November 28, 1870: The first issue of the Duluth Morning Call

On this day in Duluth in 1870, the first issue of Seth Payne Wilbur’s Morning Call, Duluth’s first daily newspaper, hit the streets of the Zenith City. It was a tiny paper, measuring just 7 x 6 inches, printed front and back. Instead of reading a description of the first edition, we thought you might…

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November 25, 1870: Duluthians establish city’s volunteer fire department 

On this day in Duluth in 1870, Duluth Hose Company No. 1—the foundation of what would become today’s Duluth Fire Department—was first organized. Foreman E. M. Bloomer, assistant foreman T. H. Pressnell, secretary A. S. Chase, steward James Farrell, and vigilance committee members E. M. Bloomer, L. H. Tenney, and George Spencer led the group,…

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October 24, 1870: Property for site of Duluth Ship Canal purchased

On this day in Duluth in 1870, the city of Duluth purchased the lots on  Minnesota Point that would be dredged up to become the Duluth Ship Canal. Digging was already underway—it had begun September 5 of that year, when the dredging tug Ishpeming took its first bite of the sandbar. According to historians Dwight Woodward…

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September 5, 1870: The dredging tug Ishpeming starts carving a canal

On this day in Duluth in 1870, the dredging tug Ishpeming, owned by W. W. Williams & Co. and piloted by Major John Upham, bit into Minnesota Point along a dirt roadway platted as Portage Street. The undeveloped street followed the same path local Ojibwe called Onigamiinsing or “Little Portage”—the very trail thought to have…

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August 31, 1870: Birth of pioneer and civic leader Bert Wheeler

On this day in Duluth in 1870, Bert N. Wheeler was born to Oneota founders Henry and Sarah Wheeler, the last of their eleven children. According to his 1946 obituary Wheeler graduated Hamline University, where he lettered in nine different sports including football, baseball and track, in 1894 and returned to Duluth that same year…

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August 17, 1870: Fires in Duluth test new volunteer fire department 

On this day in Duluth in 1870, a fire on Minnesota Point was the first call to Duluth’s newly established volunteer fire department, which was little more than a bucket brigade. The fire inside J. C. Funston’s furniture store was discovered by a Mr. Berkelman, who also resided in the building. Berkelman was only able…

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August 9, 1870: Duluth council passes bond for ship canal

On this day in 1870, Duluth’s Common Council (akin to today’s City Council) voted to take on a $50,000 bond to dig a ship canal. The bond was essentially an agreement with the Lake Superior & Mississippi Railroad and the Banking House of Jay Cooke to loan the city $50,000 to hire a dredging tug…

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August 1, 1870: Lake Superior & Mississippi Railroad completed

On this day in 1870 in Thomson, Minnesota, at eleven minutes past 8 p.m., the last spike was driven into the Lake Superior & Mississippi Railroad. Hundreds of laborers on hand for the event broke into cheers—they had been working double shifts to meet the August 1 deadline. At 11:30 that same evening, the first…

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April 21, 1870: Robert Bruce appointed Chief of Police

On this day in Duluth in 1870, Mayor J. B. Culver appointed Robert Bruce the Zenith City’s first Chief of Police. The Minnesotian thought Bruce a good choice, but wished Culver had made a more local choice: Bruce lived nine miles from Duluth on Rice Lake in his very own township, Bruceville. But Bruce had…

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April 12, 1870: City of Duluth holds its first City Council meeting

On this day in Duluth in 1870, the new City of Duluth’s first city council held its initial meeting in the Portland School at Third Avenue West and Superior Street. The city council was then made up of alderman representing four voting wards, one was elected for a two-years term and the second a one-year…

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March 6, 1870: Duluth becomes a city for the first time

On this day in Duluth in 1870, the Minnesota State legislature passed a bill making the town of Duluth and several other surrounding townsites the city of Duluth. Duluth stretched between Twenty-First Avenue East and Thirtieth Avenue West from Fifth Street to to Minnesota Point’s Oatka Beach at Thirty-Eighth Street South, including Rice’s Point. The…

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September 3, 1870: Minnesotian reports that “Big” Hanson has left town.

