Paul Lundgren
Homegrown Music Festival Field Guide 2017
The 2017 Homegrown Music Festival Field Guide is off the presses. All three tons of the processed wood fibre will be distributed to various shops across the Twin Ports beginning this weekend. This year’s cover art is by Sarah Brokke, who was also the featured artist in yesterday’s “Selective Focus” on PDD. The photo above, shot by Kip Paslowicz, shows Homegrown Assistant Director Adam Guggemos standing atop a portion of the 20,000 copies of the 100-page promotional magazine.
This year’s Homegrown happens April 30 to May 6, with 196 bands performing over the course of the eight days. (more…)
The Greatest Inventions of All Time
It’s difficult to pick one invention to stand out as the greatest of all time. There are so many manmade wonders that enrich our lives every day and make us question how we ever lived without them. For example: the wheel, the flushable toilet, beer, Velcro, eyeglasses, the atomic bomb and plastic storage containers.
The printing press and the Internet are certainly great inventions, but they make it just as easy to spread lies as the truth, so I can’t rate them high on my list. They certainly don’t rate above plastic storage containers, which have brought society nothing but positive outcomes.
It wasn’t long ago when people had to go to grocery stores and beg for flimsy cardboard boxes to package their belongings for a move. It was difficult to get a good grip on those boxes and I never knew when the bottom would fall out and all my Smurf glasses would smash at my feet. But plastic storage containers are lightweight, sturdy and stackable, with easy-to-grip handles on the sides. They are one of the greatest inventions of all time.
There are maybe a dozen inventions I would list ahead of plastic storage containers, and all of them are forms of contraception. I’d even put the withdrawal method near the top of the list. I know it’s not very effective, but it was a good start. (more…)
Old Tokens to Existing Duluth Establishments
Consider this a companion post to “Tokens to Long-gone Duluth Establishments.”
Leaving Duluth: June 30, 1916
Another photo from the “Leaving Duluth” collection; Arcade Camera Shop/Studio, 110 West Superior St., Duluth.
Duluth Album Releases in 2017
Matt Ray
Minnesota Moon
(Jan. 1)
Available on CDBaby
IW/M/DK
Ghostship
Xero Music (Jan. 12)
Available on Bandcamp
The Farsights
Traffic
(Jan. 17)
Available on Bandcamp
Overhaul of USS Duluth at Swan Island, 1985
Sept. 29, 1985 — Dawn Kee, with daughter Melissa, 4, and holding son, Jeremiah, 2, shouts to husband, Chief Signalman Rick Kee, who is among crew arriving at Swan Island for overhaul of USS Duluth. She said she was living in a motel until the family found housing but was “excited” about living in Portland.
Photo by Joel Davis of The Oregonian.
USS Duluth was a Navy ship named for the city of Duluth. It was launched in 1965 and was scrapped in 2014. Its anchor was salvaged and installed along Duluth’s Lakewalk.
The Lincoln Tribune – Dec. 17, 1985
Oh, the random relics that land on the kitchen table at the Perfect Duluth Day Headquarters. We’ve also scanned all 15 interior pages of this issue of Lincoln Park School’s fancy old newsletter, which appear below, but take heed in the warning that it’s pretty dry stuff in general — everything from mazes and recipes to the school lunch menu. One thing of note is page 2, which is a ridiculously long list of items in the lost and found. (more…)
What is this brick pillar in the sidewalk?
The above image landed in my inbox this morning with the following question from a fellow named Ben: “Any idea what this is? It’s on West Superior Street at 17th Avenue West. There’s nothing on it or attached to it.”
Well, it just so happens I have a pretty good idea what it is. (more…)
Augustus B. Wolvin and the Duluth Stoker Co.
This advertisement is from The Directory of Licensed Stationary Engineers of the State of Ohio, 1903, published by the Engineers Directory Co. of Columbus, Ohio. It highlights the features of the Duluth Stoker, a mechanical stoker designed for use on steamships. (more…)
When principals tried to run Mötley Crüe out of Duluth
Left: Vince Neil of Mötley Crüe performing at the Duluth Arena on Nov. 5, 1985; photo by Bob King for the Duluth News-Tribune & Herald. Right: Clipping from Nov. 22, 1985.
Oh, the profanity! Mötley Crüe got Duluth-area principals’ undies in a bunch back in 1985. Attempts to ban the Los Angeles-based glam metal band went nowhere. Mötley Crüe returned to Duluth for two more concerts, one in 1990 and another in 1998. (more…)
Fairmount Elementary School Class Photos
Fairmount School at 6715 Redruth St. has served as an apartment building since 1981, but it once bustled with West Duluth kids willing to learn a few things in between cramming gum under their desks and creating general mischief.
The photos collected here are from a few different sources, but most of them were posted to the West Duluth Memories Facebook group by various people.
1949 Grade 1 (more…)
R.I.P. St. Margaret Mary Church of Morgan Park
The two photos above, posted to Facebook by Tim Beaulier, show yesterday’s demolition of St. Margaret Mary Church in Duluth’s Morgan Park neighborhood. WDIO-TV’s Eyewitness News reported last week the church was set to be razed. (more…)
Duluth Smells Ocean Breezes
Below is the complete text of a Duluth story from page six of The Observer out of Saline, Mich., from Thursday, June 14, 1934, reprinted from Collier’s magazine. (more…)
Sixteen Years on the Superior Hiking Trail: The Double Finish
Writing about hiking the full 300+ miles of the Superior Hiking Trail hasn’t quite taken as long as hiking it, but it’s gone on long enough. At sixteen years and thirteen chapters, the story now concludes.
I had just a dozen miles left to go in 2015, which were divided into four slightly quirky hikes.
