Encyclopedia
Duluth is the county seat of
St. Louis County, Minnesota,
United States. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 86,918, making it the fourth largest city in Minnesota. Taking account of the growth of the city and its boundaries, there are around an extra 92,000 people on the outer boundaries, making the population 184,000. It is a
seaport at the westernmost point on the north shore of
Lake Superior. It is linked to the
Atlantic Ocean 2,300 miles away via the
Great Lakes and then either the
Erie Canal/
New York State Barge Canal or the
Saint Lawrence Seaway; it is farther from the ocean than any other deep water port.
Duluth forms a single metropolitan area with
Superior, Wisconsin, together called the Twin Ports. The two cities share a harbor and are one of the most important ports on the Great Lakes. Among the items shipped out are
iron ore and
grain. Both cities have museums devoted to the local nautical heritage, and Duluth has America's only all freshwater
aquarium, the
Great Lakes Aquarium. A major destination for
tourists is the
Aerial Lift Bridge spanning the short
canal into Duluth's harbor.
The city is named for Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut, the first known
European explorer of the area.
History
Pre-founding
Native American tribes had occupied the Duluth area for thousands of years. The original inhabitants are believed to have been members of Paleo-Indian cultures, followed by the "Old Copper" peoples, who hunted with
spear points and
knives and fished with metal hooks. Around two thousand years ago, the Woodlands people, known for their burial mounds and pottery, occupied the area. They also cultivated
wild rice, a crop that continues to be harvested today by
Ojibwa tribes in the region and is often seen being sold in the area, especially in
Wisconsin. Even today, the Duluth's name in the
Ojibwe language is
Onigamiinsing due to the small and easy portage across Minnesota Point between Lake superior and western
St. Louis Bay forming Duluth's harbor. According to
Ojibwa Oral history, Spirit Island located near the Spirit Valley neighborhood was the "Sixth Stopping Place" where the northern and southern branches of the Ojibwa Nation came together and then proceeded to their "Seventh Stopping Place" near the present city of
La Pointe, Wisconsin.
In 1679, the first white man known to visit the location of present-day Duluth and the city's namesake, Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut, arrived to settle rivalries between two Indian nations, the Dakota and the
Ojibwa, to advance
fur trading missions in the area. His work allowed for this to occur, with the
Ojibwa becoming middlemen between the
French and the
Dakota. As a result, the area prospered, and as early as 1692, the
Hudson Bay Company set up a small post at Fond du Lac.
It was not until 1792 that the next trading post, on the Wisconsin side of the
St. Louis River, was opened by Jean Baptiste Cadotte of the
North West Company. A fire destroyed the post in 1800, but a German emigre,
John Jacob Astor, constructed a post on the river's Minnesota side. The store initially floundered as a result of the Indians' insistence in trading with established English and French partners. However, Astor managed to convince the
United States Congress to ban foreigners from trading in American territory. His American Fur Company was re-formed in 1816-17. Hard times hit the post once again by 1839 due to fashionable Europeans choosing silk hats over those made from beaver pelts.
Two Treaties of Fond du Lac were signed in the present neighborhood of Fond du Lac in 1826 and 1847. As part of the Treaty of Washington with the Lake Superior Band of Chippewa, the
Fond du Lac Indian Reservation was established upstream from Duluth near
Cloquet, Minnesota, and the
Ojibwa population was relocated there.
Permanent settlement
Interest in the area was piqued in the 1850s as rumors of
copper mining began to circulate. A government land survey in 1852, followed by a treaty with local tribes in 1854, secured wilderness for gold-seeking explorers, sparked a "land rush," and led to the development of
iron ore mining in the area.
Around the same time, newly-constructed channels and
locks in the East permitted large ships to access the area. A road connecting Duluth to the
Twin Cities was also constructed. Eleven small towns on both sides of the
St. Louis River were formed, establishing Duluth's roots as a city.
By 1857, copper resources became scarce, and the area's economic focus shifted to
timber harvesting. A nation-wide financial crisis led to nearly three quarters of the city's early pioneers leaving.
In the late 1860s, a financier
Jay Cooke , convinced the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad to create an extension from
St. Paul to Duluth. The railroad opened areas due north and west of
Lake Superior to
iron ore mining. Duluth's population on New Year's Day, 1869 consisted of fourteen families; by the Fourth of July, 3,500 people were present to celebrate.
