History
Denfeld vs. Central: Bookends to a Rivalry
Duluth Denfeld played Duluth Central tonight in high school football for what will very likely be the last time. Denfeld won 20-6 in front of a crowd of maybe 500 at Public Schools Stadium. (more…)
Glensheen Living Literature Presents: The Monkey’s Paw
Gather ’round for a spooky reading of “The Monkey’s Paw” at Glensheen on October 22, October 23, and October 24 at 7 p.m. A special flashlight tour of the mansion is included, and the evening concludes with refreshments and a guided discussion of W.W. Jacob’s 1902 tale. $25 – $33. Reservations online or by calling 726-8910.
Famous Beaver Bay Invention: Sexual Armor
The Green Door, a liquor store and bar in Beaver Bay, has a framed tribute to Ellen E. Perkins. She was the inventor of “certain new and useful Improvements in Sexual Armor.”
The account on the wall of the bar reads:
Surprisingly enough, the sexual armor invented by Ellen E. Perkins of Beaver Bay, Minnesota is not for defense against assault but to keep the wearer from playing with himself. In her 1908 patent she calls the practice that the garment is designed to prevent one of the most common causes of insanity, imbecility and feeblemindedness – especially in youth – and equally true of both sexes. Her profession, by implication nursing, had made her very familiar with the subject. (more…)
Happy Leif Erikson Day
I just thought it would be good to pay some respect to Mr. Leif Erikson on his day. Or is it Ericson?
I will stick with his nickname “Leif the Lucky” that’s catchier anyway. Either way he was a great explorer and discovered this great continent 500 years before Mr. Columbus and was way cooler. Get out and celebrate and have a beer for your favorite Norse explorer.
And screw you Google, why no respect for Leif the Lucky? O’well we will give him the Google love he deserves here.
Send your love to Leif and comment how much he means to you on this Leif Erikson Day 2009.
Grab a beer, it’s on you.
Ten years ago this weekend, music history was made.
Missing promo photos, Homegrown 2003
With the likes of Ricky Martin, Lou Bega and Sixpence None The Richer dominating the charts, backlash was inevitable. The world clamored for a band which did not suck; did not dance on stage [at least, with choreography]; and had the good sense to combine the best parts of Guns N’ Roses, the Misfits and Mötley Crüe into one girlfriend-thieving package.
This band, of course, was Bone Appetit.
Remember this old PDD logo?
Was this Perfect Duluth Day’s first logo?
Circa 2003
More Vintage Photos of Duluth
I’m not sure if we’ve ever discussed photos from this site on PDD before, but the vintage photography blog Shorpy just posted some new old shots of Duluth from 1905. There are a few more Duluth photos back in the archives as well, which I dug out for you. Check ’em out:
- Duluth Incline Railway: 1905 (pictured above)
- Duluth, 1905
- Duluth, cont’d 1905
- Strange Span: 1905 (construction of the Aerial Lift Bridge opening of the Aerial Transfer Bridge)
- Fitger Conetops (circa 1960. This shot is upside-down for some reason)
- Mom, 1956
- When Men Were Men and Moose Were Dead
Brian Olson’s mural of the Palace Theater
Two blocks from the site of the old Palace Theater in Superior is the new Palace Theater, a painting of the old one. Brian Olson created this mural on the back side of the Douglas County Historical Society building.
Pretty sweet.
From the Ripsaw Archive | September 1999
Ten years later, I wonder if anyone noticed that instead of using an image of a dreadlocked rastafarian for this reggae concert ad we just clipped a bunch of clothespins on Barrett.
Old Cemetery
One of the oldest and prettiest cemeteries in the area is also one of the most obscure. This one is on Cemetery Road off County Road Z, near County Road A, just south of Superior.
Has the Piggly Wiggly name wiggled on out of Duluth?
I pulled up to the stop sign at Calvary and Woodland in the heart of Woodland yesterday, looked ahead, and… it’s gone!
The blast-from-the-past, decades-old Piggly Wiggly facade, cherished by… well, at least me, and featured in a PDD banner of yore, is no more! See for yourself:
Glensheen Rap
Josiah Grover, a student guide at Glensheen Mansion and Museum, has released his “Glensheen Rap.”
References to Duluth in Popular Literature
Mark Twain’s Following the Equator
“A few ships rode at anchor in it — one of them a sailing vessel flying the American flag; and they said she came from Duluth! There’s a journey! Duluth is several thousand miles from the sea, and yet she is entitled to the proud name of Mistress of the Commercial Marine of the United States of America. There is only one free, independent, unsubsidized American ship sailing the foreign seas, and Duluth owns it. All by itself that ship is the American fleet. … For what Duluth has done, in building, equipping, and maintaining at her sole expense the American Foreign Commercial Fleet … we owe her a debt of gratitude which our hearts shall confess with quickened beats whenever her name is named henceforth. … Health and prosperity to Thee, O Duluth, American Queen of the Alien Seas!”