The first was a 1.8-mile section from Triangle Trail to Oak Trail near Jay Cooke State Park. Some of it I had probably already covered a few years earlier, I just wasn’t quite certain. So I embarked on a “van-bike-hike” adventure to make sure any possible gap there was covered. This involved driving to the Jay Cooke Visitor Center, unloading a bike, cycling the Munger Trail to bypass parts of the SHT I’d already done, ditching my bike at the Greely/Triangle trail intersection, completing the short hike, and cycling back.
You’ll have to trust me when I say that was fun. The description makes it sound like I was running a complicated errand. The thing is, being obsessive and task-oriented can be a method for forcing one’s self into situations that can be a bit more out of the ordinary. So, compared to hiking the trail behind my house for the 17,000th time, the van-bike-hike was a memorable event.
Two months later I took on what was the newest and southernmost segment of the SHT at the time, the 5.9-mile stretch from Wild River Road to Jay Cooke State Park. This also involved covering some ground I had hiked in the past, because parts of the trail are old segments of long-existing paths in the park, such as Bear Chase Trail. (No bears were chased.) (more…)
Postcards from First United Methodist Church of Duluth
Before there was a “Coppertop Church” in Duluth, First Methodist Episcopal occupied the corner of Third Avenue West and Third Street. The 1,800-seat brownstone structure was dedicated on Feb. 5, 1893, closed in November 1966, and was razed in 1969. It was known as “the Meth” … because those were simpler times.
The new First United Methodist Church was built on seven acres of land on Skyline Parkway bought at public auction in 1959. Construction began on “The Coppertop Church” in 1966, based on architectural designs by Pietro Bellushi.
Shooting the Life-Line at Duluth, Minn.
This postcard was mailed from Duluth on July 24, 1907, and arrived two days later in the mailbox of Mr. A. G. Pack, Jr. of 823 Colorado Ave., Colorado Springs, Colo. It does not necessarily depict a Duluth scene; versions of this postcard exist for Wildwood, N.J.; Atlantic City, N.J. and probably other cities. (more…)
Where in Superior?
For the 155th installment of Perfect Duluth Day’s ultra-thrilling photo-trivia sensation “Where in Duluth?” we cross the bridge to ask, “Where in Superior was this photo taken?”
Mystery Photo: Women and Children First
The back of this postcard credits Gustaf Landin, a photographer who operated out of 24 N. 21st. Ave. W. in Duluth’s friendly West End neighborhood, with shooting this image.
The main question here is, what’s going on in this century-old photo? Why have a bunch of ladies in dresses lined up with a row of children in front of them at what we can assume is some Duluth location? Who are they? We’ll probably never know for sure. (more…)
Sixteen Years on the Superior Hiking Trail: Loss and Lost
Hiking through the Castle Danger area in 2013 I came to a sign informing me the Encampment River Bridge was out. No big deal, I thought. I’ll hike elsewhere and pick up this section next year.
To this day there is no Encampment River Bridge. It was washed out in the Historic Summer Solstice Flood Disaster of 2012, along with about $50 million worth of other stuff in northeastern Minnesota. What I found out by talking to other people who had hiked through the area is the Encampment River is not typically deep and gushing, so unless there’s been a heavy rain it’s easy to cross without a bridge.
With that knowledge I made plans for my final hike of 2014, from Silver Lake Township Road 617 at Castle Danger to Lake County Road 301. Saturday, Oct. 11, looked good on my calendar as one of the last days one might confidently expect nice weather before colder days set in.
Of course, there are forces other than weather and natural disasters aligning to alter whatever plans we might have for our lives. Six days before my hike, a great friend and mentor died in his sleep. (more…)
The busy, prosperous, West End: E. C. Peterson
This clip from the Feb. 1, 1912 Duluth Herald, highlights that “get together” spirit of the friendly West End. Profiled at right is E. C. Peterson, one of the proprietors of Minnesota Tea Co. (more…)
A Thrilling Sight
This image is from an undated postcard published by Gallagher’s Studio of Photography in Duluth.
Photo description from the back of the card:
The French Ship Racroi enters the Duluth-Superior Harbor through the famous Aerial Lift Bridge. Also shown is the Streamliner, an excursion boat. A tug helps guide the 13,000-ton bulk cargo carrier Racroi, which is 555 feet long with a 69-foot boom and a 27-foot draft.
Sixteen Years on the Superior Hiking Trail: Leaves, Needles, Mud
By the fall of 2014 I had fewer than 50 miles of walking left to complete the Superior Hiking Trail. That might seem easy enough to knock out in a couple days, but it wasn’t a single stretch I had to cover, it was short segments stretched out over hundreds of miles. So I was picking them off three miles here and eight miles there.
An example of how it sometimes broke down: Rather than do the 6.4-mile Rossini Road to Fox Farm Road segment with cars at each end, or hike through and then go all the way back, I chose to break it into two trips on two separate days — Rossini Road to the West Branch of Knife River, then Fox Farm Road to the same spot, going both directions on each hike, turning it into a two-part 12.8 miler.
Of course, by driving one car to the same area twice, instead of two cars once, I didn’t save any gas or spare the environment any emissions — and I doubled my time spent in the car — so it was a dumb thing to do … even though it seemed intelligent at the time.
The highlight of that first hike in early September was either a mushroom or some kind of yellow porcelain trailside birdbath. (more…)
“Duh-looth”
Thanks to howtopronounce.org we now have this clip to use as a sample in electronic instrumentals. Who would like to be the first?
Having a Bully Time in Duluth
V. O. Hammon Publishing Company of Chicago put out this postcard in the early 1900s. The image does not necessarily reflect a Duluth scene; the company also put out a “Having a Bully Time in Minneapolis” postcard with the same art … and there are probably others.