Kingsbury Bay and Grassy Point Habitat Restoration Project
There’s good news for people who like to geek out with lengthy environmental assessment worksheets and pages upon pages of support documents. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is accepting public comments through April 18 on the EAW for the Kingsbury Bay and Grassy Point Habitat Restoration Project in West Duluth.
The graphic above is an interesting nugget from the documents. It shows aerial views of the Kingsbury Bay area, where Kingsbury Creek enters the St. Louis River estuary near Indian Point Campground. The 1948 version shows a wide open beach; the modern view shows a marshy swamp filled with invasive narrow-leaved cattails. (more…)
Postcard from Goldfine’s Bridge Room
This postcard from Gallagher’s Studio of Photography shows the Bridge Room at Goldfine’s by the Bridge, one of the nation’s first discount stores. It opened in 1962 at 700 Garfield Ave. Today the building is home to the Goodwill Duluth store. (more…)
Video: Duluth State of the City Address 2018
For those who missed it last week or want to relive it this week, Duluth Mayor Emily Larson’s Ides of March State of the City Address from the NorShor Theater is now available in a 40-minute video.
Aces on First under new ownership
Cade Grover – Photo by Lissa Maki
Customers may have noticed a few changes at Aces on First. Two seasoned Duluth mixologists have taken over the popular downtown drinking establishment and dance club at 113 W. First St. (more…)
Rural Duluth man kills wolf with hammer, city very happy
The above clipping is from The Times of San Mateo, Calif., Jan. 2, 1956. (more…)
Mystery Photo: Diamonds are Forever … Except in Duluth!
This old photo seems to show striking workers at the Diamond Tool and Horseshoe Company in West Duluth. Or are the workers protesting the closing of the plant? What year was the photo taken? Who is the guy in the foreground crossing the street? There are plenty of questions to be answered in this Perfect Duluth Day Mystery Photo. (more…)
Better Late Than Never
When my wife reads this she’s gonna kill me dead. You see, we’re not into public displays of affection. A peck on the lips at the airport is about the extent of it, and to say we’re understated would be an understatement. But I’ll tell you this straight away, as I often tell my wife: I like her more than a medium amount.
In middle-age I became a novice married man, and we found our balance on the scales of wedded bliss, with my wife being smart on the one hand, and I, on the other, able to lift heavy things. With she being cute, and I able to lift heavy things. With she having miraculous powers to actually consider the future and I, in the moment, lifting.
Fifteen years later we refer to the present as “the good old days,” and I’m still rounding the learning curve of coupledom. We continue to expand our glossary of secret terms and their acronyms, a code uncrackable by the NSA. An abrupt maneuver while driving, most often a U-turn, is known as a “Hang On Deary” or “H.O.D.” Dusk in winter is the “Blue Snow Hour.” Friends of our neighbor have become the biblical “Tribe of Dan,” and our cats have more nicknames than the Gambino family. (more…)
Selective Focus: Ingeborg von Agassiz
Ingeborg von Agassiz is a multimedia artist who writes and performs music, paints and draws, creates videos and also teaches music. She just released her album “O Giver of Dreams” and hosted a combination release show / art show at the Red Herring. Her art will be up into the month of April at the Herring. In December, she and her students worked with PDD on a video for “Oh, the Hillside,” a song from the new album. Her music embraces technology with looping vocals, synths and effects, while her paintings are distinctly handmade with bold lines, shapes and strokes.
IVA: I work as both a musician and visual artist. I’ve shared my visual art publicly under another name for over a decade and once I launched my musician project as Ingeborg von Agassiz, I decided to use that name for all the art that I make. I make acrylic paintings on canvas and also pen & marker drawings on paper. And sometimes I use watercolors and also typewriter text on paper. I’ve created a couple of zines with drawings, doodles, essays, song lyrics. (more…)
Superior native reviews “Girl From the North Country”
“Girl From the North Country,” the musical play that features the song catalog of Duluth/Hibbing native Bob Dylan, will close its second run at the Old Vic Theatre in London’s West End on March 24. Superior native Cassandra Csencsitz has published a review in the latest “Critic’s Notebook” on the American Theatre website: ‘Girl From the North Country’: How Does It Feel?
Bent Paddle’s new taproom will open April 12
Bent Paddle will transition from its old taproom at its brewing facility to a new one across the avenue during the month of April. The new space, located in the former Enger & Olson Furniture store building at 1832 W. Michigan St., has been under construction since November. (more…)
Way up North, Gay up North
Duluth newscasters Dan Hanger and Edward Moody share their stories of being gay news anchors in Lavender magazine.
