This photo of Downtown Duluth, found on the French-language edition of Wikipedia, is dated Sept. 1, 1964. It shows East Superior Street from Lake Avenue looking northeast with the Hotel Duluth at center frame. Note the NorShor Theatre still had its tower marquee, which was dismantled in 1967.
This postcard, published by the Duluth Photo Engraving Company, was mailed 100 years ago today — Aug. 30, 1924. It shows the Great Northern Power Company Dam, now known as the Thomson Dam and operated by Minnesota Power.
Another thrift store find: I would love it if anyone with stories about this book, about its poetry or the art or the press, would post below or email dbeard @ d.umn.edu.
I’m still slowly writing the literary history of Duluth and would love if anyone with stories of Savage Press would post below or email me at dbeard @ d.umn.edu.
A recent push to place a memorial to the Edmund Fitzgerald on Barker’s Island got me thinking about the local oft-forgotten wreck of the Thomas Wilson. My 1995 edition of the book Shipwrecks of Lake Superior (edited by James R. Marshall) calls the Wilson “Duluth’s doorstep shipwreck.” The author of the Wilson chapter is legendary local scuba diver Paul von Goertz, who says on page 75 that “The Thomas Wilson ‘sails the bottom’ less than a mile from the ship canal.” A 308-foot whaleback steamer loaded with ore, the Wilson got T-boned in 1902 and sank within three minutes.
What bothers me about the wreck is that it may hold the remains of seven crew members:
“Of the 20 men that comprised the Wilson’s crew, nine were lost. Only two of the nine bodies were recovered. The remaining seven are entombed to this day in the hull of the Wilson … [the wreck] remains in pretty good shape …. To the best of my knowledge, entry has not been gained into the turret housing the boiler room. A safe guess would be that the men entombed in the wreck might be found in the boiler room, as this was the compartment nearest the actual point of collision. The preservation qualities of ice cold Lake Superior have protected the old wreck well … On one dive, I examined some wooden planking near the stern. The wood was not in the least rotted and even the putty in the seams was intact … One could safely speculate that the cold water would also preserve the remains of the seven sailors entombed in her belly.” (Lake Superior Shipwrecks, pp. 76-77)
This undated postcard, published by Zenith Interstate News Company, shows coal docks in the Duluth Harbor. There is no caption on the back identifying the name of the docks, and the image is an illustration that might not exactly depict reality, but it is likely meant to represent the Clarkson Coal & Dock Company.
A gas station on the Fond du Lac Reservation (Photo by Matthew James)
In 2019, the University of Minnesota Duluth became the first in the University of Minnesota system to adopt a land acknowledgment, a formal statement recognizing that UMD “is located on the traditional, ancestral, and contemporary lands of Indigenous people.” The land acknowledgement references the 1854 treaty in which representatives of the Anishinaabe ceded some of their land to settlement (while retaining certain rights on that land) and came to an agreement about which areas would be governed under tribal sovereignty. This Geoguessr challenge briefly examines the significance of the 1854 treaty and includes significant sites from reservations throughout Northern Minnesota.
WCCO-TV‘s John Lauritsen examines the rise and fall of Taconite Harbor in Cook County.
Split Rock Lighthouse‘s 114th anniversary was celebrated on July 26 with special tours and a lighting of the beacon. The annual anniversary event commemorates the first lighting of the lighthouse’s beacon, which took place on July 31, 1910.
In its series The Slice, PBS North presents short “slices of life” that capture the events and experiences that bring people together and speak to what it means to live up north.
A monument to the battle at the Castle of Seneffe. (Photo by Matthew James)
Three hundred and fifty years ago, Daniel Greysolon Sieur du Luth first met Father Louis Hennepin in the aftermath of the Battle of Seneffe. While this battle is often listed as a footnote in the history of French colonialism in Minnesota, it was one of the most significant battles of the Franco-Dutch War. On Aug. 11, 1674, French troops fought in southern Belgium against an allied army of Dutch, German and Spanish soldiers. The battle shaped European history and the meeting of Du Luth and Hennepin at the site of that battle led to a story that, while almost certainly false, endures as one the foundational tales of Minnesota history.
The Duluth street photography of D. M. Martin recently became available on YouTube in slideshow format. The images were shot between 1968 and 1972, and have appeared in several art shows in recent decades, including two in Duluth: Chasing Cartier-Bresson: Duluth, Superior & Minneapolis 1968-1972, at the Tweed Museum of Art in 2000, and D. R. Martin: Duluth Street Photographer at the Red Herring Lounge in 2016.
From G. E. Sackett’s Owl Studio at 6 E. Superior St. in Duluth circa 1915 comes this photo of two unknown men.
The city center of Groningen, The Netherlands, not to be confused with Groningen Township, 70 miles south of Duluth (Photo by Matthew James)
There’s a lot of Minnesota history to be found in the names on a map. Some places, like Iron Junction, reflect the industry that created the town. Many names come from Anishinaabemowin, like Mahnomen, derived from manoomin, meaning wild rice. And some city names both reflect their primary industry and come from Anishinaabemowin, like Biwabik, which comes from the Ojibwe word for iron. This Geoguessr challenge looks specifically at places in Minnesota that took their names from locations from around the world.
It’s been 40 years since Wildrose, a feature film shot on Minnesota’s Iron Range, premiered in theaters. The full movie is available to stream in the video section of the Russian social media website Odnoklassniki, or ok.ru, and is embedded above.
This postcard, circa perhaps 1910, shows the western side of Downtown Duluth and the city’s hillside, with the caption “$5,000,000 Water Power.” Though the card doesn’t make it clear what that means, the logical guess is it refers to Duluth’s investment in hydraulic power at the start of the 20th century.
