This undated postcard, published by E.C. Kropp Company, depicts a sailboat race on Duluth’s waterfront with the Duluth Boat Club in the background. This version of the club building was on the bay side of Minnesota Point at South Tenth Street. It was built in 1903 and destroyed by fire in 1951.
In the 1800s, elevator doors were often left open to chance. The last person to use those doors might remember to close them. Or they might not. Then a real estate developer in Duluth invented automatic elevator doors and made the whole world a safer place to elevate. But that was just another day in the incredible life of the richest black man in the Midwest, Alexander Miles.
Minnesota Historia is a PBS North web series dedicated to Minnesota’s quirky past. It is hosted by Hailey Eidenschink and produced/edited/written by Mike Scholtz.
Boase Elementary School in Hoyt Lakes, about 40 miles north of Duluth, was built in 1956 and has been abandoned since the last classes were held there in 2002. In the video above, Duluth Urbex explores the building’s crumbling classrooms.
The Soldiers and Sailors Monument. (Photo by Matthew James)
A few weeks ago a postcard of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument appeared on Perfect Duluth Day that included the text “by the noted sculptor Paul W. Bartlett of Paris.” That didn’t seem like a particularly French name to me so I decided to see if he was actually a noted sculptor and actually from Paris. Both counts proved accurate.
Bartlett was from Connecticut, but grew up in France and spent a considerable amount of time in Paris. But Bartlett only designed the statue in front of the monument. The architect Cass Gilbert designed the base that supports the flagpole. And both of these people gained considerable attention during their respective careers. Their most prominent works are within a few minutes walk of each other in Washington D.C. And when I learned this, I was attending a conference in Washington D.C., so I paid a visit to those works.
I met a new local author in the wild over the weekend at Gabriel’s Book Store in Lakeside. Riley Grace Brett volunteers there; she has also released a new novel.
The first Caribou Coffee in Edina, Minnesota, now closed. (Photo by Bobak Ha’Eri, 2011 CC-By-SA-3.0)
The first Caribou Coffee opened in Edina, Minnesota, in 1992. Last December, it closed. But there are still plenty of other Caribou Coffee locations to visit. Geoguessr Challenge #12 examines some of these other locations in three separate games. The first draws from the 302 remaining Caribou Coffees in Minnesota, selecting five locations in northern Minnesota (defined as any place at or above Highway 2).
As Duluth mourns the loss of Ben Larson, aka Burly Burlesque of the bands Crew Jones and Southwire, we point to a nearly 20-year-old Minnesota Public Radio piece that introduced listeners to the hot new “north woods rap” group. The segment was produced by Chris Julin and features Chris Godsey interviewing Crew Jones.
Rest in peace Burly Burlesque, aka Ben Larson, one of Duluth’s best vocalists, lyricists and performers. According to the comments on the Facebook post which broke the news, he died in his sleep. He was newly a father, and a Go Fund Me has been set up to help support his family during this terrible time.
Burly and I weren’t friends but there was a time when we were friendly and familiar in the arts and music scene. I remember seeing him perform for the first time circa 2003. He comprised one-third of the band Crew Jones, and when they hopped up on stage at Pizza Lucé I was like, “Who are these weirdos?” But then they showed me and everybody. Their album Who’s Beach dropped around then; everyone I know from those days speaks of it in reverent tones as a work of genius. A firehose of creativity, the band (Burly, Ray the Wolf, and Mic Trout) all brought their A-game. Their live performances did no less. The album became a must-have and their shows were a must-see. No one could believe these white dudes rapping about life in northern Minnesota could be so legit but there you have it. Like all of the band’s lyrics, Burly’s writing was something great; he was also a master freestyler with an outsized stage presence.
The new video from Breanne Marie & the Front Porch Sinners is the band’s submission to National Public Radio’s Tiny Desk Contest for 2024. The video was recorded live by Ben Anderson at Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum.
The song is from the band’s 2021 album Juniper. A new record is in the works for a planned release later this year.
Hello from a former Catholic who misses life in Milwaukee, where Pączki Day was a thing. Ash Wednesday was a day when you could walk the streets and see your tribe, and Duluth seems to have none of that. Maybe I walk the wrong streets.
Actor Daniel Durant, the Duluth native who starred in the Academy Award-winning movie CODA, performed the national anthem in American sign language at the Super Bowl on Sunday. But the telecast showed only Durant’s introduction before focusing on singer Reba McEntire.
The video above, via the YouTube channel of the Sign Language Studies program at Southwestern Illinois College, shows Durant’s full performance.
According to local legend, a train derailed in Pine City in the 1800s. It plummeted down a steep embankment into the impossibly deep Devil’s Lake, where it disappeared forever. There is no evidence this ever happened, but that hasn’t stopped people from looking for the train. How does a legend like this persist? And grow? And add circus animals for some reason?
Minnesota Historia is a PBS North web series dedicated to Minnesota’s quirky past. It is hosted by Hailey Eidenschink and produced/edited/written by Mike Scholtz.
Apostle Island Ice Caves, 2014, photo by Chris Plys
There is still time for the winter of 2023/24 to show its stuff. For now, all we have is the past.
Destination Duluth, a nonprofit that shares images and stories on social media in an effort to promote the city and region, recently declared “We want winter back!” A group of photographers have contributed photos from “when we had real winters,” posted with the hashtag whenwinterwas.
This WDSE-TV Almanac North online-only segment profiles EmbalmingEva ahead of its Valentine’s Day show with Superior Siren at Sacred Heart Music Center.
Almanac North is a weekly public affairs program on PBS North that provides in-depth conversations around issues and events that affect the region.
