There’s an old saying in Duluth that cold weather keeps the riff raff out. Logic follows that summertime is the peak season for car prowls and even the occasional theft. A blue Audi A4 convertible like the one shown above was stolen on the evening of July 31. (Update: Police have recovered it.)
Duluth Police routinely remind citizens to lock their vehicles, remove valuables and report suspicious activity to 911.
Imagine Duluth 2035 is an update to Duluth’s 2006 Comprehensive Plan, the road map for future development of Duluth. Citizens are encouraged to share their thoughts on the future of the city by taking the Imagine Duluth survey.
Noted writer Jim Northrup died Aug. 1 from complications with kidney cancer. He was 73.
A U.S. Marine veteran of the Vietnam War, Northrup attributed his cancer to exposure to Agent Orange, a defoliant used by the U.S. military in herbicidal warfare.
Northrup was a member of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. The Duluth News Tribune notes he “was an ardent keeper of Anishinaabe tradition. He and his wife started a summer Ojibwe language camp on the reservation, made birch bark winnowing baskets, took part in the yearly sugarbush to make maple syrup and harvested wild rice on the reservation’s lakes.”
Several channel changes happened at KBJR and KDLH-TV on the morning of Aug. 1. Viewers who receive signals over the air using an antenna might need to re-scan their television sets, although some televisions will automatically adjust the changes. Viewers using a cable or satellite service are not affected.
The move is part of the sale of KBJR and KDLH announced in November. As part of the deal Channel 3, the long-time CBS affiliate in Duluth, is now owned by Quincy Media Incorporated and is a digital sub-channel of KBJR, also owned by Quincy Media. KDLH is owned by Sagamore Hill Broadcasting and will become the CW affiliate in the Duluth-Superior market.
KBJR will remain an NBC affiliate on channel 6.1. The new CBS 3 will become channel 6.2 and My 9 will become channel 6.3.
KBJR engineering assistance is available at jwalters @ kbjr.com or 218-720-9635.
Shot by Dave Zbaracki in the Congdon neighborhood. (Via Facebook.)
Thunder Bay native Paul Shaffer is bringing his “Late Show” band to perform in the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium on Oct. 7 to mark the concert hall’s 30th anniversary. Lake Superior Magazine’s Bob Berg scored an interview for the magazine’s Aug/Sept issue.
The audio embed is a slow loader, so it appears after the jump.
Broadcast television has been off the air in Duluth since the July 21 storm, so it was easy to miss CBS This Morning‘s feature on Isle Royale National Park. But, that’s why we have an internet.
CBS has tragically blocked embedding of the video in our region, so we can’t post it on this very page, but you can check it out on cbsnews.com.
Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Bud Grant grew up in Superior and played football, basketball and baseball at Superior Central High School. This photo recently showed up Reddit, posted by user “drunkinwisconsin.”
“A bartender’s dad in my hometown of Superior, WI went to school with Bud Grant,” the post reads. “Here is his senior basketball picture, #13.”
Crumbled chimney bricks on the roof of the Board of Trade Building.
A severe storm ripped through the Duluth area around 3:30 a.m., knocking down trees and leaving many without power and running water.
There are two confirmed deaths from the storm, both Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness campers who were part of a Boy Scouts of America Northern Tier High Adventure Program. A 39-year-old female and a 13-year-old male were killed by falling trees on the shore of Basswood Lake. Two others in the group were injured.
The Duluth Fire Department advised no travel this morning. There are multiple power lines down and streets blocked.
The Board of Trade Building is closed due to structural issues after lightning hit the chimney and sent parts of it through the roof. The neighboring Duluth Government Services Center has two weather stations on its roof, the newer of which clocked wind gusts in excess of 100 m.p.h.
Duluth’s Parks and Recreation Division is in the planning stages of a Gate, Wayfinding and Trail head/Orientation Plan. A public meeting took place in June where the city’s consultants provided five concept designs to be used for park entries, trail heads, information kiosks and historical markers. The city is seeking additional input from the public until July 20 using an online survey, after which a summary of the survey will be provided to the Duluth Parks Commission.
The five concept designs and additional background are online at duluthmn.gov.
Direct link to design options PDF | Direct link to survey tool
From the Isanti County Sheriff’s Office:
On July 9 at 6:50 p.m., the Isanti County Sheriff’s Office Communications division received a report of a plane crash in Stanchfield Township, close to the address of 38045 Lever St. NE. All emergency personnel were started to the crash.
After several minutes we received information that there were no injuries and the pilot and copilot were out walking around.
Upon arrival it was determined that a retired U.S. Navy 630 Bi-plane, yellow in color, had engine failure while flying from Duluth to Anoka.
Minnesota craft-culture magazine The Growler features Brian Schanzenbach of Duluth’s Blacklist Artisan Ales in its latest brewer profile. The article outlines Schanzenbach’s days floating a raft down the Mississippi River, studying biology and microbiology at UMD, interning at Lake Superior Brewing Company, brewing at Fitger’s Brewhouse and launching Blacklist in 2013.
Brewer Profile: Brian Schanzenbach of Blacklist Artisan Ales
Images by three different photographers: Jesse Wannemacher, Cary Schmies and Devin Carpenter. (Click on any thumbnail to see the full image.)
In the August/September issue of Surfer magazine, Justin Housman travels to Duluth to discover “that isolated Midwestern surf scene” on Lake Superior, where surfers “chisel boards free from the roofs of their snowbound cars, trudge through forests and thigh-deep snow, paddle out for a few frigid waves, then emerge from the water with icicles growing from their shocked, pink faces.”
A recently launched website is offering an indigenous perspective on the history of Duluth and the surrounding area. Onigamiinsing Dibaajimowinan — Duluth’s Stories Website was created with the mission “to share the deep history and continuing presence of Native people within Duluth.” The site was created by the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and grew out of an ethnographic study completed in 2012 for the Duluth Indigenous Commission. The study involved archaeology and history studied through documents and oral interviews. The study is available online in PDF form.
