View of Duluth from Northern Pacific Docks circa 1880

This photograph shows a view of the Duluth hillside circa 1880. It was shot by Paul B. Gaylord from the Northern Pacific railroad dock.

The Nimrods win American Birkebeiner Giant Ski Race 2023

This highlight video shows the drama from the qualifying run and finals of the American Birkebeiner Giant Ski Race, held last weekend on Main Street in Hayward. The Nimrod Giant Ski Team recaptured the championship this year.

PDD Quiz: February 2023

For such a short month, February was chockablock with news. Dig into this week’s current events quiz and see how many headlines you remember!

Another installment of Duluth movie mentions will come your way on March 12. Submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by March 9.

JamesG – “Clingy”

Former Duluthian James Geisler, aka hip-hop artist JamesG, breaks out the plastic wrap and heads to the beach in his new music video.

Three academic papers on Duluth and the lost Confederate gold

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.

Duluth Grill group plans new Lincoln Park burger bar

The Duluth Grill Family Restaurant Group will take over operations at the former Coach’s Bar and Grill, 2113 W. Superior St. The new restaurant will be called Burger Paradox. (Photos by Mark Nicklawske).

A popular Lincoln Park restaurant group is adding another bar and grill to its neighborhood food empire.

Duluth Grill Family of Restaurants co-owner Tom Hanson said this week his organization has secured a 10-year lease on the longtime home of Mitch’s Bar and Grill, 2113 W. Superior St. The site was most recently home to the short-lived Coach’s Bar & Grill.

Apostle Islands in National Geographic

The March issue of National Geographic has a 16-page feature on Lake Superior’s Apostle Islands. The online version has the headline, “These Lake Superior islands are ‘no place for amateurs,’” while the print edition carries the title “Return to Wild Waters.” Writer Stephanie Pearson accompanied photographer David Guttenfelder on part of his August 2021 kayaking journey in which he paddled to 19 of the 22 islands.

Duluth Central High School 1975 Concert LP with Clark Terry

I picked up a box of LPs at a local estate sale a couple years ago. I was just going through them more closely and thought I would share this one. It’s a concert recording of the Central High School Jazz Ensemble with jazz great Clark Terry, recorded at Central High Auditorium on March 13, 1975.

Exploring Clark House Creek Tunnel

Duluth Urbex explores the underground creek beneath Cascade Park.

The Slamming Doors – “Goddamn Duluth”

Last April the Current released the eighth edition of its Sounds Like Home virtual festival series, which featured artists from greater Minnesota. Duluth band the Slamming Doors performed a Duluth Song during its set, embedded above.

Postcards from Sellers Mine, north of Hibbing

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.

Torment – “Swallow Your Teeth” (Live at Pizza Lucé)

Duluth band Torment performed a sold out show at Pizza Lucé with By the Thousands and three other acts on Saturday. Above, the band plays the title track from its recently released album Swallow Your Teeth.

Highlights from “The Guys Who Never Stop Fighting”

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.

A year of a poet laureate

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.

What if the South Shore was a mountain range?

A study/position paper by the Institute for the Study of Light and Water.

Any mountain building on the South Shore is to be opposed. A positive feature of Duluth’s view of Lake Superior is that Wisconsin is barely there. Lake Superior takes up almost half your view; Wisconsin (being flat) is just a thin strip between the lake and the sky. So the sky basically sits right on top of the lake. From our quaint hillside, we gaze over Lake Superior and down upon Wisconsin, that piteous, benighted state. Wisconsin presents a thin band of color: green in summer, fall colors in autumn, white or gray or brown in winter. It contains flecks of texture. But it contributes so little to the view overall, one might wish for the visual interest a mountain range could provide.

But there are benefits to Wisconsin being flat. One of those benefits is that on clear days, the sunrise immediately strikes the water with that intense glittering effect, the blinding mirror of the morning lake. But what if Wisconsin had mountains? What if, instead of an unobstructed view of the sky, the South Shore had a mountain range?