Twentieth century
The city thrived, and the area's hillside and downtown areas were populated by early residents. In the
1900s, the city's port passed
New York City in gross tonnage handled, elevating it to being the leading port in the
United States. Meanwhile, there were ten newspapers, six banks, and an eleven-story skyscraper, the Torrey Building, already present in the town. In 1907,
U.S. Steel announced that a $5 - $6 million plant would be constructed in the area. Although it took eight years for steel to actually be produced, predictions held that Duluth's population would rise to 200,000 to 300,000. With the plant came Morgan Park, a once-independent company town that now stands as a city neighborhood.
During much of the
twentieth century, the city was an industrial port town, with a cement plant, nail mill, wire mills, and the U.S. Steel plant. In 1916, during
World War I, a shipbuilding plant on St. Louis River produced eight vessels simultaneously. A neighborhood was formed around this operation, today known as Riverside. Similar industrial operations were heightened during the
Second World War. Population growth continued after the war, with a peak of 106,884 reached in 1960. The city experienced strong immigrant influx, and the
Finnish IWW community published a widely read labor newspaper Industrialisti.
Due to foreign competition, the steel plant closed in 1971, presenting a major blow to the city. Other industrial activity followed suit with more closures, including the Air Force base. Within a decade, unemployment rates surged to 15 percent, emptying local stores and creating long job application lines.
With the decline of the city's industrial core, the local economic focus shifted to
tourism. The downtown was renewed with red brick streets and
skywalks, and old warehouses along the waterfront were converted into cafés, shops, and restaurants, forming
Canal Park as a largely tourism-oriented district.
Today
Duluth and its environs are experiencing moderate population growth . Duluth is the regional hub not only for its own immediate area, but also for a large area encompassing northeastern Minnesota, northwestern Wisconsin, and the western
Upper Peninsula of
Michigan. It remains a major transportation center for the transshipment of coal, taconite, and agricultural products
The Untold Delights of Duluth
Early doubts about the potential of the Duluth area were voiced in the speech
The Untold Delights of Duluth, made by Representative J. Proctor Knott of
Kentucky on January 27, 1871 in the House; the speech against the St. Croix and Superior Land Grant lampooned Western boosterism, portraying Duluth as an Eden in fantastically florid terms. The speech has been reprinted in collections of folklore and humorous speeches and is regarded as a something of a classic.
Geography & climate
According to the
United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 226.2 km² . It is Minnesota's second largest city in terms of land area, surpassed only by
Hibbing. 176.1 km² of it is land and 50.0 km² of it is water.
Duluth's geography is dominated by a rather steep hill which represents a transition from the elevation of Lake Superior's beach to that of the inland. For example, the Sky Harbor airport's
weather station, near the lake on the Park Point sandbar has an elevation of 607 ft , while Duluth International Airport atop the hill is at 1,427 ft . As a result, Duluth is primarily a southwest-northeast city. A considerable amount of development on the hill's upslope gives Duluth a reputation for
deathly steep streets. Some neighborhoods, such as Piedmont Heights and Bayview Heights, are atop the hill, at times giving scenic views of the city. Perhaps the most rapidly developing part of the city is a commercial mall and big-box retailer shopping strip "over the hill", the
Miller Trunk corridor.
The city's climate is known for long, cold winters and cool summers, hence the nickname "the air-conditioned city". During the winter months, temperatures often remain below freezing for periods of weeks. A normal winter brings consistent snow cover from December through March. Winter storms that pass south or east of Duluth can often set up easterly or northeasterly flow. Upslope lake-effect snow events can bring a foot or more of snow to the city while areas 50 miles inland receive considerably less.
Summers are cool and comfortable, with daytime temperatures averaging in the 70s-80s°F range due to the cooling easterly winds of the lake
Demographics
As of the
census² of 2000, there were 86,918 people, 35,500 households, and 19,915 families residing in the city. The
population density was 493.4/km² . There were 36,994 housing units at an average density of 210.0/km² . The racial makeup of the city was 92.65%
White, 1.63%
Black or
African American, 2.44% Native American, 1.14% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.29% from
other races, and 1.82% from two or more races. 1.06% of the population were
Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There were 35,500 households out of which 26.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 41.4% were married couples living together, 11.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 43.9% were non-families. 34.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.26 and the average family size was 2.90.