On this day in Duluth in 1870, the Duluth Minnesotian reported that George “Big” Hanson had left town—and Minnesotian editor and publisher Dr. Thomas Foster couldn’t have been happier. Foster had been bullying Hanson in print for months. Hanson came to Duluth from Minneapolis, bought into the Bay View House hotel, and established Duluth’s first performance space,…

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August 27, 1870: Organization of Duluth’s First Baptist Church

On this day in Duluth in 1870, several Duluthians gathered at the home of Mrs. I. C. Spaulding to establish Duluth’s First Baptist Church. Two Minneapolis Baptist clergymen, Reverend Amos Gale and Reverend A. L. Cole presided over the meeting. Those in attendance included Mrs. Cynthia Parker, Mrs. Adaline Van Brunt, Mrs. James S. Campbell,…

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August 9, 1870: J. D. Ensign accepted to the St. Louis County Bar

On this day in Duluth in 1870, attorney Josiah Davis Ensign was accepted to the St. Louis County Bar. Ensign, a native of Erie County in New York Sate, had arrived in the Zenith City just months earlier. When Ensign was just 15 years old he began teaching school, using his income to study law.…

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July 4, 1870: Pioneer Jerome Cooley arrives in Duluth

On this day in Duluth in 1870, Jerome E. Cooley first arrived in the Zenith City. Cooley would go on to form the Lavaque-Cooley fisheries, which set up shop at roughly the same location as the back of the Paulucci Building in Canal Park. The business was later purchased by A. Booth & Co. This…

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May 3, 1870: First edition of the Duluth Tribune

On this day in Duluth in 1870. R. C. Mitchell published the first edition of the Duluth Tribune. Mitchell had come to Superior less than a year before and leased the Superior Gazette, and changed its name to Superior Tribune and urged “the people who controlled the destiny of the place to ‘get a move…

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April 4: 1870: Duluth’s first mayoral election

On this day in Duluth in 1870, Colonel Joshua B. Culver was elected the city’s first mayor. Historic accounts of this event differ. Walter Van Brunt, future historian and Duluth’s first City Clerk, soberly recorded that the election was held, “in the schoolhouse at Portland, and the candidates for election to mayoral office were Col.…

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From Promise to Panic (1870–1877)

Duluth continued to boom during its first three years as a city. More immigrants poured in to build the railroads. Loggers clear-cut the city’s hillside, defining its streets and providing timber that Culver’s and Munger’s sawmills cut into the lumber that became the city’s first houses, churches, docks, and warehouses. Duluth’s Minnesota neighbors joined in…

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A City is Born (1869–1870)

By May 1869 Jay Cooke’s agents had arrived in Duluth and began spending his money as well as that of his associate E. W. Clark. Those agents—George Sargent, George C. Stone, and Luther Mendenhall—would become prominent figures in Duluth’s history. They opened the town’s first bank, which everyone called Jay Cooke’s Bank. They built one…

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1870: Duluth’s First Year as a City

The following story—adapted from Tony Dierckins’s Duluth: An Urban Biography (Minnesota Historical Society Press, April 2020)—was first published in the Duluth News Tribune in March, 2020, in celebration of Duluth’s 150th anniversary of first becoming a city on March 6, 1870. ___________ In 1870, its first year as a city, Duluth—destined to become the “Zenith…

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Subverting Duluth’s Sunday Liquor Laws, 1870–2017

While the sale of liquor on Sundays was illegal in Minnesota starting in 1856, Duluth’s early history shows a revolving-door policy regarding adherence to the statute even though the city paid keen attention to liquor issues from its start—the very first ordinance passed by Duluth city officials regulated the “trading in intoxicants.” On July 21,…

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Duluth’s Grain Trade (1870–1972)

In 1869 Jay Cooke financed Duluth’s first grain elevator at the very corner of Lake Superior, where Third Avenue East once met the shore next to Sidney Luce’s warehouse. Cooke’s Union Improvement and Elevator Company purchased wood from Roger Munger’s sawmill on Lake Avenue to build Elevator A, a grain terminal that could hold 350,000…

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First Methodist (1870, 1893)

3rd Avenue West & 2nd Street (NW corner) | Architect: Unknown | Built: 1870 | Moved ca. 1893 215 North 3rd Avenue West | Architects: Weary & Kramer | Built: 1893 | Lost: 1968 The Reverend Harvey Webb arrived in Duluth in October 1869 and began conducting Methodist church services at the town of Portland’s schoolhouse. In…

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First Presbyterian (1870)

231 East 2nd Street | Architect: Abraham Radcliffe | Built: 1870 | Lost: 1971 Established June 1, 1869, by Reverend W. R. Higgins, Duluth’s First Presbyterian Church was the first Christian congregation organized in the town of Duluth. (St. Paul’s Episcopal was organized not long after, and beat the Presbyterians to the punch by building…

