History
Mystery Photo: Duluth Grocers
This old photo shows two men standing in a grocery store. The back of the photo indicates it’s in Duluth, Minn. and gives the names of the men. Unfortunately, the photo of the back side of this photo is blurry and difficult to read, but it looks like Gust Hjelm is one of the names. (more…)
Duluth Boat Club circa 1906
This photo from the Detroit Publishing Company shows the Duluth Boat Club on the bay side of Minnesota Point at South Tenth Street. A previous clubhouse existed where Bayfront Park is today, but the facility shown in the photo above was built in 1903 and was destroyed by fire in 1951. (more…)
Postcard from Thompson Hill Information Center and Rest Area
This undated postcard has the following text on the back:
The Thompson Hill Information Center and Rest Area is located at the junction of I-35 and US 2 on a 28 acre site overlooking the St. Louis River Valley and the Duluth-Superior metropolitan area. The Information Center is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with tourist and travel information and road condition reports available during the day as a service of the Minnesota Highway Department.
PDD Quiz: Parks of Duluth
Now that spring has (maybe) sprung, Duluth’s many parks and green spaces are beckoning. Take this week’s quiz to learn more about parks located in neighborhoods from Central Hillside to Congdon Park. While an earlier PDD quiz explored parks on the western side of town, it’s no longer available because the platform supporting the quiz changed, so we’ll revisit western parks and other neighborhood parks in future PDD quizzes.
Duluth’s Historical Parks: Their First 160 Years, by Tony Dierckins and Nancy S. Nelson, was an invaluable resource for this quiz (as was Dierckins’ Zenith City Online).
The next quiz, reviewing current events, will be published on May 26. Please email question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by May 23. (more…)
A Nice Catch of Trout from Northern Minnesota
The text on the back of this undated postcard from Gallagher’s Studio of Photography reads simply: “A nice catch of trout from northern Minnesota.”
The 2019 lake and stream trout seasons open on May 11.
A People’s History of the People’s Free Skate
Hear the totally true story of the People’s Free Skate Rink from its creators: Lake Superior Aquaman and Robot Rickshaw interviewed by Ryan Welles on his podcast “True Stories and Other Damage.” Featuring the genesis of it, all the behind the scenes information, anecdotes, and a few extravagant claims, finishing up with the harrowing account of our iceberg ride.
Frisco or Dust Shields?
What that scribbled message on the front of this postcard is all about will have to be left to speculation in the comments. The card was mailed 110 years ago — May 4, 1909. (more…)
Postcard from Thomson Dam Hydro Station
This card is postmarked May 3, 1909 — 110 years ago today. Edis Johnson sent it from Duluth to Mr. H.T. West of Toronto, Canada. (more…)
Honking Tree case remains a mystery 10 years later
Left: July 2001 photo of the Honking Tree from the Two Harbors Forum website. Right: The modern remains of the Honking Tree stump between Larsmont Road and Isaacson Road southwest of Two Harbors. Photo by Mike Creger.
I asked Lake County Sheriff Carey Johnson this month if there was anything new in the now 10-year-old Honking Tree case.
“You mean the white pine murder investigation?” he said straightaway. (more…)
National Bank Notes of Duluth
There are still a few national currency bank notes with Duluth bank names floating around, mostly held by collectors. This type of currency was eliminated in the 1930s. The note above is from Northern National Bank of Duluth and was issued in 1908. In the portrait is U.S. Treasury Secretary Hugh McCulloch, who also named the streets in Duluth’s Lakeside neighborhood, including one after himself. (More on McCulloch in the comments.) (more…)
The Saturday Evening Post’s Duluth of 1949
Seventy years ago — April 16, 1949 — Duluth was featured in The Saturday Evening Post as part of the magazine’s series on “America’s most colorful cities.” The lengthy article by Arthur W. Baum was the 65th in the series, and features photographs by Frank Ross.
The intro text reads: “Once a bleakly unpromising village, this now great grain and ore center has survived many a stunning setback — thereby making her smart-aleck detractors look foolish. The cheif hazard of life here is this: You never know when a wild bear will drop in for breakfast.”
(more…)PDD Quiz: Homegrown Innovations Edition
In honor of the upcoming Homegrown Music Festival, this PDD quiz examines inventions, innovations, and ideas that were “homegrown” in the Duluth area.