In the city the population was spread out with 21.3% under the age of 18, 16.2% from 18 to 24, 26.1% from 25 to 44, 21.3% from 45 to 64, and 15.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females there were 93.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.7 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $33,766, and the median income for a family was $46,394. Males had a median income of $35,182 versus $24,965 for females. The per capita income for the city was $18,969. About 8.6% of families and 15.5% of the population were below the
poverty line, including 15.4% of those under age 18 and 9.5% of those age 65 or over.
Economy
Tourism
The city is a popular center for tourism. Duluth is a convenient base for trips to the scenic North Shore via Highway 61, or to fishing and wilderness expeditions in Minnesota's far north, including the
Superior National Forest and the
Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
Transportation
The area marks the northern endpoint of
Interstate 35, which stretches south to
Laredo, Texas.
U.S. highways that serve the area are
U.S. Highway 53 which stretches from
La Crosse, Wisconsin to
International Falls, Minnesota and
U.S. Highway 2 which stretches from
Everett, Washington to
St.Ignace in the
Upper Peninsula of Michigan. There are two freeway connections from Duluth to Superior. U.S. 2 provides a connection into Superior via the
Richard I. Bong Memorial Bridge, and the other connection is
I-535 & U.S. 53 "duplexing" over the John A. Blatnik Bridge.
There are many state highways that serve the area as well. Highway 23 runs diagonally across Minnesota, indirectly connecting Duluth to
Sioux Falls.
Highway 33 provides a bypass of Duluth connecting
Interstate 35 to
U.S. Highway 53.
Highway 61 provides access to
Thunder Bay, Ontario via the breathtaking North Shore of
Lake Superior. Highway 194 provides a spur route into the city of Duluth known as "Central Entrance" and Mesaba Avenue. Wisc. Hwy. 13 reaches along
Lake Superior's South Shore. Finally, Wisc. Hwy. 35 runs along Wisconsin's western border to
La Crosse.
Duluth International Airport serves the city and nearby
Superior, Wisconsin.
Duluth is a major shipping
port for taconite. The former
Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway, now
Canadian National Railway operates taconite-hauling trains in the area.
The local bus system is run by the Duluth Transit Authority, which services not only the Duluth area, but
Superior, WI, as well. The DTA runs a system of buses manufactured by
Gillig.
Duluth is also serviced by
Greyhound Lines, with daily service to the
Twin Cities, as well as
Thunder Bay, ON, Wisconsin, Michigan, and the
Iron Range.
Power supply
Duluth, Minnesota gets electric power from Duluth-based Minnesota Power, a subsidiary of ALLETE Corporation. Minnesota Power produces energy at generation facilities located throughout northern Minnesota, as well as at a generation plant in North Dakota. The latter supplies electricity into the MP system by the Square Butte HVDC line, which ends near the town.
Minnesota Power primarily uses western coal to generate electricity, but also has a number of small hydro-electric facilities, the largest of which is the Thomson Hydroelectric Dam just south of Duluth.
Government
In 2004, Duluth was center to a controversial legal battle between the City Council, local residents, and the
ACLU. The debate and eventual lawsuit revolved around a marble fixture inscribed with the
Ten Commandments which resided on the lawn of City Hall. The city eventually agreed to remove the fixture, and it now resides on private property near the Comfort Suites Hotel on Canal Park Drive.
The city was also featured in the New York Times article "The Next Retirement Time Bomb", because Duluth recently conducted a financial study of the health care benefits it has promised its retired city workers. It turned out that its future health care obligations would bankrupt the city government. Duluth is held in the article to be considered representative of many local governments that have not kept tabs on its future health-care obligations promised to retired workers. Duluth's own newspaper, the News-Tribune, portrays prior mayor John Fedo, who was acquitted in a 1988 corruption trial while mayor, in an unflattering respect with regard to responsibility in this. Decades of local politicians have a hand in the matter, as unions are powerful in the area and winning their favor is a major factor in being elected.
