Sixteen Years on the Superior Hiking Trail: The Double Finish
Writing about hiking the full 300+ miles of the Superior Hiking Trail hasn’t quite taken as long as hiking it, but it’s gone on long enough. At sixteen years and thirteen chapters, the story now concludes.
I had just a dozen miles left to go in 2015, which were divided into four slightly quirky hikes.
The first was a 1.8-mile section from Triangle Trail to Oak Trail near Jay Cooke State Park. Some of it I had probably already covered a few years earlier, I just wasn’t quite certain. So I embarked on a “van-bike-hike” adventure to make sure any possible gap there was covered. This involved driving to the Jay Cooke Visitor Center, unloading a bike, cycling the Munger Trail to bypass parts of the SHT I’d already done, ditching my bike at the Greely/Triangle trail intersection, completing the short hike, and cycling back.
You’ll have to trust me when I say that was fun. The description makes it sound like I was running a complicated errand. The thing is, being obsessive and task-oriented can be a method for forcing one’s self into situations that can be a bit more out of the ordinary. So, compared to hiking the trail behind my house for the 17,000th time, the van-bike-hike was a memorable event.
Two months later I took on what was the newest and southernmost segment of the SHT at the time, the 5.9-mile stretch from Wild River Road to Jay Cooke State Park. This also involved covering some ground I had hiked in the past, because parts of the trail are old segments of long-existing paths in the park, such as Bear Chase Trail. (No bears were chased.) (more…)
Selective Focus: Jeff Lemke
Jeff Lemke operates a web site, Twin Ports Rail History, and Flickr account where he posts photos he has taken as well as photos he has collected documenting the history of the rail business in Duluth and Superior. We are showing a very small sample of the images here, but you really need to check out the collection he has, as well as read his descriptions for each photo. If you are so inclined, you can also donate to keep the project going. It really is an impressive historical collection.
J.L: Most people look at my site and think it is about trains. Perception is reality in most cases. But for those who actually look closer and read the details of each image that I post, they discover that it’s really a developing story in pictures about the people who worked for the railroads and the industries that those railroads collectively served. The locomotives, railroad cars, and facilities that each railroad used were in a constant state of flux—right from the beginning. During the late 1880s railroads like the Northern Pacific and Great Northern established strongholds of land in Duluth and Superior respectively, on which they built their inland-port empires. Other railroads came along, prospered too, but to a much lesser degree.
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Juice Pharm taking over Vintage Kitchen space
Set aside the biscuits and gravy, and get ready for freshly squeezed. The Juice Pharm has announced it’s taking over the space formerly occupied by Vintage Kitchen at 12 S. 15th Ave. E. (more…)
Ear to the Ground: Charlie Parr
A session and interview with Duluth musician Charlie Parr filmed and recorded in Saranac Lake, N.Y., in July 2015. It’s part of Beehive Productions‘ “Ear to the Ground” series featuring sessions and interviews exploring the artists and places that make up roots music culture.
Upcoming Charlie Parr gigs:
Feb. 8 at Red Herring Lounge with Devil’s Flying Machine
Feb. 9 at Clyde Iron Works with the Boomchucks
Feb. 11 at First United Methodist Church
Bob Monahan gives Duluth music scene ‘some backbone’
This week’s issue of the Twin Cities tabloid City Pages is dubbed “The People Issue” and focuses on “18 who make Minnesota a better place to live.” Among those featured with the likes of Minnesota Vikings tight end and humanitarian Kyle Rudolph and craft beer entrepreneur Kathleen Culhane is Duluth’s Bob Monahan, owner of Chaperone Records and the Red Herring Lounge, referred to as “Duluth’s music mayor.”
Postcards from First United Methodist Church of Duluth
Before there was a “Coppertop Church” in Duluth, First Methodist Episcopal occupied the corner of Third Avenue West and Third Street. The 1,800-seat brownstone structure was dedicated on Feb. 5, 1893, closed in November 1966, and was razed in 1969. It was known as “the Meth” … because those were simpler times.
