I was trying to find an old photograph last week and I did not find what I was looking for but I did find something that only a history nerd, Duluth loving, public space adoring, Lake Superior worshiping kid like me would appreciate. So naturally I am posting images here as best I can.

Several images after the jump, so you might not want to try this over dial up or on your smartphone, and if anyone knows how to ge the full image in a downloadable PDF or another handier document type, knock yourself out. I’d love that.

What I found was a fancy brochure proposing big changes and developments to Duluth’s waterfront/canal park area. I know that it was in the Fedo administration, and that it was after 1984 and it couldn’t have been as late as 1987. Or could it have been? If you know the year (bonus if you could say the month) I would love to hear theories. Hopefully you will be able to read some of the panels which I have scanned and placed in order. Please note that the brochure was huge. 4 pages on 11 x 17 paper. My scanner is legal size, maybe a bit bigger so hence the patchwork.

This could also be filed under the “what if” category because some things proposed flopped (a certain omni theater that did come to fruition but that closed a few weeks ago) and some have thrived (the William A Irvin which, a billboard just told me, is celebrating 25 years as a top tourist attraction this summer). Others never came to fruition, such as a fascinating concept for a covered public market. And one idea that I guess was always there but didn’t really catch on until the last few years are the mooring locations for tall ships on the DECC Harbor side. And some things I thank my lucky stars never came to pass, such as a multi-level parking ramp between Dewitt-Seitz and Grandma’s Restaurant, complete with SKYWALK connections to the “arena.”

Note: Some of the images can be enlarged by clicking the image and they will open on your desktop (and warning they are huge, too) others you might have luck downloading to your desktop and enlarging to a readable size there.