Paul Lundgren
The amazing sensation of being airborne
Mary Netta Abe tagged Perfect Duluth Day on Facebook with this image. She was born in Duluth, but her family moved away.
“I still have dreams with the old, familiar images of my childhood,” she writes. “I have flying dreams, which are my favorite; I can feel the amazing sensation of being airborne. In one dream, I soared over the Aerial Bridge! As an artist, I used that dream as an inspiration for this drawing! I will always love Duluth!”
PDD Herzog Zone
If you’ve followed Perfect Duluth Day for any length of time you know one of the more prolific commenters is “Helmut Flaag,” who for a five-year stretch went under the handle “Herzog.” I’m often curious about whether people enjoy his contributions or find them annoying.
Personally, and as one of the moderators of PDD, I have mixed feelings. I often find Helmut/Herzog’s remarks to be well crafted and amusing, but they occasionally consist of a flurry of antagonistic threadjacks about how lumbersexuals are destroying rock and roll with their old-time banjo music.
So it’s time to start a thread specifically dedicated to our mysterious opinionated friend. (more…)
My friends went to Duluth and all I got was this crummy mug
… at least it wasn’t a T-shirt.
In Duluth on a little booziness trip
This novelty leather postcard is presumably from the era of Prohibition.
Postcards from Glensheen
Oh, that Congdon opulence. Glensheen Mansion and Museum, “the Historic Congdon Estate,” has been open for tours since 1979. In this post we look at some early postcards from the historic house museum, which of course looks very much the same today. Above is the north entrance of the Jacobean manor house. (more…)
Flashback: Denfeld and Marshall defeat Milford … in a comic
It was New Year’s Day of 2007 when the first of a series of Gil Thorp comics that referenced Duluth was published. According to a Duluth News Tribune story that week, writer Neal Rubin typically uses the names of actual high school teams in the comic, and simply liked the team name Denfeld Hunters. Frank McLaughlin is the artist who drew the strip. (more…)
2016: The Year in Duluth Gig Posters
By no means is this a comprehensive collection, nor is it a carefully curated archive of the best. It’s just a bunch of 2016 concert posters the PDD crew was alert enough to toss in a folder for use in this feature. Enjoy. (more…)
Saturday Essay: Select gems from 2016
Last week we highlighted the five most-read pieces from the first year of Perfect Duluth Day’s “Saturday Essay” series. This week’s focus is on five essays of similar quality that might have been missed by readers who were cleaning their attics, fixing their hot rods or relaxing at the cabin on the particular Saturdays these stories were originally posted.
The first 50 essays in our series showcased the work of 16 different writers; we hope to expand that roster in 2017. 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 a few select gems from season one, in random order … (more…)
Postcards from the Duluth Curling Club
Duluth Curling & Skating Club was organized in 1891, with the first stone thrown Christmas Day on the ice of Lake Superior. The club moved from rink to rink until its first building opened in 1913. (more…)
Arrowhead Christmas by Knute Heldner
Impressionist painter Knute Heldner lived in Duluth during the early 1900s.
The Most Read Saturday Essays of 2016
Perfect Duluth Day launched its “Saturday Essay” series at the beginning of 2016 and it quickly became the most popular recurring feature on the website. With the first set of 50 essays now complete, it’s time to take a look back at which pieces have been the most read of the bunch so far, according to the folks at Google Analytics.
Before we get all Casey Kasem, a few notes about how the “Saturday Essay” feature works: Yours truly, Paul Lundgren, is the editor. A small group of writers are featured somewhat regularly, but anyone is welcome and encouraged to submit a piece for consideration. Shoot an email to paul @ perfectduluthday.com to inquire.
And now, the countdown … (more…)
Jean Du Luth Farm, Duluth, Minn.
This page from the Dec. 16, 1915 issue of The Breeder’s Gazette is not easy to read in this format, but there’s a funny tidbit in there. Apparently someone at the farm named a cow after J. Proctor Knott, the U.S. Representative from Kentucky who in 1871 ridiculed a bill to subsidize westward expansion of railroads by lampooning Duluth in a famous speech that was later published under the title “The Untold Delights of Duluth.”
From the list of stats in the right column:
14 of Proctor Knott’s first daughters in milk average 428 lbs. fat, official. Half of these are heifer records.
Knott and his speech were the theme of a PDD Quiz back in January.
Stolen from Sam Hanson
This ceramic ashtray raises a few questions, the primary one being: Who was Sam Hanson?
Boulevard Lake, Duluth, Minn.
This undated postcard must be showing one of what Duluthians call the “Twin Ponds” these days. Skyline Parkway was commonly referred to as “The Boulevard,” short for Rogers Boulevard, before taking its modern name in 1929. (more…)
Duluth’s Cascade Hotel
“Your home when you’re in Duluth” is the Cascade, “the friendly hotel.” Located on the corner of First Avenue West and Third Street, it features “kitchenette apartments – hotel rooms” that are “transient – residential.” The hotel opened in 1924. (more…)
Sixteen Years on the Superior Hiking Trail: Two Harbors Vicinity
The final four of my 16 years on the Superior Hiking Trail were spent filling in a series of gaps, the biggest of which was an 85-mile stretch from Martin Road outside Duluth to Split Rock State Park. I covered nearly three quarters of that distance in 2012 and 2013 through somewhat random day hikes. The 2012 hikes were in areas that are among the most beautiful on the trail. The 2013 hikes were marred by biting flies and scenery that doesn’t quite measure up to better parts of the trail.
