This edition of Duluth You & Me needs an historical footnote. The Willard Munger State Trail is referred to in this 1993 illustration as a 14-mile trail. It now spans 70 miles to Hinckley.
Use the link below for a printable PDF for your drawing and coloring pleasure.
Duluth You & Me: Willard Munger State Trail
Follow the Duluth You & Me subject tag to see additional pages. For background on the book see the original post on the topic.
What better way to beat the summer heat than to visit your favorite local beach or swimming hole? Whether you prefer a secret pool in the woods or a popular beach, options abound. Dive into this week’s quiz to test your knowledge of area swimming spots!
The next PDD quiz will review the headlines from July 2020; it will be published on July 26. Submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by July 22.
It was July 12, 1950 — 70 years ago today — that some dude with the initials H.E.W. sent this postcard from Duluth to Mr. Joe Rigatti of Pittsburgh, Penn.
A new skatepark is in the works in the Gary-New Duluth neighborhood. Mark Boben, president of the GND Development Alliance, describes how this undertaking is a community-wide effort. (Update: This video appears to have been removed from YouTube.)
In its series The Slice, WDSE-TV presents short “slices of life” that capture the events and experiences that bring people together and speak to what it means to live up north.
Barbara Kiser, a former Duluthian who has lived in London since the 1980s, has published an essay that prominently references the Lester River Fish Hatchery. The article appears on Arizona State University’s Zócalo Public Square, which syndicates “ideas journalism.”
Article link: Where I Go: From Northeast London Back to Duluth
Another new track by Duluth’s Ingeborg von Agassiz.
The elaborate cedar bridge spanning Duluth’s Lester River was about one year old in the summer of 1899 when photographer William Henry Jackson visited Duluth and captured the image above. By 1931 the bridge was gone.
The book Duluth’s Historic Parks: Their First 160 Years by Nancy S. Nelson and Tony Dierckins notes the bridge was “a popular tourist stop, with picnic tables on the bottom deck and lounging on the upper promenade.” The ravages of weather limited the bridge’s life. The upper deck was removed in 1916, followed by the lower deck 15 years later.
Duluth’s Vista Fleet excursion business got its start in 1959 under the name Flamingo Excursions. The 144-passenger S.S. Flamingo replaced the businesses’ original boat, the Streamliner, in 1961.
Opportunities to be outside for live music — together with other people, but spaced apart — are starting to expand. The best way to stay on top of the concert options, farmers markets, parking-lot movie screenings and similar hoopla continues to be the PDD Calendar.
Once a month we reach out with a beggarly blog post to remind everyone that human beings and not machines are at work editing and publishing calendar events on Perfect Duluth Day. So if you appreciate it, drop a few bucks in the PayPal account, yo.
Artist and teacher Sarah Brokke Erickson goes in depth into her process for planning and illustrating a children’s book, “A Common Thirst.” The book was written by fellow Duluthian Gary Boelhower.
Use the link below for a printable PDF for your drawing and coloring pleasure.
Duluth You & Me: Brighton Beach Picnic
Follow the Duluth You & Me subject tag to see additional pages. For background on the book see the original post on the topic.
COVID-19 kept the Mighty Thomas Carnival from making its annual summer appearance in Duluth. Instead, we get our Ferris wheel kicks from the photo archive.
Caden Dudek, vocalist of the Duluth band Torment, has been recovering from a March 1 incident in which he was struck by a hit-and-run driver. In this video, he tests his vocals by covering “Sadist” by the Minneapolis band Reflections.
“A lot of people have been asking me if I can still scream since my accident,” Dudek writes on the YouTube video description. “The answer is YES. After six days in a coma, a tube down my throat, and heavy damage done to my lungs, healing has been quite the work in progress. I have refused to give up on getting my voice back. It has definitely changed my technique, but I really think I’m starting to get it down again. A traumatic experience like almost losing your life can really eat you alive mentally, but only if you let it. Thank you so much for the endless support, I owe you all my life.”
