Big Into – “Gourd Millionaire”
Iron Range nerd-rockers Big Into have their moneyed interests primed and ready in their latest music video.
Iron Range nerd-rockers Big Into have their moneyed interests primed and ready in their latest music video.
Here’s the early rundown of new works from the Duluth music scene. The list will grow as 2025 continues.
In a volatile world, JamesG persists in uncertainty. His latest video was shot in the Anoka-Ramsey Community College Performing Arts Center.
The drama. The pageantry. The American Birkebeiner Giant Ski Race on Main Street in Hayward.
The 2025 race featured 30 teams, including the champion — Tree Schoolers.
A lot has gone down in this short month; how much of it do you remember? Check your recall with this week’s PDD current events quiz!
St. Patrick’s Day will be the theme of the next PDD quiz, which comes your way on March 16. Please submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at alisonlinnaemoffat @ gmail.com by March 13.
Author and investigative journalist Ida Tarbell spoke at the Normal School in Superior 100 years ago today — Feb. 23, 1925. The Normal School is now known as the University of Wisconsin-Superior. Tarbell became famous for her series of articles in McClure’s magazine from 1902 to 1904 that later resulted in her book The History of the Standard Oil Company. Her revealing of the company’s strong-arm tactics led to the dissolution of its monopoly. She also wrote a number of biographies, including several works on Abraham Lincoln, which was the subject of her lecture in Superior.
Duluth Herald late-edition special report
Thursday, Jan. 28, 1915
By Joe Crisp, Senior Shipping Reporter
A famed local maritime drinking establishment has shut its doors. This is the ship’s pilot house on the tip of Timber Point in the harbor. For 16 years it has operated as the Pilot House bar. Initially serving a clientele made up exclusively of members of the Great Lakes Life Saving Service, soon it caught on with sailors and dock workers. Older Duluthians recall its origin, as the pilot house of the doomed Marchande which stuck out of the water in the shipping lanes for weeks in 1899. She had sunk by the stern as her cargo shifted, but her nose bobbed up. Using a floating crane, the Life Savers salvaged the pilot house and installed it on Timber Point. There they collectively owned and operated it as a business, until last night.
Because today, as the war in Europe heats up, the 45-year-old Life Saving Service has been officially subsumed into the Revenue Cutter Service. The resulting compound organization forms the newest branch of the armed forces, the United States Coast Guard. The Pilot House is a casualty of new regulations and a wave of retirements. Some old-timer Life Savers don’t wish to adapt, nor to compete against much younger men in basic training, to re-qualify for what will be different jobs. Many jobs are being eliminated. All three of Duluth’s Life Saving stations — at Park Point, Lester River, and Stony Point — have been officially replaced by the single new Coast Guard station in the harbor. The oars and battered wooden surfboats of the Life-Savers have given way to a steel steam-powered Coast Guard cutter, and a modern Life-Saving station complete with radio equipment and a machine shop. Among the sweeping changes are rules prohibiting Coast Guard personnel profiting from salvage. And since all the booze served at the Pilot House was salvaged from local shipwrecks, this effectively puts the bar out of business. Last night was last call.
There isn’t a lot of information online about the Barney B. Barstow of Duluth, featured in this undated postcard published by Gallagher’s Studio of Photography. But there are a few tidbits that suggest the vessel gets its name from a Superior attorney who, according to the June 1969 issue of Maritime Reporter Magazine, was one of eight directors at Fraser Shipyards, serving as secretary.
The stage is set for the “giantest show on snow.” The American Birkebeiner Giant Ski Race on Main Street in Hayward happens tonight.
Photo from Console Room.
Duluthian Gaelynn Lea was recently celebrated as a Guest at Console Room, the Minnesota Doctor Who convention. The music performed was sublime, the programming inflected by music in ways that the convention rarely experiences. All weekend long, I felt her impact on the convention, just as, in Duluth, I regularly feel the impact on our community.
Setting the tone for personal growth through commerce. Now taking applications for 2025 Certified Coach of the Year! This individual will then be certified as Certifiably Certified. As we know, there are levels.
Lyrics in YouTube description.
Take a walk on the wild side with this week’s quiz, which recaps local Valentine’s Day celebrations that had some kind of critter connection.
A month-in-review quiz comes your way on Feb. 23. Please submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at alisonlinnaemoffat @ gmail.com by Feb 20.
The Snively Lounge and four new guest rooms are being added to the 13-room Oliver Inn in Downtown Duluth. (Photos by Mark Nicklawske)
A new lounge featuring antique chandeliers, a forest of ferns and a make-your-own-music stage is part of a hotel expansion project inside a history-filled Downtown Duluth landmark.
The Snively Lounge is expected to open along with four new ground-floor guest rooms at the Oliver Inn, 132 E. Superior St., later this spring. The remodeling project replaces space formerly occupied by Wasabi Duluth, a Japanese restaurant that closed Dec. 31 and consolidated operations in Superior.
This undated postcard, published by Gallagher’s Studio of Photography circa the 1960s, shows the Duluth Harbor from Observation Hill.
The caption on the back reads:
Duluth, Minn.
Vessels from all the world’s ports arrive here after transiting the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Great Lakes.
