Soaring with Pelicans on the St. Louis River
Adam Jagunich’s drone soars with the pelicans in this video shot in the Chamber’s Grove Park area of Duluth’s Fond du Lac neighborhood.
Adam Jagunich’s drone soars with the pelicans in this video shot in the Chamber’s Grove Park area of Duluth’s Fond du Lac neighborhood.
“April is a great time to sit and watch the incredible courtship displays of ducks,” writes Sparky Stensaas on the YouTube description for this recently posted video with footage shot in 2011. The segments show the wooing antics of common mergansers, common goldeneyes, bufflehead and hooded mergansers.
“Here in northern Minnesota, the ice is just going out on the lakes and early returning male ducks are trying to impress the ladies,” notes Stensaas.
This undated postcard depicts a replica of the American Fur Company trading post at Fond du Lac, which opened in 1935 at Chambers Grove Park in Duluth’s Fond du Lac neighborhood and was demolished in the late 1960s.
The original fur post operated from 1817 to 1847 at the present-day site of Historical Park, just a bit downstream from Chambers Grove Park along the St. Louis River.
I’ve been a bit obsessed with planning human-powered multisport adventures in Northeastern Minnesota. Even within Duluth city limits, the options for loops are nearly endless. I was curious if anyone else out there had done similar trips in the past. Then I thought about how cool it would be to have a documentation of many routes for others to explore, want to replicate, or spur their creativity for a new route/loop. And Duluth Adventures was born!
Check out duluthadventures.com. This website pretty much hinges on other people’s submissions so I strongly encourage anyone to navigate to the “submit” button and send in their own routes.
A draft version of the 2019 St. Louis River Area of Concern Remedial Action Plan is available on the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resource’s website. Public comments are being accepted through 4:30 p.m. on Jan. 21.
Last spring, a friend texted a picture of a plywood shanty boat to my husband, Jason. A tiny craft, its 13 feet sat trailered on a Superior side street. And at 5-feet wide, it gave off a garage-built, “I made this myself!” feel with outlandish colors and faux iron scrollwork screwed into the side. It also had balloons and a “For Sale” sign.
Squinting into my cell phone, I said, “That’s ridiculous!” Another friend, looking over my shoulder, suggested it looked like a floating puppet show. I laughed, I mean, it was meant as a joke — all of it.
That text was a response to a conversation with other middle-aged parents. Around a bonfire, we gave bold lip service to the idea of living on the water. Late into the evening, we chatted about houseboats and travel — big talk from people made of obligation, staked to mortgages and children and pets. Then, as the embers died down, we wiped the counters, fed the cat and went to bed. There would be work tomorrow because … there is always work tomorrow.
This card is postmarked May 3, 1909 — 110 years ago today. Edis Johnson sent it from Duluth to Mr. H.T. West of Toronto, Canada.
Matt Porter and friends laced up and skated on the Duluth Harbor back in mid December for this video.
Brent Eliason of Ease Drones shot this aerial video last week along the St. Louis River between Thomson Dam and Mont du Lac Resort.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Steel Corp. announced an agreement yesterday to undertake a $75 million cleanup and restoration project at the former Duluth Works site on the St. Louis River at Spirit Lake in Duluth. This is part of a larger effort to restore the St. Louis River Area of Concern through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.
Minnesota Nice Imaging of Bloomington captured these images following last week’s flooding in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin.
“The rivers were RAGING!” the video description on Vimeo notes. “It was so loud, you couldn’t hear the drones 10 feet away from you. What amazing sights to behold though — the St. Louis River and Thompson Reservoir were busting at the banks to the point that even the large inlet to Lake Superior was flooding, and creating some amazing rapids!”
The nine-page Lower Spirit Mountain Riverfront Park Site Plan was presented to the Duluth Parks Commission on Jan. 10 and the city’s Parks and Recreation Division is seeking public comment on it until Jan. 31. A final draft of the plan will be presented and voted on at the Feb. 14 Parks Commission meeting.
The site sits below the BNSF Railroad, opposite Tallus Island in Duluth’s Riverside neighborhood, and has approximately 1,500 ft. of shoreline to the St. Louis River.
This weekend (tentatively) the Lake Superior & Mississippi Railroad begins its 37th season of running 90-minute tours along the St. Louis River. This historical documentary was produced in 1983.
