Paul Lundgren Posts

Mystery Photo #94: Postcard of Bizarro Duluth

So … what we’ve got here is … um … an image that seems completely unrelated to Duluth, labeled upside down as Duluth. Can anyone speculate on what the folks at V.O. Hammon Publishing Company were thinking? What is this image actually depicting?

While it’s not technically a photo, it needs to be categorized as a PDD Mystery Photo nonetheless.

Postcards from Duluth’s Shipping Canal

There are a bazillion postcards of the Aerial Lift Bridge and various ships, but in this post the aim is to steer attention more to the shipping canal.

Gallery of Defunct Duluth Music ’Zines

As a companion to Perfect Duluth Day’s “Gallery of Defunct Duluth Literary and Arts ’Zines” we now present the local underground music news publications that once spread the gospel of local rawk and/or roll.

Trampled by Turtles – “Duluth”

The fourth studio album from Duluth band Trampled by Turtles featured this title track. Duluth was released on Oct. 30, 2008.

TBT plays Bayfront Park in Duluth on July 6.

Mystery Photo #93: A Hard Day

With some Mystery Photos, we know a lot going in. With this one, we know very little. Who is this little girl and why was this photo shot on such a hard day?

Dickson’s Lake Park Tourist Home

Dickson’s Lake Park Tourist Home is listed in Duluth city directories from 1951 to 1967 and Frank G. Dickson is listed as a resident going back at least to 1930.

The address was 1127 London Road, today the location of a vacant lot across the street from the Leif Erikson statue near the Rose Garden.

Spalding Hotel circa 1908

This photo from Detroit Publishing Company shows Duluth’s Spalding Hotel at 428 W. Superior St. The elegant 200-room hotel opened on June 6, 1889 and was demolished on Sept. 25, 1963.

Postcards from Universal Atlas Cement Company

The postcard above was published by Arrowhead Trading Post of Duluth. It depicts part of the U.S. Steel Duluth Works campus, with Universal Atlas Cement Company in the foreground.

Duluth Book Releases in 2019

Grasshopper Girl
Written by Teresa Peterson
llustrated by Jordan Rodgers
Black Bears and Blueberries Publishing

Rez Dog
Story by Heather Brink
Illustrations by Jordan Rodgers
Black Bears and Blueberries Publishing
(March)

Movin’ On: Using Moments of Challenge as a Springboard to Becoming More
Rod Raymond
Ramjet Events
(March 6)
Available at rodraymond.com

Dividing Duluth: The Abandoned Car Test

I’ve lived in West Duluth for the vast majority of my life. The most significant exceptions are the year I lived in the Endion neighborhood near the Duluth Armory and the three-and-a-half years I lived in the Central Hillside at Washington Studios Artist Cooperative.

Though my experiences are largely seen through western Duluth eyes, I like to think of myself as a somewhat impartial observer. I bleed the maroon and gold of a Denfeld Hunter, but I have empathy for Trojans, Cakes, Hilltoppers and those funny little home-schoolers and international magnet arsty-fartsies or whatever they are. We’re all Duluthians, Americans and humans. But we’re also part of many tribes, and our neighborhoods can define us in ways we don’t often think about.

Around the time I graduated from high school, a popular pastime among my friends was to pile into a car and simply drive around with no purpose. We were young, full of enthusiasm, and generally unfamiliar with the world outside of West Duluth. Simply driving east of Lake Avenue at that time seemed like a minor adventure, and if we were creative or lucky enough we could turn it into a significant adventure. At the time, the young women of Duluth had very different hairstyles on each side of town, so there was a visible sense of exploring a new culture in just an eight-minute drive.

The Times of Lincoln Park Junior High School 1969

As another school year ends, Perfect Duluth Day once again looks back through the pages of an old Duluth school yearbook. In this edition we present a gallery of select images from the 1969 edition of The Times, the Lincoln Park Junior High School annual.

Monthly Grovel: June 2019 Edition

(Enter the amount of your choice.)

In the past year — from June 2018 through May 2019 — the PDD Calendar published 8,016 Duluth-area events. Each one was edited by a human being before the “publish” button was pushed. We intend to keep up the good work, but (believe it or not) we could do better. There are still events we are missing. And we have a few assistants standing by who jump into action when donations roll in to pay for their future carpal tunnel surgeries.

So that’s why once a month we set our dignity aside and remind readers how much we appreciate their financial support.

How we do things at Duluth, Minn.

It’s difficult to make out the line of red text at the top of this old postcard, but it reads: “How we do things at Duluth, Minn.” Apparently “how we do things” is we doctor images to make raspberries appear to be the size of pineapples.

The undated postcard is credited to “Johnson, Photographer, Waupun, Wis.”

Postcard from First Presbyterian Church of Duluth

First Presbyterian Church established its congregation 150 years ago today — June 1, 1869. It’s magnificent sandstone structure at 300 E. Second St. was built from 1890 to 1891. The image above is from an undated postcard published by Duluth photographer Robert B. Barrett.

KUMD station manager position still in limbo

Maija Jenson

When Maija Jenson transitions out of her role as interim station manager at KUMD in August it will mark the end of an era that started in 2008 when she was one of three major hires there. What the next era holds will likely be decided in the coming months.

The 62-year-old public radio station at 103.3 FM, operated by the University of Minnesota Duluth, is expected to learn soon whether the college will seek to hire a new general manager to guide it. Whether it does or doesn’t, KUMD will likely continue with its usual programming, but not hiring a new GM leaves its leadership in question and might put grant funding at risk.

“We have not made any final decisions yet,” UMD Marketing and Public Relations Director Lynne Williams said in a statement today. Williams is the university’s administrator of KUMD and reports to UMD Chancellor Lendley Black.