When people find out I’ve hiked the entire SHT, they sometimes form a grandiose opinion of my outdoorsmanship and general machismo. Like I’m the kind of guy who walks around with a Leatherman multitool at all times, practically lives off the land and is prepared for Armageddon. In reality, I wouldn’t have slept a single night in the woods on my hiking trips if there were an easier way around it. Once I’d knocked the northernmost 180 miles off my checklist, there was an easier way around it, and I took full advantage of the opportunity to get dropped off at a trailhead and get picked up eightish miles away just a few hours later. (more…)
Duluth, you’re terrific!
This old plastic grocery bag from the Denfeld Super Valu asserts Duluth is terrific. The grocery store at 4501 Grand Ave. closed in 2001 and was replaced with a Walgreens.
Max Wolpoff thinks he’s Chad Salmela
Max Wolpoff, a Boston University student announcer working the Terriers women’s hockey game against the Gophers this past weekend, was almost as excitable as Duluthian Chad Salmela working the Sochi Olympics in 2014.
The parking meters in Hartford vs. Duluth
A few weeks back PDD reported a Duluth reference in a new episode of Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, prompting vague assertions that Duluth had been mentioned in an episode of the original run of Gilmore Girls.
Well, a more specific tip finally came in.
Duluth was name dropped in season 2, episode 3, “Red Light on the Wedding Night.” Lorelai’s fiance Max has his bachelor party cut short because his brother leap frogged a parking meter and didn’t make it, resulting in a hospital visit. According to Max, his brother “claims he wasn’t drunk. He’s saying that the parking meters in Hartford are taller than the parking meters in Duluth, so he just miscalculated.”
The episode originally aired Oct. 16, 2001. The Duluth reference is just after the 18-minute mark of the full episode; the bootleg clip above isolates the reference.
Duluth Square Dance Association Shindig 1975
From the Sept. 7, 1975, Duluth News Tribune; photos by Charles Curtis.
This is how some of more than 1,000 square dancers looked from the top of the scoreboard in the Duluth Arena Saturday. The terpsichoreans, from a five-state region and Canada, are here through today for Shindig ’75, sponsored by the Duluth Square Dance Association.
Adam Ruins Everything references Duluth
Adam Ruins Everything is at least the fifth television series to reference Duluth in 2016. Episode 23, which aired Dec. 6 on the cable network TruTV, features Adam Conover discussing “how deep Facebook’s tentacles really go,” with an example of a man who bought a “bacon double heart-attack burger” in Duluth after seeing an ad targeted through his Facebook likes.
Other shows that have referenced Duluth in 2016 include Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, Robot Chicken, Vinyl and Lady Dynamite.
Sixteen Years on the Superior Hiking Trail: Silver Bay to Split Rock State Park
The fall colors in 2009 received mixed reviews. I thought they were outstanding.
“I’m sorry, but the colors were TERRIBLE this year,” one Perfect Duluth Day reader wrote at the time. “Very disappointed.” Another agreed. “They’ve been very dim up the shore.” One advised that it was important to “get off the shore 5 miles inland” to see the colors at their best.
It’s human nature, I suppose, to consider all things in relation to whatever else might be possible. Just this past week I was at Bent Paddle’s busy tap room and my wife quickly ordered two Harness IPAs, knowing it’s a beer I love. While that was happening, I was a few feet away looking at the beer options on the board and elated to see Barrel-aged Double Shot Double Black Ale was available. When a Harness landed in front of me I wanted to take that beer I generally love and pour it directly into a urinal to make a clear path for the Double Black—the only acceptable beer in the world at that moment.
So when I say the fall colors were excellent in 2009 and show a few pictures, it’s with the understanding that maybe they were the 974th-best fall colors of all time. (more…)
Mystery Photo #48: Superior Street and Lake Avenue circa 1998
Where are you now, Danny Tanner?
This image is from a postcard printed by the College of St. Scholastica featuring photography by student Danny Tanner. Searching the internet to determine if Danny Tanner is still involved in photography is a bit complex; it turns out Danny Tanner is the name of a character on the television sitcom Full House, which had recently wrapped up its eight-season run around the same time the real Danny Tanner was doing his thing on Superior Street.
Although the date the photo was shot and date the postcards were printed are unknown, this one is postmarked Nov. 2, 1998. In the background are the Electric Fetus store, Strand Theater and a Duluth Transit Authority bus headed to New Duluth.
The year Joel Hodgson spent in Duluth
On the Halloween episode of The Dana Gould Hour, guest Joel Hodgson briefly mentions his family lived in Duluth for a year. The conversation had steered to small-town television shows and personalities, and Hodgson recalled “picturesque slides of lighthouses” and how it gave a “mood of where you were.”
Hodgson, of course, is best known as the creator of the hit television show Mystery Science Theater 3000. (more…)