Paul Lundgren Posts

Guide to Duluth-related Blogs in 2015

Nov 08, 2015 6 Comments

Bloggers

The craft of writing personal blogs probably hit its stride in Duluth around 2005 and started dying out around 2010. It’s been a long time since the days PDD carried a feed of local blogs, which became unnecessary once subscription news-aggregator applications became available. There is still a strong set of Duluth-area writers and photographers dedicated to kicking out text on a regular basis, however, and we profile them here so you can check them out and add them to your feeds as you wish.

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Recommendations

Duluth’s first escape room opening for trial run

Nov 04, 2015 4 Comments

Duluth Escape Room Group Adventure Game

Solve EntertainmentThree Duluthians have formed a business partnership to open a downtown storefront during the holiday season for a physical adventure game in which participants use elements of the room to solve a series of puzzles, find clues and escape.

Silent Night: A Live-Action Adventure will open Nov. 28 in the Stanley Center, 408 W. Superior St. It’s the work of a new immersive event company, Solve Entertainment, aka SolveEnt. The partnership is comprised of Andy Bennett, Richard Hansen and Matthew Wagner.

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Events ,

List of Duluth-area restaurants that are closed on Mondays

Nov 02, 2015 2 Comments

Sorry closedMany years ago I made the blunder of driving a friend out to Eddie’s in the outskirts of Superior on a Monday to discover it was closed. Last week some friends were texting about a meetup at the Spirit Room. The final text read: “Spirit Room is closed. Thirsty Pagan!”

In an effort to prevent other Monday-dining disappointments, and because PDD loves lists, here is a rundown of the eating establishments in the area that are closed on Mondays. If you notice a place is missing from the list, shout it out in the comments.


Restaurants

How to see Duluth and Superior on electric cars

Oct 24, 2015 1 Comment

How to see Duluth and Superior

The date on this bad boy is 1909. The cover image seems to suggest there was a floating railway perpendicular to the shipping canal where people could watch flaming ships torch the city.

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History

Question 3: Method for setting fee paid to Duluth city councilors

Oct 20, 2015 2 Comments

Duluth Charter Amendment - Method for setting fee paid to city councilors

After publishing the Duluth 2015 General Election Sample Ballot, a question arose. We’ve been hearing a lot about ranked-choice voting and Lakeside liquor sales, but what’s the deal with question #3?

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News and Current Affairs, Politics ,

Still curious?

Oct 20, 2015 3 Comments

Curious Goods in Superior

What’s the deal with Curious Goods in Superior?

If you’ve driven by 1717-1/2 Winter St. and wondered if the store ever opens, well, it doesn’t … but in a way it’s always open, on the Internet. For the past decade or so Curious Goods has basically been a warehouse for eBay items from the seller Curious-g.


Recommendations ,

Perspectives on a Rainbow

Oct 18, 2015 No Comments

Mary Lou Williams

After Mary Lou Williams’‘ rainbow photo was shared last Monday on the PDD Facebook page, three other perspectives emerged. From left to right below are photos by Paul Gudmundson, Laurie Newland and Tyler Day. (Click to view larger.)

Paula Gudmundson Laurie Newland Tyler Day

Why are there so many photos of rainbows, and what’s on the other side? Well, according to reports from Kermit the Frog, rainbows are visions, but only illusions, and rainbows have nothing to hide.


Photos

R.I.P. Mr. Richard H. Gastler

Oct 16, 2015 4 Comments

Richard Gastler

Longtime Denfeld High School economics teacher Dick Gastler died on Thursday, Oct. 15, at the age of 79. Among many great teachers at Denfeld, Mr. Gastler would have to be considered the most famous of his era. He was a ham. He broke into song all the time. He frequently digressed into stories about growing up in Chaska. He wore cheesy leisure suits, famously sporting the same one every day during a stretch of 1984 when he was raising money to fight hunger — a stunt that landed him on Good Morning America. The suit was burned when Mr. Gastler reached his fundraising goal. The ashes are still in a trophy case at the school.

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R.I.P.

Keep your weather eye open. And use Duluth Imperial flour.

Oct 14, 2015 2 Comments

US Weather and Wind Signal Flags


History

Fifteen-year journey on the Superior Hiking Trail complete

Oct 11, 2015 5 Comments

SHT VictoryThe champagne bottle popped shortly after noon today. In what must rank among the laziest accomplishments in endurance sports history, I completed the final stretch of my quest to hike the entire Superior Hiking Trail … 15 years after I started.

The 296-mile journey was tackled in about 45 different hikes spread out between Sept. 24, 2000, and Oct. 11, 2015. The longest single hike was about 15 miles. The shortest was today’s hike, which was less than a mile. Perhaps some day I’ll gather stories from the journey into some sort of narrative, but for today I’ll just present a simple breakdown of the mileage per year.

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Outdoors ,

John Vachon’s Duluth Milk Company Photos

Oct 06, 2015 2 Comments

Child drinking milk

MPR News did a series of stories on John Vachon earlier this year, which was noted at the time on PDD along with a Duluth Milk Company photo. Today we present the rest of the Duluth Milk Company photos and a link to the lot of 61 Duluth images Vachon shot in August of 1941, from the collection of 170,000 photographs from 1935 to 1945 created by the United States Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information.

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History, Photos , , ,

Duluth Population: 1860 to 2010

Oct 05, 2015 No Comments

Update: A more recent version of this chart with the 2020 figure is now available.

Duluth Population Chart

Below are the U.S. Census figures from the graphic, along with some additional population numbers put together by Tony Dierckins of Zenith City Online fame:

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History

Visit Uptown Superior … or Downtown Superior or the North End

Oct 04, 2015 2 Comments

Visit Uptown SuperiorThis past summer a new marketing effort was launched in Superior to attract people back to the downtown area, which struggled through a long Tower Avenue reconstruction project in 2013. The strip has seen a number of new businesses spring up on the fancy new avenue, but also still has numerous vacant buildings. It’s a work in progress. The joint effort of “collected businesses promoting each other” to “highlight the diamonds in the proverbial rough” is called Visit Uptown Superior.

Why is the downtown now the uptown? Isn’t “uptown” a word to describe a residential area? Well, this part of Superior is the North End, and people tend to think of north as up … and maybe these businesses intend to “Uptown funk you up.” Let’s not overthink it. Below is the back of a promotional postcard highlighting the collective businesses in said Uptown.

Visit Uptown Superior postcard


News and Current Affairs

Postcards from Chester Park

Oct 03, 2015 12 Comments

Scene in Duluth Chester Park

“Chester Park is popular both in summer and winter,” according to old postcard propaganda. “In it is located one of America’s highest ski jumps and also Chester Creek, one of several flowing thru the city in which trout may be caught. Duluth is the only city in the United States where trout fishing is possible within city limits.”

Well, we know the famous ski jumps came down in 2014, but there seems to be another fact in there worth examining. Was Duluth at one time really the only city with trout fishing? Prove it or debunk it, dear reader.

In the meantime, here are more snappy postcards …

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History, Photos ,

Glensheen: the Musical

Sep 30, 2015 No Comments

Glensheen the musical

Glensheen, a musical based on the book by Jeffrey Hatcher and music and lyrics by Chan Poling, opens at the History Theatre in St. Paul on Oct. 3 and runs through Oct. 25.

Good lord.

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Art, History ,
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