North Country Trail in Wisconsin: Wood Tick Flats
You can’t — in the year 2017 — start hiking the North Country Trail at the border of Minnesota and Wisconsin without first hiking in from one direction or the other. If you want to go southeast through Wisconsin, for example, you need to start on Wild Valley Road in Minnesota and hike in for 3.2 miles.
I don’t know how far into Wisconsin you’ll get if you try that. As of the date of this post, the interactive map on northcountrytrail.org is unclear. It’s hard to tell if the trail ends cold in the woods, dumps out on a highway or carries on uninterrupted.
On the gorgeous Sunday afternoon of June 4, I tried to solve this mystery and failed. It was still a fun scouting mission, though, and that’s what I’ll share in this essay. Obviously I could call the trail association or maybe spend an hour scrolling through Facebook posts to obtain the knowledge I seek about the state of the trail, but I’d still want to see it for myself, so why bother with the hands-off research, right?
It has been thoroughly documented in a series of 14 essays on this very website that I slowly and somewhat methodically hiked all of Minnesota’s Superior Hiking Trail in sporadic spurts from 2000 to 2016. That journey started at the Canadian border and ended on the Wisconsin border. But the trail doesn’t stop at either of those points. The SHT is part of a much longer trail — the North Country National Scenic Trail — which extends to Lake Sakakawea State Park in North Dakota to the west and Crown Point in New York to the east. (more…)
Drone footage from the North Shore of Lake Superior
Twin Cities videographer Matt Smith of Odyssey Visuals recently took a quick weekend trip up the North Shore and captured these images from his drone.
Selective Focus: Karen McTavish
Duluth’s Karen McTavish has been named the Minnesota Quilter of the Year for 2017, and her work is being displayed at the DECC as part of the Minnesota Quilt Show this weekend, June 7-10. Her work can also be seen at the quilting studio she runs at 1831 E. Eighth St..
K.M.: In 1997 I came to Duluth to machine-quilt full time as my only source of income. I had no prior experience quilting so I had a lot of fear. I had no mentors and no idea what I was doing. I went to the Duluth Public Library and started my research into the medium, carrying hand quilting books out of the library six at a time. I applied for a studio at the Washington Studios Artists Cooperative to live/work and was accepted. I met a hand-quilter named Cheryl Dennison there. Cheryl was a modern quilter, my mother was an art quilter and I was this wandering idiot trying to find my style, my passion and my voice. (more…)
Zenith Bookstore opens July 1 in West Duluth
A year-long quest to launch a shop selling new and “gently used” books is almost complete. Zenith Bookstore will open for business July 1 in the former Wild West Liquor building at 318 N. Central Ave. in West Duluth. Perfect Duluth Day first reported about the store’s development in September. (more…)
Downtown Duluth’s Bullseye building sold
The two-story white brick building in Downtown Duluth occupied by the Chinese Dragon restaurant, Bullseye Silkscreen & Embroidery and Old Town Antiques was sold in March for $1.65 million according to St. Louis County records. The building sits on the corner of Superior Street and First Avenue East. The three businesses use the addresses 108, 106 and 102 E. Superior St., respectively. The building’s general address is 101 E. Michigan St. (more…)
Former Coffee Shop (now vending area) Artists Salute
This is a small salute to the artists who created the art on the walls of what used to be a coffee shop in the St. Louis County Courthouse, now a vending machine area with beautiful walls.
If the creators of these clever paintings want to take a bow by offering their names, please do.
Video Archive: Benaszeski Brothers Polka Band in 1983
Time for yet another classic from the collection of the late Emil Praslowicz, digitized by his grandson, Kip Praslowicz. In this edition a dance frenzy ensues at Chet & Emil’s in Birnamwood, Wis. as the Benaszeski Brothers bring the rock-infused polka action.
Gleanings from the book of Eli
In honor of a decade+ of writing for the Duluth Budgeteer — gone forever — I wanted to share this piece. At just 45 miles from Duluth, the Wirtanen Pioneer Farm is a swell destination to add to your summer bucket list. A quiet place, with little programming, it’s the sort of environment that might bore some of you. If you have ears to hear, however, there is much to be heard. We can learn a lot from the work ethic of pioneers like Eli. I jotted down some thoughts at Ed’s Big Adventure, and am curious about yours.