The next PDD quiz will review headlines from April 2019 and will be published on April 28. Please email question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by April 25. (more…)
Postcards from Duluth Motel
According to this postcard, Duluth Motel sat in some mysterious forest, perhaps offering the only toilet available for miles and miles. In reality, “Northwest’s Most Luxurious Motel” was near Denfeld High School and surrounded by West Duluth homes and businesses. A lush, undeveloped hillside was indeed in the distance, though not very similar looking to the illustration on the postcard. (more…)
Duluth’s Lodging & Dining … circa 1979-’82
This promotional pamphlet is from roughly 1980. Within the text might be clues that narrow down a specific year. (more…)
DM&N Railway Ore Docks in West Duluth, early 1900s
This photo of the Duluth, Missabe and Northern Railway ore docks in West Duluth is from Detroit Publishing Company. The Library of Congress dates the image as “between 1900 and 1915” and notes it shows “probably Dock No. 1 at left” and lists the three freighters in the foreground as George H. Russell, Sultan and James E. Davidson. (more…)
Don’t Tell Mom
Frank Hoolihan sent this postcard to Mrs. Galivan in Buffalo, NY imploring her to tell Sarah not to let anyone know that he’s in Duluth. He doesn’t want his mom to find out. I suspect he sailed up the Great Lakes to Duluth to get away for some reason. Or maybe he was just on a lark. It does raise a few questions. I can’t make out the year in the postmark but I’m guessing around 1909 or so. (more…)
Tons of People’s Free Skate Rink Freakout Footage
Video by Lane R. Ellis
Mystery Photos #88-89: Hardware Store Women
I recently came across two photos of a couple strong Duluth women in an unidentified Duluth hardware store on Minnesota Reflections. There is no accurate date or known specific location (there is a guesstimate year span on this one of 1918-1925, which seems quite unlikely due to their stylish high-collar/big sleeve clothing). Who were they? What year was this? And would they tolerate any nonsense? Unlikely. (more…)
Duluth City Blocks Puzzles
Apparently a person or entity named P.J. Kossett obtained a copyright in 1978 for the purpose of manufacturing “City Blocks,” a collection of “six puzzles of Duluth scenes.” Shown above is the Duluth Depot, aka St. Louis County Heritage and Arts Center. Also featured in the puzzles: Leif Erikson Park, Ore boat entering harbor, Canal Park, Enger Tower and Spirit Mt. Ski Chalet. (more…)
PDD Quiz: History of Morgan Park
This week’s quiz is the first in an occasional series that will focus on the history of Twin Ports neighborhoods; please sound off in the comments on other neighborhoods that you’d like to see covered! (more…)
Entering the Devil’s Triangle
In late September 2018 it would have been a challenge to read a newspaper or watch a television news program without encountering the phrase “Devil’s Triangle.” In case anyone has already forgotten, I’ll briefly explain. It was related to Brett Kavanaugh’s appointment to the United States Supreme Court and Christine Blasey Ford’s sexual assault allegations against him. With Kavanaugh’s character in question, everything about him became subjected to analysis, including his 1983 high school yearbook, where the phrase “Devil’s Triangle” appeared in a long list of Kavanaugh’s accomplishments meshed with a slew of inside jokes.
This is a pretty typical thing. My own 1991 high school yearbook lists my involvement in luge. My high school didn’t have an official luge team, of course. But the entry isn’t entirely a joke. I organized several sledding events with my peers — just the traditional riding of orange Paris and red Norca plastic sleds down the hills of Duluth. We referred to ourselves as the Denfeld High School Luge Team.
As you can probably guess, the odds are 100 percent in favor of a search for “luge, sex term” on the internet generating an eye-opening result. It turns out that mentioning in my yearbook the simple act of going sledding with my friends could be interpreted as bragging about fellatio skills. (more…)
Postcard from Duluth’s Edgewater Motel
This undated postcard from Gallagher’s Studio of Photography depicts Duluth’s Edgewater Motel, probably circa the 1960s. Today it is known as the Edgewater Hotel & Waterpark, located at 2400 London Road. (more…)
Duluth Tooth Puller Runs Amuck in 1903
Making the rounds on Facebook is this New York Times clip from March 5, 1903, reporting events from the morning of March 4, 1903. The Times and some other sources refer to the freelance dentist as “Johnson,” but his name is John Simonson in other accounts. (more…)
Mystery Photos #85-87: Probably Skyline Parkway in the 1920s
An early 20th Century family photo album was recently unearthed in the Nicklawske archive room and I discovered some old Duluth photographs. I pulled three pictures from the book that included images of an automobile trip my grandfather and his sister made to Duluth in the 1920s. My grandfather, Jim Nicklawske, lived in St. Paul at the time and his sister Mae was visiting from her home in Great Falls, Mont. It appears they traveled to Duluth with a third, unidentified person who made pictures of the event. (more…)