PDD Geoguessr #27: Duluth’s Former Telephone Exchanges

Matthew James Oct 06, 2024 No Comments

Photo of the Hemlock Exchange in 1920 by Hugh McKenzie. (Photo from the Northeast Minnesota Collections of the Kathryn A. Martin Library)

A year after Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, George W. Coy set up the first telephone exchange. Making a call to a specific phone required plugging the right cord into the right socket, and that required a person working out of an exchange building. Photos from the Minnesota Digital Library show the Duluth neighborhood exchanges that were operated by the Northwestern Bell Telephone Company in 1920. This post discusses the role of telephone exchanges as a source of employment for women in Duluth with a Geoguessr challenge that reveals what those telephone exchanges look like now.

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History

Thoughts on Caesarean Section

David Beard Oct 05, 2024 No Comments

Until recently, my vision of childbirth was driven by television. Situation comedies taught me to imagine a woman reclined in a bed. The husband stands slightly behind her and to the left, holding her hand, which is squeezed every time the birthing mom hears “push!” from the doctor.

Nearly every part of that picture was fabricated for television.

I have only recently come to understand that, while we imagine the mother or birthing person to be the center of the picture of birth in the United States, in fact, she is sometimes pushed to the side while the doctor takes over.

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Random

Mary Bue – “Right Now”

PDDTV Oct 03, 2024 No Comments

Mary Bue frolics her way across Minnesota in her new music video “Right Now.” The track is from her ninth album, The Wildness of Living and Dying, due out in early 2025. The video was directed by Jon Herchert of Deck Night Productions.


Music, Videos

Envisioning Threats to Great Lakes Shorelines

Jim Richardson (aka Lake Superior Aquaman) Oct 02, 2024 No Comments

Duluth features prominently in this segment from the latest episode of Great Lakes Now, a monthly program focused on developments affecting the lakes. The show is produced by Detroit PBS in partnership with a network of PBS affiliates around the region.


Videos ,

Inside the Leif Erikson Park Amphitheater

PDDTV Oct 01, 2024 No Comments

The latest video from Duluth Urbex explores the space under the stage at Leif Erikson Park‘s outdoor amphitheater. The structure, completed in 1928, was designed by Abraham Holstead and William Sullivan.


Videos ,

Illustrating Hunger and Homelessness: Chelsea Froemke

David Beard Oct 01, 2024 No Comments

Art by Nelle Rhicard at reframeideas.com.

Food insecurity, housing insecurity, poverty and social justice are intertwined, a knot of problems facing our community. Thirteen percent of Duluthians face food insecurity, and more than 54% of renter-households are rent burdened. Often these difficult social problems are addressed by nonprofit organizations that run food pantries or housing shelters. They build affordable housing and support people living on the street. While these workers are heroes, they are also human, and their stories are also intertwined with larger issues like poverty and social justice. These frontline workers are also often former college students who enter the job market with the consequential task of supporting those who others have left behind.

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Random

Superior Porchfest 2024 Recap Video

PDDTV Sep 30, 2024 No Comments

The 2024 season of Superior Porchfest concluded on Sept. 5. The event is a free, family-friendly music and art series in which attendees can bring a blanket or lawn chair, pack a picnic and/or simply stop by to enjoy the show. The performances are typically held either on a residential porch or at a city park.


Music, Videos

PDD Quiz: September 2024

Alison Moffat Sep 29, 2024 No Comments

Another month is in the books: how much of it do you remember? Check your memories of September 2024 headlines with this week’s quiz!

A Halloween-y PDD quiz comes your way on Oct. 13. Please submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by Oct. 10.

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News and Current Affairs

Mystery Photo: Zweifel Studio Composite Print

Paul Lundgren Sep 28, 2024 2 Comments

John Rudolph Zweifel was a Duluth-based photographer from roughly 1885 to 1935. Several of his cabinet card portraits have appeared in Perfect Duluth Day’s “Mystery Photo” series over the years. Now a composite print of his work samples has emerged.

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Photos ,

Iconic Curious Goods building for sale in Superior

Mark Nicklawske Sep 26, 2024 No Comments

Taimi Ranta has owned the Curious Goods building for about 35 years. (Photos by Mark Nicklawske)

A widely photographed building on one of the funkiest street corners in Superior is up for sale after a long run as an antique store, warehouse and spare apartment.

The Curious Goods building, 1717 Winter St., just off Tower Avenue, has been put up for sale by owner Taimi Ranta after about 35 years of using the property for her antique and vintage sales business. While Curious Goods featured an enticing and colorful storefront the space has been used only as a warehouse for the past two decades.

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News and Current Affairs

Alan Sparhawk – “Heaven”

PDDTV Sep 25, 2024 No Comments

Alan Sparhawk‘s solo album White Roses, My God drops on Friday. “Heaven” is the third video release from the record. It was directed and edited by Rick Alverson.

More on Sparhawk and the new album in the New York Times: “Alan Sparhawk of Low Lost His Other Half. He’s Learning to Sing Again.“


Music, Videos

Minnesota mystery beast stalking the northwoods

PDDTV Sep 25, 2024 No Comments

The Voyageurs Wolf Project posted trail-camera video one month ago showing a “wolf-dog like animal wandering forests of northern Minnesota.” The scenes were captured last winter and the release of the video garnered considerable media attention — with some organizations offering competent reporting and others maybe more focused on a clickbait headline than careful attention to detail. A new version of the video, embedded above, pokes fun at some headlines that emerged after the initial video was released.

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Outdoors, Videos

Ichiro Sushi & Ramen wows guests on Miller Hill

Melinda Lavine Sep 24, 2024 No Comments
plates of food line shelves of a black robot server with cat ears

Bella, the robot server at Ichiro Sushi & Ramen, glides through the Duluth restaurant. (Photos by Melinda Lavine)

A cat-eared robot buzzed around Ichiro Sushi & Ramen. “Bella” sported white digital whiskers up top, and in its fur-less belly sat plates of fried rice and sushi.

After a series of silent maneuvers, Bella stopped at a table of two, where Cody Tesser served fellow humans their orders from the robot’s racks.

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News and Current Affairs, Restaurants ,

Postcard from the Incline

Paul Lundgren Sep 23, 2024 No Comments

This undated postcard shows Duluth’s Incline Railway, which operated from 1891 to 1939. The tram system carried passengers from a housing development at the top of the hillside into the downtown along Seventh Avenue West.


History ,

PDD Geoguessr #26: Duluth City Limits

Matthew James Sep 22, 2024 No Comments

Arriving in Duluth (Photo by Matthew James)

“Twenty-six miles long and an average of 2-1/2 miles wide, Duluth is squeezed between rocky bluffs and the waterfront of Lake Superior and the St. Louis River,” a National Geographic reporter wrote when describing the city in 1949. This post describes some of the stranger contours of our long and narrow city with a Geoguessr challenge at the end to test your knowledge of the city limits.

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History