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Sacred Heart Roman Catholic (1870)

201 West 4th Street | Architect: Unknown | Built: 1870 | Lost: 1892 Prior to 1870 Catholics in Duluth attended masses at various locations led by Slovenian missionary priest John Chebul. In 1870 land was donated for a Catholic church on the corner of Fourth Street and Second Avenue West, and Father Chebul began an effort to…

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Sneak Peek: The Depots of Fond du Lac

This week‘s sneak peek from our forthcoming book Twin Ports Trains: The Historic Railroads of Duluth & Superior 1870–1970 features the historic passenger depots of Duluth‘s Fond du Lac neighborhood, the original built in 1870 by the Lake Superior & Mississippi Railroad and the second in 1896 by the St. Paul & Duluth Railroad and…

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Sneak Peek: The DSS&A’s Flour Slogan Trains

This week‘s sneak peek from our forthcoming book Twin Ports Trains: The Historic Railroads of Duluth & Superior 1870–1970 features the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic railroad’s efforts to market not only its services, but the products of Duluth as well. In particular, the DSS&A used “flour slogan trains” to get the word out. Enjoy!…

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Sneak Peek: The D&IR Locomotive Three Spot

This week‘s sneak peek from our forthcoming book Twin Ports Trains: The Historic Railroads of Duluth & Superior 1870–1970 features another early locomotive, the Duluth & Iron Range Railroad’s Three Spot, which helped build the D&IR’s original line from today’s Two Harbors to Tower on the Vermilion Iron Range after surviving a harrowing crossing of…

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March 1, 1908: Dedication of new First Baptist Church

On this day in Duluth in 1908, parishioners and celebrants dedicated the new edifice of Duluth’s First Baptist Church at 830 East First Street, the southeast corner of First Street and Ninth Avenue East. The church was first organized on August 27, 1870, by pioneers including attorney William W. Billson, who in 1892 lured Chester Congdon…

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Sneak Peek: The NP’s Grassy Point Bridge

West Duluth and West Superior were first connected in 1887 when the St. Paul & Duluth Railroad built the first incarnation of the St. Louis River Bridge—aka the Grassy Point Bridge—the second of eventually five mechanical swing-arm draw bridges (with a total of six draw spans) constructed over the St. Louis River between Superior Bay…

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Sneak Peek: The Twin Ports Depots of the Omaha Road

The Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railroad (CStPMO, aka the “Omaha Road”) first arrived in the Twin Ports in 1885 and served Duluth and Superior providing both freight and passenger until 1961, after it had been absorbed by the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad. Below is the history of the Omaha‘s passenger stations at the…

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February 12, 1893: Duluth Society Men Condemn Crinoline and Hoop Skirts

On the day in Duluth in 1893, the Duluth News Tribune reported that local “Society men” had condemned the wearing of crinoline and hoop  skirts. The fashion trend of hoop skirts made from crinoline (a combination of horse hair and linen) peaked in the 1870s, but it threatened to return in the 1890s and those Duluth…

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Sneak Peek: The NP’s Fond du Lac Branch & Lost Forbay

About a month back we shared a story about the old St. Paul & Duluth‘s Short Line, aka the “Skally Line,” which was built so that the St.P&D could stop running trains over the dangerous trestles between Thomson and Fond du Lac. This week‘s sneak peek from our forthcoming book Twin Ports Trains: The Historic…

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Tony Dierckins

Zenith City Press founder Tony Dierckins—a native of St. Paul, Minnesota, and Duluth resident since 1984—has written more than two dozen books, from the fun and fascinating Duct Tape and WD-40 books to critically acclaimed illustrated histories celebrating the history of Duluth, Minnesota, and the western Lake Superior Regional (listed below). Along the way Dierckins…

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Sneak Peek: The Locomotive Minnetonka

A few weeks ago we introduced you to the historic Great Northern Railroad‘s locomotive Wm. Crooks, which went on to become the motive power for James J. Hill‘s private train and eventually ended up right here in Duluth at the Lake Superior Railroad Museum. This week‘s sneak peek from our forthcoming book Twin Ports Trains:…

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Sneak Peek: The NP‘s St. Louis Bay Bridge

As you drive over the Blatknik Bridge fro Duluth and Superior, if you look out the passenger window you can see a small island in the bay, often covered with ring-billed gulls and common terns during warmer months. Some call it Bird Island, but its technical name is Interstate Island. It is entirely man-made and…

