This undated postcard, published by E.C. Kropp Company, depicts a sailboat race on Duluth’s waterfront with the Duluth Boat Club in the background. This version of the club building was on the bay side of Minnesota Point at South Tenth Street. It was built in 1903 and destroyed by fire in 1951.
In the 1800s, elevator doors were often left open to chance. The last person to use those doors might remember to close them. Or they might not. Then a real estate developer in Duluth invented automatic elevator doors and made the whole world a safer place to elevate. But that was just another day in the incredible life of the richest black man in the Midwest, Alexander Miles.
Minnesota Historia is a PBS North web series dedicated to Minnesota’s quirky past. It is hosted by Hailey Eidenschink and produced/edited/written by Mike Scholtz.
The Soldiers and Sailors Monument. (Photo by Matthew James)
A few weeks ago a postcard of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument appeared on Perfect Duluth Day that included the text “by the noted sculptor Paul W. Bartlett of Paris.” That didn’t seem like a particularly French name to me so I decided to see if he was actually a noted sculptor and actually from Paris. Both counts proved accurate.
Bartlett was from Connecticut, but grew up in France and spent a considerable amount of time in Paris. But Bartlett only designed the statue in front of the monument. The architect Cass Gilbert designed the base that supports the flagpole. And both of these people gained considerable attention during their respective careers. Their most prominent works are within a few minutes walk of each other in Washington D.C. And when I learned this, I was attending a conference in Washington D.C., so I paid a visit to those works.
As Duluth mourns the loss of Ben Larson, aka Burly Burlesque of the bands Crew Jones and Southwire, we point to a nearly 20-year-old Minnesota Public Radio piece that introduced listeners to the hot new “north woods rap” group. The segment was produced by Chris Julin and features Chris Godsey interviewing Crew Jones.
According to local legend, a train derailed in Pine City in the 1800s. It plummeted down a steep embankment into the impossibly deep Devil’s Lake, where it disappeared forever. There is no evidence this ever happened, but that hasn’t stopped people from looking for the train. How does a legend like this persist? And grow? And add circus animals for some reason?
Minnesota Historia is a PBS North web series dedicated to Minnesota’s quirky past. It is hosted by Hailey Eidenschink and produced/edited/written by Mike Scholtz.
In honor of the 30th anniversary of Disney’s Iron Will hitting theaters, this edition of the PDD Quiz tests your knowledge of places and faces that appear in the film, which was largely shot in the area. Head over to this PDD post if you want to cheat study up ahead of time!
The next current events PDD quiz races your way on Feb. 25. Submit question ideas to Alison Moffat [email protected] by Feb. 22.
Twin/Tone Records, a Minneapolis-based record label active from 1977 to 1994, has an artist page for God’s Favorite Band that features the image above.
The message on the back of this 113-year-old postcard reads:
Dear Edwin-
This not a very good picture of Jerry but you can tell what he looks like. -KM
The postcard photo above is dated 1924, making it 100 years old. It shows a boy driving a car with a sign on the grill that reads “Western Steel Products Company, New Duluth, Minn.” That doesn’t technically mean the photo was shot in the New Duluth neighborhood, however, so the primary mystery of the photo’s location perhaps hinges on whether the houses in the background match any present-day Duluth homes. The identity of the people in the car is the longshot mystery to solve.
Scandinavian cookbook author Bea Ojakangas developed pizza rolls while working for Jeno Paulucci in Duluth. But she hasn’t tasted one for 50 years. This video reveals what she thinks of pizza rolls today.
Minnesota Historia is a PBS North web series dedicated to Minnesota’s quirky past. It is hosted by Hailey Eidenschink and produced/edited/written by Mike Scholtz.
This piece of handiwork is what’s known as a large-letter postcard, made from cutting up older postcards.
This sweatshirt logo is clearly connected to some sort of Duluth organization, but what? Does that symbol represent some combination of letters or some concept? Does anyone recognize this logo?
This postcard was sent from Scanlon by someone whose name looks something like “Alianine.” It was mailed on Jan. 21, but the year is not visible on the postmark. Clearly it’s about a century old. It shows what must be what is called Twin Ponds today, but is dubbed Boulevard Lake on the postcard.
One thing that gets weird about photos shot with costumes, props and a fake background is that eventually the photo will become old, and then it’s more difficult to tell whether the people in the photo are dressed in their normal clothing, were being photographed to promote a play, or just having a novelty photo taken. So the image above might seem like an 1890s version of what a photo of someone in 2024 wearing disco clothes might convey in the year 2156.