Postcard from Alpert’s Motel on Scenic Highway 61
Alpert’s Motel was located “13 miles from Downtown Duluth on North Shore Drive. Scenic Highway 61 on Lake Superior Circle Route.” The back of the postcard shown here indicates the motel offered “all the modern conveniences for your comfort, spacious grounds and beautiful view of Lake Superior.”
Joe and Mary Beth Alpert moved from Duluth to the French River area in 1952 to build the motel. They managed it until 1976. Joe died in 2004; Mary Beth in 2012. The motel was auctioned off in 1992.
Fly Fishing for Brookies
Friends Alyssa and Max play hooky with brookies. Alyssa is also teaching fly tying at the Beer ‘n’ Bugs event at Bent Paddle.
Standing Alone
Duluth filmmaker/musician/artist Ariane Norrgard just premiered this at the Zinema. It is about Anishinaabe elder, Jim Merhar, of Coleraine Minnesota, who once rocked both the Armory and the Opry.
Wabegon bar and grill has new owner
A tavern, off-sale liquor outlet and supper club in Superior Township is under new ownership. John Hartwick purchased the 85-year-old Wabegon bar and grill on April 28 and hit the ground running, only shutting down for half a day to inventory the place. Paul Vernon, who owned the Wabegon for 10 years, held a going away pig roast party the week prior.
The Wabegon is a bit of a geographical oddity. Though it’s located in Wisconsin, roads leading in are through Minnesota, and the vibe of the business is Minnesota through and through. For residents of Duluth’s Fond du Lac neighborhood, it’s the primary gathering place for food and revelry; Superior residents, on the other hand, are barely aware it exists. (more…)
Accordion repair school plans return to Duluth
Th
e world’s largest accordion museum and education center has started plans to restore and reopen a building that served as its home more than a decade ago in Duluth’s Lincoln Park neighborhood.
A World of Accordions Museum Director Helmi Harrington said earlier this week the organization will relocate an accordion repair school from current museum headquarters in Superior to its former site at 2801 W. First Street in Duluth. Harrington recently repurchased the historic church building and its adjacent parsonage out of St. Louis County foreclosure and started a tax payment plan for the property.
“Anyone who has visited our museum in Superior knows it’s crowded and our spacious building is no longer spacious,” said Harrington. “The idea for moving just the repair school to Duluth is not inexpensive, but it’s something we need to explore.”
A World of Accordions Museum is located in the Harrington Arts Center and features more than 1,300 instruments, an extensive recording library and art collection and thousands of accordion-related artifacts. Its nine-month accordion repair program accepts about 20 students annually from all over the world. (more…)
Are we going to let the blades of perpendicular platitudes cut through the footwear applications?
Toby Thomas Churchill summits all over the now.
Video Montage: UW-Superior Spring Commencement 2017
The University of Wisconsin-Superior conducted its 121st Spring Commencement on May 20. Carl Crawford, a 2008 graduate who serves as the human rights officer for the city of Duluth, delivered the keynote address. The student speaker was Anthony “Scott” McNorton.
Sussex sex tower echoes West Duluth nards
The wacky news story of the week is out of the Village of Sussex in southeast Wisconsin. A contractor painted over the first three letters on a water tower and then decided it was break time. It turns out, the same thing happened at the same water tower in 1996.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinal: Village of Sussex residents have heard this water tower sex joke before
Prior to either of the sex tower situations, Duluth had its own temporarily bawdy sign. When the original West Duluth Kmart location at 503 N. 50th Ave. W. was converted to become a Menards store in 1991, workers put up five letters on the side of the building before knocking off for the night. Anyone driving down 46th Avenue West or Mike Colalillo Drive could plainly see “nards” hanging high on the store’s eastern side. To my knowledge, this was never reported by media and no photos exist. But then again, someone must have taken a picture. And it’s time for that person to come forward.