During the 2000 presidential election Nader received over 6.9% of votes from Duluth residents, one of the highest in the country for a city with a population of at least 85,000.
The current mayor of Duluth is Herb Bergson , who is serving his first term. He has announced in June 2006, that he will not be running for re-election to better focus on city issues at hand without the hassle of election campaigning.
A city councilor, Tim Little, who recently requested an investigation of the mayor, was identified as having an affair while concurently being a proponent of the non profit paying his paramour over $90,000 annually. The mayor had sought to have the non profit eliminated from the stressed city budget due to the high salaries and obscure spending of the organization. Mr. Little is currently running for Judge while holding a city council seat. http://news.pajamasmedia.com/politics/2006/08/30/10550248_Conflicted_counc.shtml
Education
Colleges and universities
K-12 education
Public Schools
Public elementary schools
- Congdon Park
- Grant Magnet
- Homecroft
- Lakewood
- Laura MacArthur
- Lester Park
- Lincoln Park
- Lowell Music Magnet
- Nettleton Magnet
- Piedmont
- Rockridge
- Stowe
Public middle schools
- Morgan Park
- Ordean
- Woodland
Public high schools
Alternative public schools
- Adult Learning Center
- Chester Creek Academy
- Merritt Creek Academy
- Secondary Technical Center
- Unity
- Woodland Hills Academy
Private Schools
Catholic schools
Catholic elementary schools in Duluth are under the administration of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Duluth.
- Holy Rosary School
- St. James School
- St. John's School
- St. Michael's Lakeside School
Private and charter schools
- Harbor City International School
- Kenwood Edison Charter School
- Lakeview Christian Academy
- The Marshall School
- Montessori School of Duluth
- Raleigh Edison Charter School
- Stone Ridge Christian School
- Summit School
- Washburn Edison Charter School
- North Shore Community School
Sites of Interest
Historic sites
The noted
Glensheen Historic Estate, built by wealthy businessman Chester Adgate Congdon, can be found on the shore of
Lake Superior and is open to tours in the summer.
The
Aerial Lift Bridge, spanning the short
canal into Duluth's harbor, is a vertical
lift bridge. It was originally built as an exceedingly rare
aerial transfer bridge.
Neighborhoods
Central
Eastern Duluth
- Chester Park / UMD
- The Chester Park neighborhood is located just east of the East Hillside neighborhood. It straddles both sides of a wooded ravine that contains Chester Creek one of 28 streams that flow through the city. It is a popular hiking spot. The ravine opens at the top into a wide, wooded, "bowl"-shaped valley known as Chester Bowl and contains a small lift served ski area, ski jumps, pond, soccer field and cross country ski trails.
- Congdon Park
- East End / Endion
- Hunter's Park
- Lakeside - Lester Park
- Morley Heights / Parkview
- North Shore
Neighborhoods above the hill
- Bayview Heights
- Cody
- Denfeld
- Fairmount
- Irving
- Oneota
- Spirit Valley
West of West Duluth
- Fond du Lac
- Gary - New Duluth
- Norton Park
- Morgan Park
- Riverside
- Smithville
"West End" / Lincoln Park
Sports
Professional sports history
Duluth once fielded a
National Football League team called the Kelleys from 1923-1925 and the Eskimos from 1926-1927. The Eskimos were then sold and became the
Orange Tornadoes.
| Year | W | L | T | Finish |
|---|
| Kelleys |
| 1923 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 7th |
| 1924 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4th |
| 1925 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 16th |
| Eskimos |
| 1926 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 8th |
| 1927 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 11th |
The
Duluth-Superior Dukes of the Northern League Independent Professional Baseball played in West Duluth's Wade Stadium from the League's inception in 1993 until 2002 when the team moved to Kansas City and became the
Kansas City T-Bones. The Dukes were Northern League Champions in 1997 and 2000.
Amateur sports
Since 1977, Duluth has played host to
Grandma's Marathon , drawing runners from all over the world. Held annually in June, the course of the
marathon starts just outside
Two Harbors, Minnesota, runs down Old Highway 61, the old route for
Minnesota State Highway 61, along the North Shore of
Lake Superior and finishes in one of Duluth's tourism neighborhoods,
Canal Park. The same route is also taken during the North Shore Inline Marathon, held in September, drawing racers from all over the world.
The Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon is Duluth's annual sled dog race organized in February and named after John Beargrease, the son of the
Anishinaabe Chief Makwabimidem and one of the first mail carriers between
Two Harbors, Minnesota and
Grand Marais, Minnesota. He and his brothers carried mail by sled dog, boat, and horse for almost twenty years between the two towns, where there was no road. Competitors can choose between two distances; the longer 400-mile course takes a round trip from Duluth to the
Boundary Waters Canoe Area, and the 150-mile course departs from Duluth and ends in Tofte, Minnesota. The marathon was first held in 1980 and is acknowledged as a training ground for the larger and more elite Iditarod sled dog race.
The
University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldog
hockey games are a major event in town during the cold Duluth winter. Games are televised locally, and thousands watch the games in person at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center . Several Bulldogs have gone on to success in the
National Hockey League, including hockey great
Brett Hull. In addition, the UMD Women's ice hockey team has won three consecutive NCAA National Championships . The 2003 Women's Frozen Four was played at the DECC, where the Bulldogs defeated Harvard on a dramatic double-overtime goal by Nora Tallus in front of a sellout home crowd.
The Duluth Huskies are a college summer wood bat league
baseball team which is based in Duluth and plays in the Northwoods League. The team plays its home games at Wade Stadium. They are made up from some of the top college baseball players in the country, playing 34 home games each summer between June and August.
The Duluth-Superior Shoremen are a semi-pro football team based in Duluth's Public Schools Stadium. They play for the Mid-American Football League, and placed second in that league's championship game in 2005.
The Duluth Xpress is an amateur baseball team that plays its games at the Ordean Middle School baseball field. The team is made up of current college baseball players, ex-college baseball players, and ex-professional baseball players. The Xpress compete in the Arrowhead league which is a class B league of Minnesota amateur baseball.
Arts and Entertainment
Cultural attractions
Local attractions include a variety of arts opportunities. Museums include the Duluth Art Institute at the Duluth Depot, the Tweed Museum of Art at the
University of Minnesota Duluth, and smaller local art galleries scattered around the city. Duluth is also the home of two professional ballet companies, the Minnesota Ballet and the American National Ballet. Duluth shares a symphony orchestra with Superior, Wisconsin, the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra.
Famous people
- Bill Berry - former member of the band R.E.M.
- Bob Dylan - born in Duluth, but grew up in Hibbing, Minnesota
- Lorenzo Music - voice of the animated cartoon cat Garfield is a comic strip [i] created by Jim Davis [i], featuring the cat Garfield, the p ...
- Gena Lee Nolin - American actress and model
- Phil Solem - member of the band The Rembrandts, who perform the theme song to the television show Friends was a long-running and widely acclaimed situation comedy [i] about a group of six friends in ...
- Low - the slowcore rock band. All three members are from Duluth
- Don LaFontaine - movie trailer voice
- David Oreck - an American salesman and businessman
- Mason Aguirre - a 2006 Winter Olympics snowboarding half-pipe team member
- Jamie Langenbrunner - National Hockey League player
- Telly Savalas - actor who owned a house on Park Point
- Darren Ward - swimmer who competed for Canada in the 1988 and 1992 Summer Olympics
- Jesse Sawyer -Heavily-investigated, though never formally charged, associate of Theodore Kaczynski, AKA The Unabomber
- Jeno Paulucci - Successful business entrepreneur, creator of Jeno's Pizza Rolls
Religion
Media
Radio
AM Radio Stations- 560 - WEBC - "The Fan" Sports
- 610 - KDAL - News/Talk
- 710 - WDSM
...
- Talk
- 850 - WWJC - Christian
- 970 - WGEE - Sports
- 1230 - WKLK - Adult standards
- 1490 - KQDS-AM - News/Talk
FM Radio StationsTelevision
Duluth has experienced firsthand the consequences of media consolidation. On March 8, 2005 the sale of Duluth's
CBS affiliate was announced to Malara Broadcast Group of
Sarasota, Florida. The group agreed to pay Granite Broadcasting Group, which already runs the NBC affiliate KBJR, to take over the operations for KDLH. The majority of the news staff of KDLH was dismissed.
