History
PDD Video Lab: Knight Family 8mm Duluth Movie
For this edition of PDD Video Lab we’ve pulled the Duluth section out of a 1954 family film and repackaged it with music from the period — Nat King Cole’s “Unforgettable.”
Aerial Bridge raised to pass ore boat into Duluth Harbor
Based on the 3-cent postage rate, this postcard must be circa 1958 to 1963. The description on the back reads:
The Aerial Bridge in raised position for an ore boat passing into Duluth Harbor. When the span is lowered traffic may move without interruption between Minnesota Point and downtown Duluth. Through this canal pass about 4500 boats in a 7-1/2 month season, carrying a total tonnage of about 17 million tons. (Average for five years.)
List of Duluth Winters and What They Are Remembered For
Although Duluth is known for — and by some feared — for its winters, those blasts of snow and cold tend to run together in most peoples’ memories. Everyone who experienced it recalls the Mega Storm of 1991, and there was a long cold snap in 2014, but by and large the memories of various storms and other winter climate events get mashed together.
So, in an effort to sort them out, Perfect Duluth Day has tossed together a brief and somewhat vague list of some winter moments that have been marked on the website in the past (with links) or have been loosely referenced on the web as having been more wintery than other winters. (more…)
Mystery Photo #78: Trio by the Transfer Bridge
It’s not known who shot this photo or the names of the people posing in it, but based on the woman’s flapper outfit and the fact that the Aerial Bridge in the background isn’t a lift bridge yet, it must be circa the 1920s. Can anyone find other clues?
Video Archive: Christmas City of the North Parade 1998
Here it is, nearly two hours of KBJR-TV coverage of the Christmas City of the North Parade from Nov. 20, 1998. It was the first time the parade was routed onto Railroad Street in Canal Park, where KBJR was building its new studio.
See below for an index of parade entries if you want to find your favorite and not watch the whole broadcast. Also below, bonus footage: A portion of the KBJR newscast that preceded the parade. Both videos include most of the local commercials. National commercials were trimmed out, as were local commercials that repeated. (more…)
Duluth Harbor Basin, 1925
This photo from the National Archive was taken on an airplane from the McCook Field aviation experimentation station in Dayton, Ohio, which was flying in the region for a photographic mapping expedition of the Canadian border in October and November of 1925.
The caption on the photo reads:
Duluth Harbor Basin, the main business section and portions of Lake Superior, showing the “Eighth Wonder of the World,” the Aerial Bridge connecting Duluth proper with a long neck of land known as Minnesota Point, which really makes the Duluth Superior Harbor.
Postcards from Turk’s Clearview Court
The undated postcard above shows an aerial view of Turk’s Clearview Court at 8015 Congdon Boulevard in Lakewood Township, just outside Duluth’s northeastern border. (more…)
“Cincinnati Dancing Pig”
The song “Cincinnati Dancing Pig” was released by everybody and their brother in 1950, and in this post several versions are gathered. The words were written by Al Lewis and the music by Guy Wood. The internet purports the first recording was by Dick Jurgens and His Orchestra in May 1950, but the first release was by Red Foley in August 1950.
The Duluth-related lyric:
From Duluth to Birmingham
He’s the pork chop Dapper Dan,
He’s the keenest ham what am,
Cincinnati dancing pig
Goldie’s Too
Plastic shopping bag from a former Holiday Center store.
Mystery Photo #77: Passenger Boat arriving in Duluth
Date unknown. Photographer unknown. Name of vessel unknown.
Ready? Set? Go!
Charles O. Nelson’s Coffee-Boiler
Duluthian Charles O. Nelson — presumably the same Charles O. Nelson referenced in a PDD story about the West End Furniture Row — filed for and was granted a patent for a “Coffee-boiler” in 1901. The text of the claim is below. (more…)
Video Archive: Duluth Election 2008
It was ten years ago today — Nov. 4, 2008 — that Barack Obama was elected to his first term as President of the United States. Obama took nearly 53 percent of the popular vote nationwide; in Duluth he hauled in more than 68 percent. Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party candidates swept every 2008 contest in Duluth. (more…)
Lizzie Naganab’s Glowing Grave
The “old” cemetery off Reservation Road northwest of Cloquet.
