ham what am,
Cincinnati dancing pig
North Country Trail in Wisconsin: Nemadji River Valley
If you’ve ever hiked Minnesota’s Superior Hiking Trail to the Wisconsin border you know the trail ends there, but doesn’t really end there. Despite a sign on a tree that reads “Southern Terminus of SHT” and a separate post sticking out of the ground that reads “Not a trail,” there is clearly a trail there leading into Wisconsin. But it doesn’t go far.
The rest of the text on the terminus sign explains: “Spur trail from here to be built by North Country Trail to a parking lot in WI. Trail now dead-ends ahead.”
I explained all that 17 months ago in a Saturday Essay titled: “North Country Trail: Wood Tick Flats,” which was the first report on my quest to hike the North Country Trail across Wisconsin. That summer I covered exactly zero miles on the trail, which is not a great start to a 200-mile journey. If you read that first North Country Trail essay from June 2017 you know I didn’t hike on the trail that day because the grass was long and loaded with ticks. So I waited and saved the hike for a day with more favorable conditions … 17 months later.
What I lack in ambition I make up for with tenacity, right? My motto is: “Never quit. Take a nap and try again later when you feel more up to it.” (more…)
Goldie’s Too
Plastic shopping bag from a former Holiday Center store.
Mystery Photo #77: Passenger Boat arriving in Duluth
Date unknown. Photographer unknown. Name of vessel unknown.
Ready? Set? Go!
Charles O. Nelson’s Coffee-Boiler
Duluthian Charles O. Nelson — presumably the same Charles O. Nelson referenced in a PDD story about the West End Furniture Row — filed for and was granted a patent for a “Coffee-boiler” in 1901. The text of the claim is below. (more…)