The new First United Methodist Church was built on seven acres of land on Skyline Parkway bought at public auction in 1959. Construction began on “The Coppertop Church” in 1966, based on architectural designs by Pietro Bellushi.
Shooting the Life-Line at Duluth, Minn.
This postcard was mailed from Duluth on July 24, 1907, and arrived two days later in the mailbox of Mr. A. G. Pack, Jr. of 823 Colorado Ave., Colorado Springs, Colo. It does not necessarily depict a Duluth scene; versions of this postcard exist for Wildwood, N.J.; Atlantic City, N.J. and probably other cities. (more…)
Where in Superior?
For the 155th installment of Perfect Duluth Day’s ultra-thrilling photo-trivia sensation “Where in Duluth?” we cross the bridge to ask, “Where in Superior was this photo taken?”
Superior Siren – “Nightmare”
Another round of NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest is underway, with the winner to be announced in March. Duluth’s Gaelynn Lea took top honors in 2016.
Local band Superior Siren‘s 2017 submission is for a song called “Nightmare.” (The video was embedded here but has since been removed from YouTube.)
Superior Hiking Trail Association seeking new executive director
The Superior Hiking Trail Association, headquartered in Two Harbors, is seeking a dynamic leader to serve in the role of executive director.
The SHTA is dedicated to constructing, maintaining and promoting a world-class 310-mile natural surface trail paralleling Lake Superior from Wisconsin to Ontario. The 5,000-plus member organization has a small knowledgeable staff, a passionate group of volunteers and a committed, active board of directors dedicated to the success of a new strategic plan. (more…)
PDD Quiz: January 2017
How much do you remember about this first month of 2017? Take the quiz and find out!
Our next PDD Quiz, on the subject of robots and Duluth, will be published on Feb. 12. E-mail question ideas to Alison Klawiter at [email protected] by Feb. 8.
Duluth is a Giant Ice Rink: Bombing Chester Creek Trail Edition
I would NOT do this further up the trail where there are sheer drops.
Hell of a View
Not having grown up in Duluth, I missed the purported crosstown rivalry. My tribe lives next door, across the border: the People of the Cheese.
Duluth: “Where rail meets sail.” Where rustic meets rustbelt. Where woodtick meets moonbeam, and uphill meets down. You’re a microcosmic casserole, a dichotomous hotdish, Duluth, where stone meets water, and water meets sky. Actually, between water and sky is a thin slice of Wisconsin, appearing blue because of the way light scatters across the distance, and sometimes distance is good. You see, people often end a sentence with the phrase, “but there’s always Wisconsin,” as in, “we can’t get no drunker here, but there’s always Wisconsin,” or, “we don’t make lampshades from human skin, but there’s always
Wisconsin,” and so on, lending a certain comfort to the color blue, and the distance it conveys.
Driving into downtown from the west feels like entering an architect’s model, as the street burrows between stubby office buildings along the table of land between harbor and hill. When I moved here, freeway and mall had already drawn and quartered the business district, and it was the nadir of the Reagan recession. The industrial boomtown started busting as the high-grade ore played out in the 1950s, and by the late ’70s competition from abroad arrived, along with bumper stickers reading, “ Eat Your Foreign Car.” While the early ’80s were cloaked in a campaign slogan touting, “Morning in America,” around here we wondered if there was a bottom to this freefall, which might at least afford a dead-cat bounce. (more…)
Schweiger takes People’s Choice Award at DAI membership show
The People’s Choice Award at the Duluth Art Institute’s 2017 Membership Exhibition on Thursday went to Annie Schweiger for her oil painting titled “The Winston.” The award recognizes the audience’s favorite work out of more than 175 on view in the Great Hall of the Duluth Depot.
Schweiger hails from Anoka, and moved to Duluth as a transfer student to attend the University of Minnesota-Duluth. She majored in graphic design and minored in studio art. Shortly after graduation she was hired by HTK Marketing as a graphic designer. She continues to work in the fine arts during her free time, and is available for commissions.
