History Posts

Three academic papers on Duluth and the lost Confederate gold

Feb 25, 2023 No Comments

The Hillside Irregulars. Clockwise from lower left: Buckminster Wilde, Fancypants Nettleton, Henri Enragé Cloquet, Babyface Bong

The Stolen Lost Confederate Gold: A Historical Analysis of Duluth, Minnesota’s Development

Abstract: This paper explores the historical claim that Duluth, Minnesota was built using stolen lost Confederate gold. Through a critical analysis of primary and secondary sources, including the research of historian Peter S. Svenson, this paper argues that the city’s development was aided by the illicit acquisition of gold by Union agents during the American Civil War. Specifically, this paper examines the role of Duluth native Buckminster Wilde and the Hillside Irregulars as Union assassins behind enemy lines, as well as the involvement of key figures such as Walt Whitman, the Pinkerton detective agency, and financier Jay Cooke.

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History

Postcards from Sellers Mine, north of Hibbing

Feb 21, 2023 No Comments

The Burt-Poole and Sellers mines were the first to ship iron ore out of Minnesota’s Iron Range in the summer of 1895. In its first five years the Sellers Ore Company shipped 188,000 tons. By 1919 the figure had shot up to 8.9 million tons, according to the 1921 book Duluth and St. Louis County, Minnesota; Their Story and People by Walter Van Brunt.

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Highlights from “The Guys Who Never Stop Fighting”

Feb 19, 2023 No Comments

My comic strip “The Guys Who Never Stop Fighting” originally appeared a few times in the Ripsaw News in my “Crackbrained Comix” series. I revived the GWNSF for the Transistor where it ran for several years. Both publications are now defunct. Here is a gallery of ten highlights.

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A year of a poet laureate

Feb 19, 2023 No Comments

I’ve been working with Bart Sutter to record the history of the poet laureate program in Duluth. Sutter was the first poet laureate, and the only author to win the Minnesota Book Award in three different categories.

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Postcard from Elmgren Motor Court on North Shore Drive

Feb 15, 2023 No Comments

This postcard, published by the Curt Teich Co. of Chicago, shows the Elmgren Motor Court in the tiny hamlet of Clifton, just outside Duluth’s city limits on the North Shore of Lake Superior.

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Oral Histories of Poetry in Duluth

Feb 08, 2023 No Comments

Bart Sutter has shared with me some of his important work as poet laureate. Below is a document from his collection, a partial transcript of a panel he organized. The panel set out to construct an oral history of poetry in Duluth.

I would love more info about the panel or about the clubs and organizations listed therein.

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History

View of Duluth, North Section, 1888

Feb 06, 2023 No Comments


History

Obituary of Peter S. Svenson, Minnesota’s Rogue Historian

Feb 04, 2023 6 Comments

August 23rd 1947-January 24th(?) 2022. The historian Peter Sven Svenson died without heirs sometime last week according to his autopsy. He will be buried in Forest Hills cemetery in Duluth after the spring thaw. Speaking as one of his only friends, I have penned this obituary.

A document hoarder, Svenson was practically the state’s analog back-up brain for decades, and its conscience.

He was a popular history professor at UMD from 1973-2002. However, he tussled with the university over the legitimacy of his sources. Then they disavowed his work altogether when issues arose about his statistical analyses. Under pressure, he took early retirement, but sued the university for defamation. He lost.

Svenson went on to self-publish books, monographs, and articles, but struggled to find a paying audience. His most important work was produced during this period. Being his friend enabled my access to his research and unpublished manuscripts.

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Duluth Incline Magic Lantern Glass Slides from 1893

Feb 01, 2023 2 Comments

Car on the Seventh Ave Incline Duluth Minn. 1893

Images here of the Duluth Incline Railway are from three lantern slides, also known as “magic lanterns.” According to the website of the Magic Lantern Society of U.S. and Canada, the slides generally “consist of two sheets of glass, one of which has the image on one side of it and the other which covers the image, and bound all around by a black paper tape.”

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History

The Story of Grace

Jan 31, 2023 No Comments

Austin McConnell delves into the backstory of Grace, the official state photograph of Minnesota. Photographer Eric Enstrom shot the image in 1918 at his home in Bovey, about 60 miles northwest of Duluth.


Art, History

List of Duluth Authors from Duluth Public Library Vertical File

Jan 30, 2023 1 Comment

It used to be, a library committed to local information had to keep it in a “clippings file” or “vertical file.” The local history room at the Duluth Public Library still has one and has a master entry on clippings about authors from/in Duluth.

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Ripped at Molly’s in 2003

Jan 28, 2023 No Comments

[Editor’s note: For this week’s essay we’ve once again pulled out a relic from the archive of Slim Goodbuzz, who served as Duluth’s “booze connoisseur” from 1999 to 2009. One of Slim’s favorite old stops was Molly’s Tavern in Superior, which had a sign outside promising “dancing & sandwiches,” neither of which could be found inside. The bar closed in 2005 and later became Tower Avenue Tavern. Twenty years ago the Sultan of Sot paid a visit to Molly’s and wrote the article below for the Jan. 22, 2003 issue of the Ripsaw newspaper.]

Whenever I find myself at Molly’s, I’m usually there to “finish up.” Usually, it’s late, I’m half in the bag and I have little interest in anything other than the square foot of bar top directly in front of me — the magical zone in which I lay down money and it miraculously turns into booze. But tonight Sean the Locksmith and I end up at Molly’s relatively early in evening. And I’ll be damned if Molly’s isn’t a pretty sweet place.

This doesn’t really surprise me. I’ve heard many tales of the coolness of this bar: the cheap booze, the weird and amazing antiques scattered about, the mother of Darryl Hall’s child pouring drinks. But maybe it’s to its credit that I’ve never really analyzed it. I go to Molly’s because I want to drink undisturbed. The appreciation of the bar among homosexuals and its seedy location at the very end of Tower Avenue help to keep away most of the local dillweeds.

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Ladies’ Literature Class of Duluth

Jan 24, 2023 2 Comments

The Duluth Ladies’ Literature Class leaves few electronic traces outside the local collection at the Duluth Public Library.

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History

Cut- and Burned-over Timber Land near Duluth

Jan 23, 2023 No Comments

This image is from a stereograph published circa the early 20th century by the Keystone View Company of Meadville, Pa.

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Lester Park Literary Club

Jan 22, 2023 No Comments

In visiting the new local history librarian at the Duluth Public Library, I am uncovering even more gems about the history of writing and literature in Duluth.

One of those gems is the Lester Park Literary Club.

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