What is it about agates that cause such an obsession? Let the experts in Moose Lake, the Agate Capital of the World and home of the Agate Stampede, fill you in.
Minnesota Historia is a six-part WDSE-TV web series dedicated to Minnesota’s quirky past. It is hosted by Hailey Eidenschink and produced/edited/written by Mike Scholtz.
Big names have performed in Duluth in the past — you’ll find prideful mention of celebrities such as Louis Armstrong, Charlie Chaplin and Buddy Holly having graced our grounds with their talents. But alarmingly missing from this impressive list of notables is Rollo the Limit, the roller skating daredevil.
Duluth’s Charlie Parr is the featured artist on the first episode of Dissonance Sessions, a video series that is part art therapy session, part recording session. Parr discusses his experiences with depression, grief, anxiety and family dynamics while delivering intimate performances of songs from his most recent album, Last of the Better Days Ahead. The show is hosted by Sarah Souder Johnson.
Sometime back, I included an aerial photo in a PDD comment and realized that because they are taken from straight overhead, the photos on Minnesota Historical Aerial Photographs Online can be matched up pretty easily with Google’s current aerial imagery. And then I put that thought aside for quite some months until I finally came back to it and put together this seven-part series of aerial photos showing places in Duluth that have changed somewhat dramatically over the past decades.
Photographer Kip Praslowicz gets all artsy with this video showcasing Homegrown Music Festival kickball athleticism.
With summer (hopefully) upon us, it’s time for a third quiz on Duluth parks (find previous entries here and here). As with the previous two entries, Duluth’s Historical Parks: Their First 160 Years, by Tony Dierckins and Nancy S. Nelson, was an invaluable source of information.
The next PDD quiz will cover headlines from May 2022; it will be published on May 29. Submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by May 26.
[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. The Sultan of Sot visited drinking establishments in the East End of Superior for this article, which appeared in the May 1, 2002 issue of the Ripsaw newspaper. A few updates: The Office went out of business in 2015. East End Tavern and Hudy’s Bar remain in business. Mr. B’s later became Pudge’s]
I set out looking for Eddie’s Ribs in Superior’s Itasca neighborhood, following the left-handed, pencil-scrawled directions of some coffin-dodger I met at the Pioneer Bar in Duluth. At some point, I take a turn that I’m pretty sure is incorrect, driving into an area that common logic would demand turn into either a suburb or a swamp, when suddenly — whoa! — a bunch of bars. Needless to say, it’s at this point that the whole big-plate-of-ribs idea is immediately jettisoned to make way for the get-hammered-right-here-and-now idea. It’s a common occurrence in my life.
The aerial view of Bayfront Park during its yellow canopy days at the five-second mark of this 1991 Duluth tourism promo is perhaps the highlight.
Trampled by Turtles perform “Whiskey” at GLC Live at 20 Monroe in Grand Rapids, Mich. The song is from the band’s 2004 album Songs from a Ghost Town. The video was shot by Justin Razmus, Heather Kanig and Cooper Baumgartner and edited by 616 Media with audio mixed by Adam Krinsky.
Before the Blatnik Bridge was named for Congressman John A. Blatnik in 1971, it was called the Duluth-Superior Bridge and known colloquially as the “High Bridge,” but for some reason it shows up on a few postcards as the “Hi Bridge,” as if people were supposed to wave and say Minnesota-nice hellos as they crossed.
Seth Trobec put together this time-lapse compilation video to document the two best aurora displays he has witnessed in 2022. One of the two scenes was shot about 80 miles northwest of Duluth.
“The scene with the stream and trees across a field was set near Calio, North Dakota the night of March 30-31,” Trobec wrote in the YouTube description. “The other lightshow in the video was viewed from Deadhorse Lake near Marcell, Minnesota. I took thousands of pictures with my Sony A7riii, each of those nights, and compiled the best parts for this video and set it to music.”
Following up on my project to communicate with the far future using stone or metal, I have produced the first piece: The “Sorry” Bowl. This was a collaboration with Sean MacManus/MacManus Stoneworks. Thinking of likely futures, I chose the word “sorry” because it’s what I really wanted to say. The rest of the story:
Dorothy Molter was the last permanent resident of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. She sold candy bars and homemade soft drinks to paddlers for decades. But there’s so much more to her story than root beer.
Minnesota Historia is a six-part WDSE-TV web series dedicated to Minnesota’s quirky past. It is hosted by Hailey Eidenschink and produced/edited/written by Mike Scholtz.
Kate Bradley stands on the porch of the Bob Tavani House for Medical Respite. Bradley and her partner, Kelly Wallin, are live-in volunteers who help provide shelter and care for those in need of housing after a hospital stay. (Photo by Jack Wiedner)
Kate Bradley clears off a wooden dining-room table, which doubles as her desk during the day. She switches out her laptop and office supplies for mismatched plates and silverware.
Bradley’s partner, Kelly Wallin, scrounges through the refrigerator, gathering ingredients for meatloaf. “No ketchup,” he reminds himself, as one of the residents is allergic to tomatoes. He will have to improvise.
Representatives of Bent Paddle (left) and Earth Rider (right) accepted medals at the 2022 World Beer Cup.
Bent Paddle in Duluth and Earth Rider in Superior each won gold medals at the World Beer Cup on May 5. It’s the first time more than one medal was won by the region’s breweries at the competition. Bent Paddle also took home a bronze medal.
