History
Drink up
100 years ago, from the front page of the Duluth News Tribune, June 10, 1911.
Where in Duluth 1890?
File:Duluth MN Panorama circa 1890s.jpg
TITLE: Duluth, Minn. CALL NUMBER: PAN US GEOG – Minnesota no. 8 RIGHTS INFORMATION: No known restrictions on publication.
MEDIUM: 1 photographic print : albumen ; 4.5 x 41 in. CREATED/PUBLISHED: [between 1886 and 1905]
RELATED NAMES: Newton, George A., photographer.
This may have been posted before but I don’t remember seeing it. I found it on one of my new favorite sites, Wikimedia Commons. Click the image to go directly to the page, you should be able to enhance it there as well.
I believe this picture was taken close to my current domicile but I can’t exactly say. Could anyone else tell where it appears to radiate from? I’d also love to see one of you photoshop wizards try overlaying modern images so I can compare side by side, but that’s asking a lot on a rare warm summer day, I know.
Tom’s Burned Down Café Fire
Fire at Tom’s Burned Down Cafe, May 19, 1992.
Duluth Master Bread & Arco Billboards
Back in December, the subject of the old Master Bread billboard came up in the thread about the Peerless Auto Body fire.
I’m guessing that’s the reason this showed up in my e-mail:
Does anyone know where the Master Bread billboard with the moving slices of bread coming out of the package ended up? Or, the Arco Coffee billboard with the steaming coffee being poured into the pot?
The e-mail is from former Duluthian Wayne L. Anderson.
Is anyone out there holding on to these collector’s items, or can someone confirm they were destroyed?
Video: Early Days of Duluth’s Friendly West End
Learn more about the West End / Lincoln Park neighborhood in this 38-minute video.
Duluth’s Homegrown Chicken Craze!
The first paragraph of the story above, from the April 27, 1902, Duluth News Tribune, might as well be about the Homegrown Music Festival, which represents itself with the chicken logo at left.
It is said that when the chicken raising microbe once enters the human system there is no known remedy — the victim must succumb to the inevitable. With some it is a fad and with others it is both business and pleasure but those belonging to the latter class are by far the more numerous.
Food from Scratch for the Zenith of the Unsalted Sea: Creating a Local Food System in Early 20th Century Duluth
How do you create a locally harvested food system for a city of 100,000? This question is being asked presently in Duluth and the broader western Lake Superior region as well as in many other cities across the United States. It was also an urgent local question a century ago. (more…)
Duluth Smelting
Rick LeBlanc of Hermantown surpassed tradition by biting the head off not just his first smelt, but about two dozen others, too, at the Lester River on May 5, 1983. (Duluth News-Tribune file photo)
At this time of year, 20 or 30+ years ago, the hot topic in Duluth and Superior would have been the status of the smelt run.
Duluth’s mostly-vanished smelting tradition has been discussed on Perfect Duluth Day at least once before. It’s been a frequently requested item for the News Tribune Attic to cover.
So, by popular demand, the latest post in the News Tribune Attic includes a bunch of photos and a couple contemporary accounts of smelting in Duluth in the early 1980s. Enjoy!
Duluth Central High School class of 1924: Mixers, fussers, boosters and bluffers
These snippets are from the 1924 edition of The Zenith, Central’s yearbook. If you wish to read the text and find it too small, click on any image to see it bigger.
That’s some old ce-ment
I Google-mapped Duluth East High School today for various reasons and found that the corner of E. Eighth St. and N. 26th Ave. E. is “Minnesota’s oldest concrete pavement.”
Is that the cobblestone-y stuff back there, and is it seriously the oldest?
UMD Bulldogs 2011 NCAA National Hockey Champions
Bulldogs win 3-2 in overtime. (more…)
Chief Buffalo, Point of Rocks and “The Mayor of Duluth”
I was reading this month’s new FDL Band Newspaper (PDF) and about halfway through I found a breezy little history piece on Chief Buffalo: Hero of the Lake Superior Ojibwe by historian Christine Carlson. The article was already interesting, then I notice mention of Duluth’s Point of Rocks which has been discussed extensively here on PDD. It sounds like the area surrounding Point of Rocks was selected by Chief Buffalo as part of one of the articles of the Treaty of 1854. The area would have also included Wisconsin Point and much of what is now considered Downtown Duluth and West End/Lincoln Park. (more…)
Take Me Out to the Ball Game
“Take Me Out To The Ball Game” was written by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer in 1908. These images were shot the same year to help sell the song to the public.