Decline Porn, Duluth, and Love Amid the Ruins
J.D. Vance, in a review of Janesville: An American Story in Commentary magazine:
Having grown up in a blue-collar family that has largely abandoned the Democratic Party in droves, I have an unusually high tolerance for the many profiles of Trump voters in struggling industrial towns. Lately, however, even I have grown weary of what Noah Rothman calls “decline porn.” There are only so many words in the English language, and nearly all of them seem to have been used at least three times to help the denizens of Williamsburg and Dupont understand red-state voters and dying factory towns. Enough already.
Vance penned the most orgiastic piece of decline porn in recent memory, Hillbilly Elegy — apologies for my juvenile enjoyment of this metaphor — but there has been no shortage of titles in this genre, and a survey of my past reading list will find me devouring much of it, from Robert Putnam’s Our Kids to Yuval Levin’s The Fractured Republic, from George Packer’s The Unwinding to Charles Murray’s Coming Apart to Brian Alexander’s Glass House. It need not even be American; I could carry on with examples for a while. Decline porn is a fertile ground in contemporary non-fiction, and its best works tell haunting tales of realities that anyone vaguely involved in the shaping of political or economic trends must wrestle with. They also tap into a lament for things lost that speaks to a certain part of the human psyche and permeates my own writing at times. Someone who knows me well can probably psychoanalyze this wistfulness easily enough, but I come back to it for reasons that are philosophical as well as personal, and I could devote a lot of words to defending it in those terms. Meditations on loss go back to Eden and the early creation myths, as Paz so masterfully explains in the last chapter of The Labyrinth of Solitude. It’s a near universal human trait. (more…)
Red Herring Lounge serving up food with tunes
Anna Hanson and Paul Wold
The Red Herring Lounge has made a name for itself as a music venue in Duluth and beyond. Since its inception three years ago, the bar has been serving up inventive cocktails along with a respectable list of wines and craft brews. Now it’s adding snacks and small plates to the menu. (more…)
Duluthian Phillip Merritt and the Manhattan Project
A new posting at the Vintage Duluth / Duluth Public Library blog (formerly Reference @ Duluth) is about “Duluthian Phillip Merritt and the Manhattan Project.”
Selective Focus: Goodiel Beads
After the Vinyl Cave record store in Superior closed, Goodiel Beads moved in. Goodiel sells beads and supplies, and hires employees with disabilities who might not be able to find employment at other businesses. The store also has space for local crafters to sell their items on a consignment basis.
G.B.: Goodiel Beads is a locally owned bead store that was opened April 2017 by a local bead worker, Jamie Goodiel, and her best friend, Matt Hill. (more…)
Mystery mural found during NorShor Theatre renovation
At a May 31 news conference, Duluth Playhouse Executive & Artistic Director Christine Gradl Seitz showed off a canvas painting discovered by workers busy renovating the NorShor Theatre. The Duluth News Tribune reports the painting was “behind a suspended ceiling that was installed in 1941 when the existing Orpheum Theatre was converted into the NorShor. The grand theater’s original balcony had been concealed and transformed into a makeshift attic. But Gradl Seitz said a careful exploration of the space revealed ‘this beautiful mural, which we believe dates back to 1910, and the original Orpheum.'”
The NorShor is expected to open in early 2018; the Playhouse has a run of the musical Mamma Mia scheduled for Feb. 8-24. Renovation work is about 60 percent complete.
The theater was purchased by the Duluth Economic Development Authority in June 2010 for $2.6 million. The $30.5-million renovation began in summer 2016. It is a partnership between Sherman Associates and DEDA. The 750+ seat theater will serve as an arts center managed by the Duluth Playhouse. (more…)
Piedmont Plunge
Often helmet-cam videos of mountain bike runs have a music soundtrack. This one by Baylor Litsey, shot on the Piedmont Mountain Bike Trails in Duluth, sticks with the natural sounds for a more realistic glimpse of the trail-riding experience.
Gaelynn Lea on The PlayList
The May 25 episode of WDSE-TV‘s The Playlist is a documentary about Duluth musician Gaelynn Lea, with performance segments shot at the Red Herring Lounge and First Avenue’s 7th St. Entry.