Historical Documents of the Vista Fleet
Old adverts for Vista excursion-boat tours of the harbor tell us something about why people would visit Duluth and take the boat tour — to see the ships from around the world. The lake and the city skyline mattered less than the almost cosmopolitan dimensions of the Vista experience. (more…)
Dealing with two-faced Duluthers
Brief History of a Star – Intro
Music by Duluth’s Cory Coffman with visuals by Alyssa Johnson of Blind Spot Creatives.
Postcard from the Spalding Hotel Lounge
This undated postcard shows the stylish design and furnishings in the lounge at Duluth’s Spalding Hotel circa the early 1900s. (more…)
Duluth View Checklist
From the Institute for the Study of Light and Water. There are three main components to your scenic view from Duluth, Minnesota: the sky, the lake, and in between those, whatever Wisconsin is doing. These components have been sorted below into color and texture for your convenience. Using the provided ingredients, you should be able to record and/or recreate any Duluth view. Print out and carry with you. Circle all that apply.
Date/time: __________
Sky Color: Sky blue. Teal. Blueberry. White. Pink. Lavender. Burgundy. Violet. Subdued sunrise/set like a natural gas flame. Blazing sunrise/set like an atomic bomb. Black. Gray. Red. Magenta. Periwinkle. Pastels. Peach. Indigo. Orange. Layer cake of colors.
Sky Texture: Cloudless. Partial cloud cover. Full cloud cover. Full cloud cover allowing sliver of sky at horizon. Fog. Partial fog. Brooding twisty clouds. Washboard/fishbone clouds. Cigar-shaped clouds. Strips of clouds like filets. Pulled cotton clouds. Clouds underlit by sun or city. Towering cloudbanks like Southwestern mesas pregnant with lightning. Two or more unique cloud layers moving independently. Crisscrossing white contrails (gold/pink at sunrise/set). Single contrail (gold/pink at sunrise/set). Aircraft. Laced with birds. Single bird. Gulls making a racket. Gulls in great gyres. Raptor/s. Sheets of rain. Sprinkles. Sun shower. Mists (glowing/not glowing). Rainbow/s. Snow flurry. Blizzardous. Big fat snowflakes practically hovering in the still air. Sleety. Full moon. Middling moon. Sliver of a moon like God’s fingernail clipping. Moonlight coming from somewhere but you’re not sure where. Full of stars. Intermittent stars. Single star. Electrifying auroras. Auroras so faint you’re not sure if it’s a thing, but maybe. Antenna farm. Antenna farm in fog. Antenna farm in deep winter frosted white against blue sky. Layer cake of textures. (more…)
Video Archive: Students return to Grant Elementary in 1983
On Jan. 6, 1983, Grant Elementary School reopened after a six-month, $1.4 million renovation project. WDIO-TV’s Nancy Taggart has the report.
Literary History of Duluth: Lost Hills Books
I’m attempting to piece together the literary history of Duluth. I’ve just learned about Lost Hills Books.
If you know an author with Lost Hills, or know someone who worked with/at the press, please let me know. Email: dbeard @ d.umn.edu
Duluth Antenna Farm
Does anyone have pictures from the early days of the towers at the antenna farm? Pictures from the 1950s to 1960s? I remember years ago seeing pics of the KDAL-TV tower being erected in 1954. The more pics, the better!
Some thoughts about the Globe News transition
Photo from Globe News Facebook page
When I moved to Duluth in 2005, I didn’t visit Superior until I’d lived here for a few weeks. My then-wife lived in Madison and I drove there every other weekend to see her; on the weekends I remained in Duluth, I was a workaholic, trying hard to clear my calendar so I could travel the 5.5 hours each way to visit her.
