Mystery Photo: Woman at Arcade Studio
This postcard photo is likely from around 1920. The only solid clue is on the back, where the photo is attributed to Arcade studio, 110 W. Superior St., Duluth. The studio had previously been known as the Penny Arcade. (more…)
Duluth Deep Dive #6: Superior Street in Six Acts
Superior Street around 1873. (Photo from the Northeast Minnesota Historical Collection)
The downtown section of Superior Street has a more complete photographic record than any other part of the city, revealing how dramatically Duluth’s main street has changed over time. This Duluth Deep Dive traces the 170-year history of downtown Superior Street by dividing its history into six periods and illustrating each period with a photo. (more…)
Not just excavating, but creating the literary history of Duluth
I post a lot about books found at the Duluth Public Library sale, or at the former Gabriel’s books, as part of the general project in my class to excavate the literary history of Duluth and to work with the UMD archives to preserve it. (more…)
Helical Hymn
This animated music video was inspired by the Minnesota Million: Reforestation for Carbon Sequestration Project, which is focused on the reforestation of one million acres in northern Minnesota. It will be screened at Dovetail Cafe & Marketplace on July 3 at 6 p.m. as part of the Cafe Scientifique event. Dr. Julie Etterson will speak about the Minnesota Million Project and free seedlings will be given away. Please come hear about this exciting project and help us reforest the northland.
Grand Marais’ New Bike Skills Park
A new bike skills park recently opened next to the Cook County Community Center, temporarily installed on the community skating rink. Superior Cycling Association President Jay DeCoux tells the story in this video produced by WTIP North Shore Community Radio.
One of the park’s users, Bo Christianson, probably summed it up best: “This place is fricken sick.”
Postcard from Superior Street Looking East
This undated postcard, published by Zenith Interstate News Company, shows Superior Street in Downtown Duluth looking northeast from between Fourth and Fifth avenues west. (more…)
Cold War Secrets of Northern Minnesota
This 2024 PBS North documentary, now available on YouTube, digs into the Cold War and northern Minnesota’s role in the global conflict. It features Cold War heroes like Ray Klosowski, Jim Chapman and Ronald Hein, and visits military sites in Duluth, French River and Finland.
Dāv Kaufman Eats the North Shore
Following his Duluth episode, Dāv Kaufman heads up the North Shore in this week’s edition of Dāv Kaufman Eats the World. (more…)
North Country Cadence in the literary history of the Duluth
For some reason, the Duluth Public Library decided to deaccession some of its reference Minnesota collection. (more…)
PDD Quiz: June 2025
Go the distance with this week’s current events quiz!
An outdoorsy quiz treks your way on July 13. Please submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by July 10. (more…)
On Board a Great Lakes Fireboat
Local YouTuber Vibe with Mike took a ride on the Duluth Fire Department’s fireboat.
Alhambra changed name to State Theater in 1925
West Duluth’s Alhambra Theater reopened under a new name, The State Theater, on June 27, 1925. The name change came after a renovation of the space, which had originally opened on Sept. 15, 1913.
The State Theater closed circa 1928. The building housed a variety of businesses until it reopened as the Alhambra on May 16, 2025 — one month ahead of the centennial of its name change. (more…)
Duluth in the novel ‘The Horn’
John Clellon Holmes’ 1953 beat jazz novel The Horn contains a couple references to Duluth. In the 1988 edition by Thunder’s Mouth Press, the first mention occurs on page 131. I cite it below with a couple paragraphs for context, which make it clear “Duluth” is used synonymously with “some out-of-the-way city on the road.” (more…)
Selective Focus: Kai Murphy’s Visual Art
Working mostly with Copic markers, digital drawings and occasional oil paints, Kai Murphy has created commissioned artwork for Duluth Superior Pride, Trans Northland, the H.O.T.D.I.S.H. Militia and more. Murphy started their practice making fan art in online communities, and has since branched out from there. Readers can view their artwork and learn more in the interview, below: (more…)
Music in the Weeds: Barbara Jean Meyers and Mike Lewis
A short way up the Kadunce River on the east side of Cook County, hikers on the Superior Hiking Trail can view a large natural cave next to a waterfall just off the trail. Local musicians Barbara Jean Meyers and Mike Lewis trek across the river and perform two original songs, “Big and Small” and “Traces,” inside the cave in the woods.
Music in the Weeds is a new video series from WTIP North Shore Community Radio that showcases northern Minnesota artists performing original music at scenic and meaningful locations around Cook County. It is produced by M. Baxley and Will Moore.