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Sneak Peek: Duluth’s First “Union Depot”

This week’s sneak peek from our forthcoming book Twin Ports Trains: The Historic Railroads of Duluth & Superior 1870–1970 takes us back to 1870 and the very first passenger train depot built at the Head of the Lakes, where people could board an LS&M or Northern Pacific passenger train and, briefly, trains on the Omaha…

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January 20: 1922: The funeral of Guilford Hartley

On this day in Duluth in 1922, Guilford G. Hartley was laid to rest at Forest Hill Cemetery following a simple service in his stately home at 1308 East Superior Street. His pall bearers included his brother Hebert, his sons Guilford and Cavour, and his sons-in law James Claypool, D. H. Lewis, and Walter Congdon.…

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Sneak Peek: What was the “Skally Line”?

Recently the Duluth Monitor, which publishes the work of intrepid independent journalist John Ramos, ran a wonderful story titled “Abundant remnants of Duluth’s first railroad overlooked in Jay Cooke Park.” It includes photographs of trestle foundations and views taken from the former Lake Superior & Mississippi Railroad (LS&M) line built along and over the St.…

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Looking Forward: The Locomotive William Crooks

As we work toward the completion of Twin Ports Trains: The Historic Railroads of Duluth & Superior 1870–1970, we are sharing excerpts from the book to give readers a little taste of what’s in store. As we finish editing selected stories from the book, we will share them with you here through our Monday Updates.…

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January 7, 1879: John Drew elected president of the Village of Duluth

On this day in Duluth in 1879, John Drew was elected president of the Village of Duluth. (The title was essentially that of mayor.) Drew was born in Redding, Connecticut, in 1815. His family later relocated to Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and Drew first came to Duluth in 1870 after purchasing a Superior Street lot for his…

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Here’s What’s in Store for 2024!

Welcome to 2024! While the world will no-doubt be focused on war and the U.S. presidential election, we here at Zenith City Press are focused on completing a project we’ve been working on (with many interruptions!) since about 2015: Twin Ports Trains: The Railroad History of Duluth and Superior, 1870–2020. My coauthor on the project…

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January 1, 1893: Duluth annexes the City of Lakeside

On this day Duluth in 1893, Duluth annexed the City of Lakeside, which was made up of today’s Lakeside and Lester Park neighborhoods that stretch east from Fortieth Avenue East to the Lester River up to Skyline Parkway. A small portion of today’s Lakeside was established in 1856 as the town of Belmont, but was…

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December 20, 1891: Dedication of Duluth’s new First Presbyterian Church

On this day in Duluth in 1891, officials dedicated the new First Presbyterian Church at 300 East Second Street, a masterpiece of Richardsonian Romanesque architecture faced in Lake Superior brownstone and designed by Oliver Traphagen and his new partner, Francis Fitzpatrick. Organized June 1, 1869, First Presbyterian was Duluth’s first established church. In 1870 the…

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Archive Dive: The Lonsdale Building

This week’s archive dive  takes us to downtown where in 1895 a new office block rose along the lower side of West Superior Street—and still stand there today, but it is several stories taller than when it was first built. It was also once owned by newborn John Nicholas Brown II, dubbed the “richest baby…

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September 21, 1891: Cornerstone laid for Duluth’s new First Methodist Church

On this day in Duluth in 1891, Methodists gathered to lay the cornerstone of the 1893 First Methodist Church at 215 North Third Avenue West during a ceremony the Duluth News Tribune described as “very solemn and fitting character.”The new building would replace the congregation’s original 1873 wooden church, which stood nearby at the northwest…

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September 14, 1907: Maiden voyage of the ore boat Ward Ames

On this day in Duluth in 1907, the ore boat Ward Ames departed Duluth on its maiden voyage, carrying 10,101 gross tons of iron ore—lighter than her capacity due to the shallowness of some of the rivers that connected the Great Lakes at the time. The Ames was the third vessel built by the Acme…

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Archive Dive: The Locomotive Minnetonka

Visitors to Duluth’s Lake Superior Railroad Museum have seen this week’s archive topic first-hand and fully restored. The Locomotive Minnetonka arrived in Duluth in 1870 on a boat to be used by the Northern Pacific Railroad to carry construction materials to today’’s Carlton and beyond, playing an instrumental role in the railroad’s construction west across…

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September 11, 1875: Minnesotian-Herald begins publication

On this day in Duluth in 1875, the Minnesotian-Herald—a weekly newspaper—printed its first edition. Its proprietors were Edward and Clarence Foster, sons of Dr. Thomas Foster, who moved his St. Paul Minnesotian newspaper to Duluth, altered its name, and gave a speech first naming Duluth “The Zenith City of the Unsalted Seas.” In June 1872…

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Archive Dive: First Unitarian

This week’s archive dive  takes us to Duluth‘s Endion neighborhood, where in 1910 Duluth Unitarians constructed a new Tudor-inspired chirch designed by local architect Anthony Puck. From our book Duluth‘s Grand Old Architecture 1870–1940. Check out the story here.