The singer in the video is Edward Meeker, one of Thomas Edison’s technicians. This is how they sold music (sheet music, specifically) back in the day — kind of an early form of music video. These were called illustrated songs. An “illustrator” would stand on stage and sing the song while glass slide images portraying the song’s storyline were projected on a screen. Anywhere from 12 to 16 slides were produced for a song. The last slide was usually the chorus text so audience members could sing along. In this version, I’ve enhanced the chorus with slides from other baseball songs. Illustrated songs were often part of vaudeville and early movie theater programs. Notice the giant wad of Cracker Jacks Katie Casey is enjoying. That’s how it was sold back then.
Kozy Fire: part deux…
REBUILDING IS FUTILE!!!
Lake Superior Nuclear Power Plant
Did you know that Lake Superior was considered for a nuclear power plant site, near Knife River, in the 1960s? It’s scary to think what might have been … but it happened. Check out Jim Heffernan’s blog to learn more.
Sacred Heart needs your voice!
The following is from an email by Eric Swanson, Program Coordinator at Sacred Heart Music Center (emphasis added)
Dear Friends of Sacred Heart Music Center,
I am writing you today because of your past support of the Sacred Heart Music Center as either a patron, a donor, a performer or a volunteer. It is through your efforts and contributions that Sacred Heart has been able to continue to provide Duluth with a unique venue for music and the arts and we want you to know how much that support is appreciated.
Now we would like to ask you to lend your voice to our cause and here is how you can help.
On Tuesday, March 22, 2011 the Community Development Committee of the City of Duluth will consider a request from Sacred Heart for a Community Development Block Grant. We are applying for this grant to help pay for major repairs needed to the steeple and roof of the SHMC.
(more…)
Mike Page, Mike Fitzsimmons and Tom Houle | Duluth graffiti that wouldn’t fade away
I first took notice of this graffiti in the late 1980s. It’s on the side of the old West Duluth Hotel building, which for many years now has been home to the Italian Village, along with various other businesses.
(more…)
Lost Spaces in Duluth
I just wanted to put a general question out there for those that know the city better than me:
What are some existing abandoned buildings you know of in Duluth? (Including places that are in the works of being renovated, or even really unique, big interior spaces that aren’t abandoned).
Duluth mansion demolition makes way for big box store
Well, they have begun to tear down the mansion to make way for the mega Walgreens. Some other houses will be torn down, too. See my post The Last Mansion Between Kitchi Gammi Club and 14th Ave. East.
Duluth library staff revives blog
After a hiatus of a couple of years, the Duluth Public Library Reference staff has begun posting again on its blog Reference @ Duluth.
Library staff will be providing local history articles and information about reference services at the library.
You can check out the blog at dplreference.wordpress.com or go to the library’s home page duluth.lib.mn.us and click on Local History Blog.
Thirteen Moons Anishinaabe Storytelling
In the Ojibwe tradition there are hundreds of stories, some as old as the earth itself. Traditionally, these stories can only be told when there is snow on the ground. This Saturday about a dozen storytellers will be at the Sawyer Center to share some of these amazing stories. Everyone is welcome, the cost is free, but they are asking people to pre-register at the site.
Here’s a schedule
Fond du Lac Sawyer Center
February 19 1pm-6pm
Free Registration starts at 12:15 pm
3243 Moorhead Road, Sawyer, Minnesota
Here’s Jana Peterson’s article about this event from the Cloquet Pine Journal
Historic Housing Project in Morley Heights
I am a journalism student at UMD, working on a story that involves Morley Heights, a neighborhood in East Duluth. I am curious to learn more about this neighborhood that was once constructed in Barksdale, Wis. Many of the homes were then moved to Duluth for employees working at the Marshall-Wells Company. It has been said that some of these homes were probably purchased from the DuPont Company at Barksdale and then each were floated across the lake to be re-constructed in Morley Heights. If someone has more information on this housing project or a connection with a potential source for my story, I would greatly appreciate it!
Quote of the Day
I have this quote framed and hanging on my wall in my den. I found it when I first moved to Duluth. Thought PDD’ers might be interested.
“Sometimes when I become discouraged, I say to myself, I should have gone to another city to seek my fortune. But then I look over these hills and see the natural beauty of our community, I console myself and wonder — where in all the wide world could I find a view like this?” — Samuel Snively