Geoguessr Challenges Archives - Perfect Duluth Day

Next Image

Geoguessr Challenges Posts

PDD Geoguessr #30: Minnesota and the Presidential Election

Nov 17, 2024 No Comments

Minnesota 2024 presidential election results by county.

Minnesota’s electoral college votes have gone to the Democrats since 1976, longer than any other state. But unlike Washington D.C., which went 90% for Harris and has given its three electoral votes to the Democrats since 1964 (but is not a state), Minnesota’s politics are a bit more complicated. In its most simplistic form, the strongly left-leaning Twin Cities metro area counters the right-leaning Greater Minnesota population, with a few urban areas creating pockets of blue. But that’s the simplistic version. This post looks at the Minnesota results at the precinct level and includes three Greater Minnesota Geoguessr challenges. One visiting the precincts where Trump had the highest margins of victory, another for the precincts that went most strongly to Harris, and a third for precincts split right down the middle.

Politics Geoguessr Challenges

PDD Geoguessr #29: Lake Superior Lighthouses

Nov 03, 2024 2 Comments

The Duluth North Pier Lighthouse (Photo by Matthew James)

On Nov. 10, 1975 — 49 years ago next week — the SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank in a Lake Superior Storm, killing all 29 crew members on board. As noted in Gordon Lightfoot’s ballad, “The Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald,” the ship sank during a November gale, a Great Lakes weather event in which Artic air from the north collides with Gulf air from the south, creating hurricane-level winds. With the Lake Superior Marine Museum’s Gales of November event approaching, this post takes a look at the lighthouses that historically guided Great Lakes ships to safety during these storms. It concludes with a Geoguessr that includes Lake Superior lighthouses in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ontario.

History Geoguessr Challenges, Lake Superior

PDD Geoguessr #28: Haunted Duluth

Oct 20, 2024 1 Comment

When I developed the image, two specters became visible behind me (Photo by David James with Photoshop Generative Fill)

With Halloween approaching, this post takes a close look at the tales of hauntings around Duluth, presenting a classification system for the four different types of haunted Duluth locations. It concludes with a Geoguessr challenge made up of five spooky Duluth photospheres.

History Geoguessr Challenges, Halloween

PDD Geoguessr #27: Duluth’s Former Telephone Exchanges

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.

History Geoguessr Challenges

PDD Geoguessr #26: Duluth City Limits

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.

History Geoguessr Challenges

PDD Geoguessr #25: Duluth Creeks

Sep 01, 2024 No Comments

The lower falls of Chester Creek. (Photo by Matthew James)

Forty-two named streams run through the Duluth metropolitan area, from Mission Creek in West Duluth to the Lester River on the eastern edge of the city. This Geoguessr challenge looks at photospheres from five of the creeks within the Duluth Urban Watershed.

Outdoors Geoguessr Challenges

PDD Geoguessr #24: Indigenous Land

Aug 18, 2024 No Comments

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.

History Anishinabe, Geoguessr Challenges

PDD Geoguessr #23: World Cities and Their Northern Minnesota Namesakes

Aug 04, 2024 No Comments

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.

History Geoguessr Challenges

PDD Geoguessr #22: Signs of the Past

Jul 21, 2024 No Comments

No gas of any sort, leaded or otherwise, is to be found here. (Photo by Matthew James)

Some small part of the business history of Duluth remains written in the landscape. Names painted on the sides of buildings and logos atop poles on the edges of vacant lots promote businesses that saw their last customer some years ago.

History Geoguessr Challenges

PDD Geoguessr #21: Hermantown

Jul 07, 2024 No Comments

Hermantown History Center (Photo by Myotus used under CC 4.0)

When you Google Hermantown, the results are preceded by some questions people often ask about the place: Is Hermantown the same as Duluth? What is Hermantown known for?

History Geoguessr Challenges, Hermantown

PDD Geoguessr #20: Twin Ports Area Beaches

Jun 23, 2024 No Comments

Park Point in the summer. (Photo by Matthew James)

With the official start of summer upon us, any upcoming day has at least the potential of becoming a beach day. But where to go? Park Point is always an option but are there more interesting alternatives?

Outdoors Geoguessr Challenges

PDD Geoguessr Challenge #19: Sister Cities Smörgåsbord

Jun 02, 2024 No Comments

Duluth’s sister cities

Five of the previous six Geoguessr challenges have looked one by one at Duluth’s sister cities: Ohara Isumi, Japan; Rania, Iraqi-Kurdistan; Växjö, Sweden; Petrozavodsk, Russia; and Thunder Bay, Canada. As a Geoguessr game has five rounds, it only makes sense to conclude the series with a challenge that includes all five cities.

News and Current Affairs Duluth Sister Cities International, Geoguessr Challenges

PDD Geoguessr Challenge #18: Duluth’s Sister Cities – Thunder Bay, Canada

May 19, 2024 No Comments

Thunder Bay, Canada. Photo based on an interpretation of aerial imagery by Microsoft Flight Simulator.

The last of the sister cities in this series is the first. Thunder Bay was the original sister city of Duluth, a relationship that formally began in 1980. While the Twin Ports is the largest metropolitan area on Lake Superior, Thunder Bay is the largest city, with a population of 110,000.

News and Current Affairs Duluth Sister Cities International, Geoguessr Challenges

PDD Geoguessr Challenge #17: Duluth’s Sister Cities – Petrozavodsk, Russia

May 05, 2024 No Comments

Petrozavodsk, Russia. Photo based on an interpretation of aerial imagery by Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Petrozavodsk, Russia became a sister city of Duluth in 1987. With a population of 250,000, its Duluth’s largest sister city. Petrozavodsk is the capitol of the Republic of Karelia and located on the western shore of Lake Onega. Like Duluth, Petrozavodsk has a lakewalk that features art from its sister cities. In 1991, artist Rafael Consuegra won a national competition to represent Duluth in a sister cities sculpture exchange with Petrozavodsk. Below is a picture of his sculpture, The Fisherman, that I took with a disposable camera during my brief visit to the city nearly 20 years ago.

News and Current Affairs Duluth Sister Cities International, Geoguessr Challenges

PDD Geoguessr Challenge #16: Homegrown 2024 Venues

Apr 21, 2024 No Comments

Homegrown Music Festival starts next week with acts performing in venues across Duluth and Superior. You can read a detailed history of the festival on its website. And you can test your knowledge of this year’s festival by taking the PDD Quiz. And here you can test your knowledge of this year’s Homegrown venues by playing one of this week’s three Geoguessr challenges.

Music Geoguessr Challenges, Homegrown Music Festival

1
2