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Archive Dive: Hayes Block

This week‘s trip to the archive takes us to the southwest corner of Superior Street and First Avenue East, where two different buildings—both called the Hayes block—have stood since 1870. The first was financed by Duluth parks visionary William K. Rogers and his pal, future US. president Rutherford B. Hayes. Read a history of the…

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July 21, 1895: Mark Twain speaks at Duluth’s First Methodist Church

On this day in Duluth in 1895, nationally beloved author and humorist Mark Twain spoke at Duluth’s First Methodist Church. The event started an hour late—Twain, with his wife and one of his daughters, had traveled to Duluth on the steamer North West, which was delayed getting to port. Twain promised to make up for…

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July 20, 1856: First Christian sermon delivered on Minnesota Point

On this day in 1856 in what would become Duluth, Rev. John M. Barnett, a Presbyterian minister, delivered the first Christian sermon on Minnesota Point. Barnett recalled the event: “On the evening of July 20, in the summer of ’56, I preached my first sermon on the point in a house owned by a man…

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July 14, 1888: Duluth’s Germans dedicate Turner Hall

On this day in Duluth in 1888, Duluth’s German’s dedicated their brand new Turner Hall at 601 East Third Street. Most city’s in America had their own Turner Hall at the time, a gathering place for members of the local Turnverein Society. The Turners were founded in Germany in 1811 by a group of men who…

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July 10, 1869: Brewery owner buys building to open saloon

On this day in Duluth in 1869, Nicholas Decker purchased property at 31 West Superior Street to open a saloon to sell his beer. In the mid 1860s Decker had purchased Duluth’s first brewery, built on Washington Avenue along Brewery Creek in 1859 by Gottlieb Busch andand financed by Sidney Luce (later Duluth’s third mayor).…

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Archive Dive: Duluth‘s Grainy Memories

Moving grain from the Red River Valley through Duluth via railroads and Great Lakes freighters to flour mills int he east helped Duluth get back on its feet after the Panic of 1873,  played an important link in Duluth for the next one hundred years, and still contributes to the local economy. Consequently, Duluth  was…

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June 26, 1894: Cornerstone laid for new Board of Trade Building

On this day in Duluth in 1894, Duluth’s Masons laid the cornerstone for the second Board of Trade Building at 301–307 West First Street “with all the circumstance incident to the Masonic ritual.” The day’s event started at three p.m. with a horse-drawn carriages bringing dignitaries to the Masonic Temple. At four p.m. a procession…

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Archive Dive: “Boom to Bust to Boom (1869–1887)”

This week’s archive dive presents the third chapter of Zenith City Press publisher Tony Dierckins’s Duluth: An Urban Biography, winner of the 2020/2021 Northeast Minnesota Book Award. Titled “Boom to Bust to Boom (1869–1887)” the excerpt tells the tale of how Duluth booked with the coming of the railroads in 1869, went bust when Jay…

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June 5, 1889: Duluth’s volunteer fire department voluntarily disbands

On this day in Duluth in 1889, Duluth’s volunteer fire department officially disbanded. It had been organized in early March 1870, right after Duluth officially became a city for the first time. The first fire-fighting equipment the department owned were three dozen buckets donated by local hardware salesman A. A. Clifford. In November 1870 the…

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Archive Dive: St. James Orphanage

This week’s Archive Dive takes us inside our newest book, “Duluth’s Grand Old Architecture 1870–1940,” for a look at the 1910 St. James Orphanage at 4321 Allendale Avenue and designed by Duluth architect A. Werner Lignell. You might know the building as Woodland Hills, a residential youth treatment center later renamed the Hills Youth and…

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May 5, 1861: Creation of the Lake Superior & Mississippi Railroad

On this day in 1861, the charter for the Nebraska & Lake Superior Railroad Company, designed to run from St. Paul to Omaha, was changed to instead create the Lake Superior & Mississippi (LS&M) from St. Paul to the westernmost tip of Lake Superior. Construction of the LS&M—designed as a portage railway to connect the…