It was a few weekends in when I finally had “enough time” to cross the bridge. I was so excited to see Globe News. (more…)
Aerial Lift Bridge, Duluth MN
AI illustrator Stable Diffusion from the prompt “Aerial Lift Bridge in Duluth, MN”
Video Archive: Willow River’s Bill Cooper on ‘To Tell the Truth’
“Wild” Bill Cooper, the outlaw snowmobile adventurer from Willow River, was a guest on the CBS television game show To Tell the Truth roughly 50 years ago. (more…)
Perfect Duluth Day’s Best Videos of 2022
A wad of music videos and a pair of oddball documentaries are the foundation of Perfect Duluth Day’s collection of the best videos of 2022. As usual, there’s an aerial video with some pretty scenery in the mix. Kip Praslowicz breaks away from the mold with an arty kickball video and a sort-of cooking show that rolls in chemistry and geometry. But a pair of bozos with a camera in their ice-fishing canopy stole the show in 2022. (more…)
2022: The Year in Duluth Gig Posters
The age-old technique of using images to promote music is as popular as ever. More and more of the artworks, however, exist solely as compressed digital images for use on the internet rather than taking up space in the physical world as actual “posters” taped to restroom walls and thumbtacked to bulletin boards. Either way, they’re all JPEGs on Perfect Duluth Day. (more…)
Postcard from the Rustic Bridge at Lester Park in 1912
This postcard of the Rustic Bridge at Lester Park was mailed on New Year’s Eve of 1912 — 110 years ago today — to Mrs. Frank Larson of Stockholm, Wis. (more…)
Saturday Essay: Select Gems from 2022
We stand on the precipice of a magnificent achievement in the category of literary endurance. Next week Perfect Duluth Day will launch the eighth year of its “Saturday Essay” series by publishing the 300th essay. Did we think when we launched with the first essay in 2016 it would last this long? Of course we did. We like to write; you like to read. Duh.
At the end of each year we briefly rest our typing devices and look back at some of the highlights of the previous year. Last week we focused on the most read essays of 2022. This week we ignore the numbers and look back at a few select essays of similar quality that might have been missed by non-compulsive followers. (more…)
Selective Focus: Clare Cooley
Clare Cooley is a multi-disciplinary artist and teacher whose career has spanned decades and coasts. Cooley emphasizes the healing nature of artistic and creative endeavors, whether that be teaching expressive dance classes, transforming a home into a sanctuary piece by piece, or sharing stories through written or visual art. (more…)
Roundabout wrong for London Road and 60th Avenue East
As part of its repaving and redesign of London Road, the Minnesota Department of Transportation is planning to put a 150-foot diameter roundabout at 60th Avenue East and London Road. The build will take two years, will destroy a two-household historic home, and will take parkland that was granted to the city on condition that it would always be parkland.
It will be accompanied, of course, by many streetlights, because roundabouts are only safe if they are very well lit. (more…)
Dunkley’s Celery Compound
Today, John L. Morrison is best known as the publisher of the muckraking Duluth Rip-Saw from 1918 to 1926, but his period of greatest fame occurred before that, when he was employed by the Duluth Evening Herald. Morrison was well-known regionally as a travel writer and nationally as an authority on the Canadian gold-mining regions. (more…)
Five Duluth music acts to seek out on New Year’s Eve
Music fans react to a performance by New Salty Dog at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center in May during the Homegrown Music Festival. (Photo by Paul Lundgren)
Somehow, 2023 is just a few short days away. What better way to bid farewell to auld lang syne and ring in the new year than with some local music? Whether the goal is to turn in early or dance all night, the Duluth music scene has an array of options. Presented here are just a handful. (more…)
Where in Duluth? #188
This 1870s-era photo of the Lake Superior & Mississippi Railroad has been discussed on PDD before, but today I came across a handsome framed enlargement. Where is it?
Many new Duluth-area restaurants kept it in the family in 2022
Twin Ports food fans gained some favorable new restaurant options in 2022 — from high-end dining to downhome comfort food, tacos and the return of an old classic. (more…)
Miller Hill Mall Perkins leads list of 2022 restaurant closings
The Miller Hill Mall Perkins closed in March after 37 years of service. The national chain still operates at two other Duluth sites. (Photo by Mark Nicklawske)
Restaurants come and go all the time but some seem like they will be around forever. The Miller Hill Mall Perkins is a perfect example. The naugahyde booths, chrome-plated tables, gigantic breakfast menu and sweet pies made each visit feel like the one before — like eating in a time machine that would never end.
But then it did end. (more…)
PDD Shop Talk: Last call for 2022 donations
Perfect Duluth Day will celebrate 20 years of being Duluth’s Duluthiest website on June 29, 2023. At some point this year, we’ll be relaunching the site under a new WordPress theme and hoping we don’t break everything in the process. But before we get further into explaining that, we lead with the standard plug for donations to ensure the whole operation remains solvent.
So if you appreciate the thorough listings of hoopla on the PDD Calendar and/or the features on the PDD Blog, kindly drop a few bucks in the PayPal account. (more…)
Duluth Reimagined: Editing Photos with AI
Previously I posted some AI generated images that could plausibly be of Duluth but it was difficult to create images that were distinctly Duluth. The absurd specificity of Jim Richardson’s interactions with ChatGPT inspired me to try again but with a different process. (more…)