Her winning painting, “The Winston,” is a portrait of a long-haired Chihuahua, Winston, which her colleague Mike Scholtz brings to work every day. The pet portrait captures the dog’s sly glance and features the animal formally attired in a crimson beret with gold trim, a starched ruff and a jacket. The whimsy of the scene is countered by the photorealistic skill of the depiction and a subdued color palette.
The “2017 Annual Membership Exhibition” is on view through Feb. 24.
Early Lincoln Park Postcards
A couple cards I’ve not seen before. Both are postally unused.
R.I.P. Chicken Spur
Say it ain’t so. The Duluth News Tribune reports Germann’s Hammond Spur at the foot of the Superior side of the Blatnik Bridge is closing today. The convenience store has been known for years as the “Chicken Spur” because of its deli, which offered fried chicken, egg rolls, corn dogs and more. The DNT notes the store is holding a 50 percent off sale in hopes of closing out its inventory.
Selective Focus: Shawn Thompson
Shawn Thompson has been creating breathtaking images of Lake Superior and the surrounding area for several years. He talks about how he got into photography and getting up early for the perfect shot.
S.T.: I am mainly a digital photographer, but I also enjoy shooting film. Film is a recent endeavor for me. Both have their perks. Digital is fantastic for the instant gratification and ease of making an exposure in just about any condition. (more…)
Mary Tyler Moore went to high school in Duluth … sort of
Mike Michaels posted this image from The Mary Tyler Moore Show on Facebook yesterday, the date of Mary Tyler Moore’s death, noting the show featured the University of Minnesota Duluth’s Old Main building as the fictional high school of her character, Mary Richards.
“One of the show’s writers, Lorenzo Music, lived in Duluth and attended UMD. He married an actress who was a Denfeld grad,” Michaels wrote. “They both ended up starring in a CBS variety show and both wrote the theme song to The Bob Newhart Show. Lorenzo became even more famous as the voice of the doorman on the TV show Rhoda and the voice of Garfield the cat. He was also a TV producer.”
UMD’s Old Main building was destroyed by fire in 1993.
“One River” on the road
The cast and crew of UMD Theatre‘s One River play are in Des Moines this week for the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival’s Region V competition. One River will be performed four times in two days during the festival. Written by UMD Theatre Professor Tom Isbell, the show is one of six productions selected to compete in the six-state event.
Over the past 30 years, UMD Theatre has been selected 12 times to present at the KCACTF Regionals and has been chosen five times to perform at the National Festival held at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. As of 2011, productions no longer compete at the National Festival level. (more…)
Morgan Park housing development secures cleanup grant
The St. Louis River corridor will see a $10 million, 67-unit, market-rate rental housing development thanks in part to a contamination cleanup grant.
The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development announced last week it will award the Duluth Economic Development Authority $654,051 to advance the vision of Kuepers Inc. of Brainerd in constructing nine additional single-family housing units to accompany its two 29-unit buildings in western Duluth.
Kuepers is completing construction on its Grand Avenue Estates project at 9215 Zimmerly Ave., near Stewart Creek on the northern edge of the Morgan Park neighborhood. (more…)
Klobuchar votes to comfirm Pompeo as CIA director
U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar was one of 14 Democrats who sided with Republicans on Monday in voting to confirm President Donald Trump’s nominee for CIA director, Mike Pompeo. (more…)
Longtime DECC director Russell to retire in August
The Duluth News Tribune reports Dan Russell will retire Aug. 31 after 27 years as executive director of the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center, which includes Amsoil Arena, the City Side Convention Center, the Harborside Convention Center, a movie theater complex and two parking ramps. The DECC also manages Bayfront Festival Park and operates the retired William A. Irvin ship as a floating attraction.
“I’ve had the pleasure of working for 27 years at a place that makes people smile, because they’re coming here for concerts, sporting events, boat shows and all kinds of other fun events,” Russell said in a news release issued today. “It’s also where I get to interact with 500 great employees who work very hard to make everything the DECC does look easy. It’s been an honor to work here.” (more…)