History
Duluth Retiree Health Care Unfunded Liability: 2005 to 2015
Ten years ago today the New York Times ran a story titled “The Next Retirement Time Bomb,” which focused heavily on Duluth. The story opened by noting Duluth’s estimated unfunded healthcare liability in 2002 was $178 million. It concluded by stating the figure had ballooned to $280 million in 2005. Worse yet, though not mentioned by the NYT, the liability was projected to hit $417 million by 2015.
Where does Duluth stand one decade later? A state auditor’s report released last summer shows the liability has dropped to an estimated $129 million.
“The support of city staff, city unions, city councilors, community leaders and the Minnesota Supreme Court were critical to this success,” Duluth Mayor Don Ness said in a June news release. “But the foundation of the effort was a core group of five citizen volunteers serving on a task force (created when I was on the city council) that provided a 15-point road map to solving what was thought to be an unsolvable problem. That volunteer effort is the basis for the significant $288-million reduction in our liability today.”
Postcards from Duluth Central High School
Among man-made icons in Duluth, the most venerable of the them all is Historic Old Central High School, which opened in 1892 at Lake Avenue and East Second Street. (more…)
Video Archive: 1986 Duluth Punks
Does anyone know these punks?
The Ripsaw’s Demise
It was Dec. 6, 2005 when the plug was officially pulled on the Ripsaw, Duluth’s experiment with having a newspaper similar to City Pages or Isthmus. It didn’t last long, but it was good while it lasted. (more…)
Sulfide Mining Debate + The Holidays = Watch This
Surely sulfide mining is close to the top of the things Minnesotans can disagree about with family and friends as we enter the holidaze. This two-minute video depicts one way the outcome of the PolyMet question could play out. Great for captive audiences who are too stuffed to resist. Enjoy!
Video Archive: Deer hunters outside Chet & Emil’s
This film, circa 1975, was shot by the late Emil Praslowicz in Birnamwood, Wis., and digitized by his grandson, Kip Praslowicz.
New Radisson Hotel coming to Duluth Gateway!
They’re going to spend $3.6 million. Isn’t that a lot of money?
(From the Minneapolis Tribune, April 22, 1967.)
The Mystery of Chuck’s TV
I have a mystery on my hands. About a year ago while driving over West Ninth Street, just before the intersection of North Eighth Avenue and East Orange Street, something caught my eye — what appeared to be an old car in the woods. After a couple passes, I could see that it was indeed an old car. Curious, once home I started some research. On the newly updated Google maps this past spring, I could see the car in question. Checking the DNR Historical Airphotos, I found that up to 1961 there are what appears to be two buildings, houses or perhaps a house and some other type of building on that very corner. Sometime between 1961 and 1972 they were torn down, as they no longer appear on the 1972 imagery.
Video Archive: Gary Doty wins second term
For your Election Day amusement we take a trip to 1995.
Twenty years ago, Gary Doty defeated challenger Herb Bergson to earn his second term as Duluth mayor. Doty served a total of three terms, holding office from 1992 to 2004. He did not seek a fourth term. Bergson became mayor in 2004, defeating Charlie Bell.
Last Boo on Grandview
This is the last year the house on Grandview in the Chester Park area will be haunted. After 25 years, that’s sad, but thanks to the owners for such good times. Glad it was your house and not mine.
How to see Duluth and Superior on electric cars
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. (more…)
Old Casino Signs
I noticed these in the alley behind Fond-du-Luth Casino yesterday. Anyone got a pickup truck and a nice loft space?
John Vachon’s Duluth Milk Company Photos
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. (more…)
Duluth Population: 1860 to 2010
Update: A more recent version of this chart with the 2020 figure is now available.
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: (more…)
Postcards from 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 … (more…)
Know Your Duluth Liquor Laws!
- Not in Our Neighborhood, Part 1: Buying Booze in Duluth 1934-1973
- Not in Our Neighborhood! Part 2: The Battles Over the Lakeside Liquor Law, 1973-Today
- The ‘Grande Dame’ of Lakeside (A profile of Myrtle Marshall, whose effort to keep the 1891 law in place has been mythologized.)
- Tempered by Temperance: Duluth & Liquor, 1870-1919 (Includes the creation of the 1891 Lakeside Liquor Law.)
- And Never on Sundays (Covers 1934-1973 liquor issues concerning music, dancing, women, etc.)
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. (more…)
Carrying Root From the Cab at Skunk Lake
This 1909 drawing by Jay Hambridge depicts a train that attempted to outrun the Great Hinckley Fire of 1894. Engineer James Root chugged his St. Paul and Duluth Railroad locomotive into the burning city, where it was quickly stampeded by people trying to board and escape the disaster. The fire raged forward and the train ignited.
Root reversed the engine and raced six miles north to Skunk Lake. Within minutes of its arrival the train was engulfed as passengers dove into the mud and water. Root was pulled from the train and counted among the lucky survivors. Over 400 people died that day.
“Duluth is a good town”
This little gem is postmarked Sept. 18, 1905. Hopefully Ermina B. Smith of Menominee, Mich., believed it. It’s still true more than a century later. (more…)
Shrine Game of 1965
Fifty-year-old UMD Bulldogs football road-game poster.
What was that thing by the old Arrowhead Bridge?
Shortly after the “Postcards from the Arrowhead Bridge” post went up, my distant cousin started calling and emailing with the question, “What was that little thing in St. Louis Bay, on the Superior side of the Arrowhead Bridge, looking north?” So let’s finally get to the bottom of that. (more…)
Prize Inside: Cereal Toys and Premiums Through the Decades
Part three of our conversation with Robb Berry, who has been collecting toys from cereal boxes since he was a kid in the 1970s.
See Part One — Honeycomb Hideout: Robb Berry’s Basement Cereal Box Museum
See Part Two — Cereal Brands: The Good, the Bad and the Sugary