Ten Months of Critters in Voyageurs National Park
The latest montage video from the Voyageurs Wolf Project features highlights from a trail camera set up in a remote section of Voyageurs National Park for more than 10 months. The camera captured the typical cast of elusive forest characters, including wolves, moose and lynx. A bear helps direct the video by adjusting the camera.
Postcards from North Shore Drive / State Highway No. 1
The images in this post are all touched up versions of photos from postcards for sale by eBay seller LL Vintage Antiques. They appear to be circa 1925. Two depict scenes from North Shore Drive with Duluth captioned as the location, though they might have been shot outside Duluth city limits. (more…)
Ice Racing Getaway Driver
1983 St. Louis County jailhouse interview with “Turbo” Ted Van Brunt
Interviewer: Tell me about your escape from Duluth.
Turbo Ted: Escaping Duluth is a coin flip. Half my friends tried and couldn’t reach the velocity, came back after two or three years of getting kicked around out there. I tried a couple times.
What you’re really asking about started a couple springs ago, when it rained then the temperature plunged. The city woke up with a coating of clear ice on every surface. Branches falling in the road. Whole city shut down, nothing could move.
Except my black, street stock, ice racing stud car, a 1976 Chevette with a roll cage and 500 spikes on each tire — sheet metal screws we screwed in ourselves. Fender all chewed up. Commonly called the worst car of all time but it did everything we asked. And Johnny said it was go time. He was the brains, had it all worked, how to disarm the system at the Superior Street jewelers there. He got that with a bribe. It was only a question of when, and this was our crisis of opportunity. “The cops won’t stand a chance,” he said, and they didn’t. They even had chains on but they still didn’t know how to drive. Anyway so Johnny robbed it, but he didn’t get all the alarms. And I was the getaway driver but I still get half. Which wasn’t much — a couple display cases worth of diamond jewelry. Pulled him behind the car on a tether as we blew down Superior through deserted intersections, cross-training for frozen lake ice races at the same time we’re robbing a jewelry store. Just on his feet — no skis, just boots. And of course the cop shop is right there. But their interceptors fell behind. It was beautiful. (more…)
Selective Focus: Puppets and Poetry with Promontory Palace
Atlas posing at Studio Cafe with one of his puppet heads. Photo by Jess Morgan.
Since moving to Duluth from the South about two years ago, Atlas, or the artist behind Promontoy Palace, has been interweaving his solo artistic practice into local arts projects. His work can be found at the upcoming Dollhaus event, as well as an upcoming show in August at Studio Cafe. He utilizes puppets, poetry, paintings and ambient music to tell stories through a variety of mediums. To learn more about his current and upcoming work, check out the recent interview below. (more…)
Video Archive: Walter & Sheila’s Cheese Hole
To mark the 40th anniversary of the “Weird Al” Yankovic album Dare to Be Stupid, Nick Prueher posted a Facebook Reel with a clip from a July 7, 1985 AL-TV segment on MTV in which Yankovic runs down a list of fake tour stops, including Walter & Sheila’s Cheese Hole in Superior.
Yankovic actually did play a gig in Superior that year; he was a featured act at the Head of the Lakes Fair on Aug. 9, 1985.
Duluth to Liverpool in One Bottom
On June 19, 1920 — 105 years ago today — Scientific American published an article by Robert G. Skerrett editorializing in favor of the “Great Lakes being opened to the sea so that ocean-going craft can steam from Duluth to the Atlantic and thence along our neighboring seaboard or afar to the markets of Europe.” (more…)
Arrowhead Regional Arts Council 2025 Grant Recipients
The Arrowhead Regional Arts Council has announced its most recent grant recipients. (more…)
Selective Focus: Reverie with Kathryne Ford
Utilizing a variety of different mediums, including mirrors, projection, paint and a mold made for her actual teeth, Kathryne Ford curated “Reverie,” an installation exploring “thoughts and visions that rattle through my mind at 2 a.m.” The exhibit, containing images and objects nostalgic to childhood, are intended to make the audience feel both “lost and found,” said Ford, as “surreal moments are in a real medium.” To learn more about the Reverie art installation, open at Prøve Art Gallery through June 21, check out the interview with Ford below. (more…)
Rag Mag: More Duluth Literary History Hunting
This post, also looking for resources and connections for my fall 2025 course in Minnesota Writers, has two asks. (more…)