This book sparked a search into a Cloquet mystery from 87 years ago.
I’m not sure how I acquired the book, but there it sat, on the passenger seat of my car as I drove up Reservation Road northwest of Cloquet. There are some things you wish you could unsee — because a history buff like me wants all the facts. Alas, those facts can be elusive, especially so many years from an event. This was the case with a strange little entry in Six Feet Under: A Graveyard Guide to Minnesota.
I’m not into the morbid route to history that this little guide offers. That was my mother. She had dozens of books along the lines of “Wisconsin Death Trip,” “Hollywood Book of the Dead” or “Myths and Mysteries: Strange Stories of the Dead” on her shelves. Morbidly, she died earlier this year and perhaps that is how this book floated into my stacks. She redeemed herself in recent years by ditching the stories of others and digging into her own family history, a genealogy I greatly appreciate today. (more…)
Postcard from UMD’s Social Science Building
This 1960s-era postcard shows off the Social Science Building on the University of Minnesota Duluth campus. Today the building is known as Cina Hall and serves as home to numerous liberal arts programs. It was renamed in 1985 in honor of UMD Regent Fred A. Cina, and underwent a $4.1 million renovation in 2016. (more…)
Duluth, Minn. – Always Cool
This postcard was mailed 110 years ago today — Oct. 22, 1908 — to Ms. A. J. Niles of Viroqua, Wis. (more…)
Mystery Photo #76: 400 block of West Superior Street
The above photo, submitted by Jay Sonnenburg, shows businesses on the 400 block of West Superior Street. At right is the WEBC Radio studio. At left are the Fargusson Building, Manhattan Building and Spalding Hotel. (more…)
A Duluth to be Proud Of
“I remember the young people on the trip who said, ‘How come we’re not learning this in school? How come we didn’t know that this had happened?’ …it’s an American story.” –Carl Crawford – Human Rights Officer, Duluth to Montgomery Reflections.
We Duluthians are a proud people. We’re proud of our cityscape and the landscape around us. We’re proud of our ability to withstand the cold, even as we complain about it. We’re proud of our ability to move forward, as Mayor Emily Larson expressed in her open letter to the Rolling Stones this past summer. We Duluthians pride ourselves in the fact that we don’t hide from issues but rather actively engage with them. It was this Duluth pride that prompted a new, local podcast from the NAACP. (more…)
Duluth streetcar conductresses helped with 1918 fire evacuation
One-hundred years ago today, Duluth was still reeling from the devastating fires of the previous week. The Duluth Herald ran a small article celebrating the efforts during the fire of a relatively new worker in Duluth: a female conductor on the Street Railway. (more…)
Duluth Ship Canal in Storm and Calm
This postcard is either from a century ago or last week.
Duluth Trivia Deck Sampler #11
Below are more items from an old trivia deck I bought at Savers.
1. How far out onto Lake Superior can the light atop Enger Tower be seen?
2. Who was the first postmaster for the Duluth region?
3. How man grain elevators were on Duluth’s waterfront at the turn of the twentieth century?
4. When was the Duluth Peony and Iris Society founded?
5. In what building did JFK speak in Duluth?
6. Who began conducting the DSSO in ‘seventy-seven?
Elevators at Duluth
Date unknown, artist unknown.
PDD Quiz: Creepy Northland
In honor of the upcoming Halloween holiday, this edition of the PDD Quiz tests knowledge of the Northland’s creepy places, events and history.
The next quiz, on headlines from October 2018, will be published on Oct. 28. Please email question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by Oct. 24. (more…)
How Enzie Flu In
The day after the Fire of 1918, this hilarious sendup of the Spanish influenza outbreak appeared in the Duluth News Tribune. At the time there were a couple dozen cases in the city, and commissioners had adopted an emergency order closing public buildings to halt the spread. Within a couple weeks the disease would no longer be a joking matter; it killed 7,521 Minnesotans in 1918 alone. (more…)