Duluth Trivia Deck Sampler #9
Below are more questions from a Duluth Trivia Deck I found at Savers.
1. True or false? The fires of 1918 destroyed the Northland Country Club, the Homecroft and Cobb Schools, the Alger-Smith Lumber Yards and approaches to the Interstate Bridge.
2. In what sport did Walter Hoover excel?
3. True of false? The Viking Explorer, the replica of the ship sailed by Leif Erickson, has never sailed.
4. Who planned the Duluth Civic Center?
5. Who dedicated Enger Tower?
6. For how many years was Samuel Frisbee Snively mayor of Duluth?
7. Why was the Hotel Duluth’s Black Bear Lounge so named?
8. What recent year will be the year remembered at the year bears invaded Duluth?
9. What leading proponent of prohibition lectured in Duluth in 1910?
10. What suffragette spoke in Duluth in 1889?
11. What was the title of Nixon’s address in Duluth?
(more…)
Ursa Minor Brewing will stress variety, quality
The Ursa Minor Brewery team includes, from left, General Manager Andrew Scrignoli, Head Brewer Mark Hugus and Chief of Operations Ben Hugus. The brewery plans to hire 10 employees.
The newest brewery in Lincoln Park will feature a patio, a pizza oven and a plan to create adventurous, small-batch beer in a former cracker factory.
Ursa Minor Brewing announced this week it will open a five-barrel brewing operation, tap room and offices at 2415 W. Superior St. Brothers and co-founders Ben and Mark Hugus said they hope to begin serving thirsty customers by mid-summer. (more…)
Canning is underway at Earth Rider Brewery
Earth Rider Brewery announced today that 12 oz. cans of its beer will be available at retail outlets beginning Thursday. Until now Earth Rider beer has been exclusively available in crowlers (32 oz. cans) from the Cedar Lounge taproom and on draft at local restaurants and taverns.
Cans will be available in the Twin Ports initially and expand this summer to include the South Shore to Ashland, North Shore to Two Harbors and other points within the Lake Superior watershed.
Four Earth Rider flagship styles will be put into cans initially: Superior Pale Ale, North Tower Stout, Precious Material Helles and Caribou Lake IPA.
Exploring Duluth and the North Shore
Roel Wamelink, a videographer from the Netherlands, put together this short video of his recent visit to Lake Superior’s North Shore. (more…)
My head hurts
The days after Springing Ahead are always strange. But things were even stranger back in the 1960s when Duluth led a charge to match Wisconsin on the dates to change clocks. Mass confusion in Minnesota ensued, and even St. Paul and Minneapolis were at one time an hour apart in official times. (more…)
Snowshoeing in Mahtowa
I went snowshoeing in Mahtowa this weekend.
Snowshoes are a gentle miracle of physics. At first it’s disconcerting to walk alongside a tree or a shrub more than a foot above the ground. I’m not supposed to be up here, and my poles are proof of this, as they press deep into the snow to bite the frozen earth. (more…)
Ursa Minor Brewing plans summer opening in Duluth
Duluth’s West End neighborhood will soon be home to three breweries. Ursa Minor Brewing expects to open this summer, joining Lake Superior Brewing Company and Bent Paddle Brewing in the burgeoning Lincoln Park Craft District.
The founders of the new brewery are brothers Ben and Mark Hugus. (more…)
Postcard from the Old Light House on Minnesota Point
The historic crumbling lighthouse on Minnesota Point has been historic and crumbling for a long time. This postcard was mailed July 12, 1912. The Duluth Preservation Alliance listed the lighthouse as #7 on it’s list of “Duluth’s Ten Most Endangered Properties in 2017.” (more…)
Twisted Pastries Coffeehouse opens March 12
Annette Jacobson – Photo by Lissa Maki
A new business will bring caffeination, pressed sandwiches and unique sweet treats to Superior. Twisted Pastries Coffeehouse, at 1418 Tower Avenue, opens Monday. (more…)
PDD Quiz: Wild Weather
“If you don’t like the weather in Duluth, wait five minutes.”
“The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in Duluth.”
Even if we’ve exhausted every other topic of conversation, we always have the weather to fall back on. Weather in the Northland can be extreme, but how familiar are you with those extremes? Test your meteorological mettle with this week’s quiz!
The next PDD Quiz, reviewing March 2018 happenings, will be published on March 25. Email question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by March 22. (more…)