Ernest Hemingway’s The Torrents of Spring
“The foreman was a short, iron-jawed man. He had once made a trip as far as Duluth. Duluth was far across the blue waters of the lake in the hills of Minnesota. A wonderful thing had happened to him there.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby
“A few days later he took him to Duluth and bought him a blue coat, six pair of white duck trousers, and a yachting cap.”
Dalton Trumbo’s letter to Guy Endore
“I’ve seen their faces in a miners’ union hall in Duluth on a night when the wind off the lake blew the snow so killingly and so deep that cars couldn’t be used and everybody walked to the meeting.”
Willa Cather’s The Song of the Lark
“I must go now. I had to give my lesson hour this morning to a Duluth woman who has come on to coach, and I must go and play ‘On Mighty Pens’ for her. Please tell Mr. Harsanyi that I think oratorio is a great chance for bluffers.”
Happy Duluthiversary to Me
Me + Duluth = true love
This is everywhere I’ve lived in Duluth for the past 10 years.
Remembering Laura MacArthur
A commenter to the post about the house being torn down for construction of the new Laura MacArthur Elementary asked the question, “Who is Laura MacArthur anyway?”
Laura MacArthur was an elementary and junior high school teacher and principal in West Duluth for over four decades.
Born in England, she came to the United States with her family at around the age of 10. She attended high school in Wooster, Ohio, and graduated from the College of Wooster.
She came to Duluth in the spring of 1896, where she was assigned to teach Latin, algebra and civics to ninth graders at Longfellow School.
NorShor
Tonight the Duluth City Council will consider suspending the Norshor “Experience” liquor license.
Here’s a picture of among other things, future Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Link Wray who had one of his last public performances in the United States at the NorShor before he died a few months later. He played with a number of Duluth rockers, some of you were there, it was pretty amazing.
Rules for Teachers, 1905 and 1872
During my recent visit to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in Walnut Grove, I had a good laugh reading two lists of rules on the walls of the little schoolhouse.
A problem that needs addressing
Just about every town has a “0” point for its street addresses. In Duluth, that would be the corner of Lake and Superior, right? 1 E. Superior, 1 W. Superior, 1 N. Lake, etc. The lower the address number, the closer it is to the zero point. And in general, there are imaginary lines that spread out from that point, dividing addresses into north-south, and east-west.
That all works out well in Duluth on the main grid of streets – downtown, West End, West Duluth, Lakeside… but then it starts to get odd.
How I Spent My Summer Vacation in Minnesota with Daniel Johnston, Laura Ingalls Wilder, my great-great-grandparents and a bunch of short-fiction writers
There comes a time in every Minnesota man’s summer when he climbs into a rusty conversion van with the love of his life and sets out across the state in search of everything and nothing in particular.
Once the dog and the cooler of beer are secure in back, it’s off we go.
Nemadji Wisconsin Point Burial Tour
Ever wonder what happened to all the remains from the old Indian cemetery on Wisconsin Point? According to this YouTube video, over 100 burials were “dumped” along the banks of the Nemadji River at the St. Francis Cemetery in Superior. Their bones and artifacts crop up to this day as the banks continue to erode.
From the Rock Poster Archive | 1999
Ten year’s ago, the hottest chainsaw-weilding band in the country played at Stargate in Superior. For some reason I held on to the poster, even though I did not attend. I did see Jackyl open for Damn Yankees at the DECC in 1992, however.
Did anyone see the Soup Town show? Anyone? Anyone?
1935 Wheaties box featuring Frank “Butch” Larson
Duluth native Frank “Butch” Larson appeared on Wheaties cereal boxes in 1935. Finding one of those boxes after 74 years might be a challenge. (more…)
It’s hard to watch a house come down
This house at 738 N. Central Ave. in West Duluth was ripped down yesterday to make way for the new Laura MacArthur Elementary School. I think the new school will be great, and I have no particular reason to be sentimental about this house or any of the others on the block, but there’s something that punches me in the gut when I watch a house get smashed to bits. (more…)
Historic Day at Denfeld
Ten new members were inducted into Denfeld High School’s Hunter Hall of Fame on Saturday. At the end of the ceremony, descendants of Robert E. Denfeld and Walter Hunting were brought to the stage. Although the phrase “Denfeld Hunters” has been around since the 1930s, the Denfeld and Hunting families had never met before. (Photo by Butch Williams)
End of Stagecoaches in Duluth
On August 1, 1870, the St. Paul and Lake Superior Stagecoaches ceremoniously quit service with the opening of the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad. On this day, the first train arrived in Duluth from St. Paul, a roughly 150-mile trip that took 16 hours.
–Susan Marks, Historic Photos of Minnesota
Turner Publishing Company, 2009