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May 4, 1872: Saboteurs attempt to blow up dike

On this day in Duluth in 1872, saboteurs used explosives in their attempt to destroy a dike between Duluth and Superior. The dike was built to settle a lawsuit between Duluth and Superior over the Duluth Ship Canal. Superior argued that the canal would divert the waters of the St. Louis River, allowing silt to…

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Archive Dive: The F. A. Patrick House

This week’s Archive Dive takes us inside our newest book, “Duluth’s Grand Old Architecture 1870–1940,” for a look at the 1900 Patrick House at 2306 E. Superior Street and designed by Duluth architect I. Vernon Hill. One of the few homes in Duluth using a Picturesque design, accented with some Tudor Revival, it was a…

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March 25, 1710: Duluth’s namesake dies from gout

On this day in 1710, Duluth namesake Daniel Greysolon Sieur du Lhut died of complications from gout in Montreal, New France. du Lhut had been born in the French village of Saint-Germain-Laval, near Lyons, in 1639 and served in King Louis XIV’s Royale Guard before traveling to what would become Canada. Biographer’s suggest that in…

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March 3, 1837: Birth of Duluth Pack creator Camille Poirer

On this day in 1837 (some say 1838) Camille Poirer was born in Montreal, Quebec. By 1870 he had visited Duluth often and decided to make the Zenith City his home. Here he first provided drinking water to local homes and businesses and later established a boot and shoe company on Superior Street just west…

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Archive Dive: The Pioneer Breweries of the Twin Ports

This week we dive into the archive to pull up some history on the pioneer brewers of Duluth and Superior. Brewing began in both communities in 1859, providing both a potent potable and jobs, as at the time the entire Head of the Lakes was struggling financially in the wake of the Panic of 1857.…

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Archive Dive: The Duluth’s Polish Catholic Churches

This week’s Archive Dive takes us inside our newest book, “Duluth’s Grand Old Architecture 1870–1940” to tell the story of Duluth’s Polish Catholics through its three Polish Catholic churches: St. Mary’s Star of the Sea, Stes. Peter & Paul, and St. Josephat. Together their stories include mistreatment by Duluth’s Irish and German Catholics, the local…

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January 1, 1895: Fond du Lac Joins the City of Duluth

On this day in Duluth in 1895, the Village of Fond du Lac officially joined the city of Duluth, extending the Zenith City’s western boundary. Prior to European settlement the entire area familiar to us as Duluth and Superior was known as Fond du Lac, French for “bottom of the lake.” The name was also…

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Holiday Sale Continues!

We are continuing our online Holiday Sale through the end of December—and since we no longer sell our books via Amazon.com, these are the best prices you‘ll find on the internet. All our titles are on sale and we have some great package deals when you buy our latest, Duluth‘s Grand Old Architecture 1870–1940, and…

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December 15, 1856: The platting of the town of Endion

On this day in what would become Duluth, the town of Endion was platted between today’s 14th Avenue East and 21st Avenue East, essentially between Chester and Oregon Creeks from the lake shore to today’s Skyline Parwkay. Captain T. A. Markland established the townsite as “a quiet suburb for capitalists doing business at Superior,” which…

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Sale at Depot Great Hall this Saturday; Holiday Sale Continues

  Zenith City Press publisher and author Tony Dierckins will be selling and signing copies of all his books at the Duluth Depot’s Great Hall Marketplace from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Meanwhile, we are continuing our online Holiday Sale through the end of December—and since we no longer sell our books via Amazon.com, these…

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Signing Saturday At Glensheen; Holiday Sale Continues

Zenith City Press publisher and author Tony Dierckins will be signing copies of all his books at Glensheen Historic Estate this coming Saturday, December 10, from 1 to 3 p.m. Meanwhile, we are continuing our online Holiday Sale through the end of December—and since we no longer sell our books via Amazon.com, these are the…

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HOLIDAY SALE: 10–33% OFF ALL BOOKS!

Happy “Cyber Monday” to all! Here at Zenith City Press, we‘ll be honoring Cyber Monday every day now through New Year’s Eve—and since we no longer sell our books via Amazon.com, these are the best prices you‘ll find on the internet. All our titles are on sale and we have some great package deals when…

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November 26, 1843: The birth of Duluth pioneer George Spencer

On this day in 1843, future Duluthian George Spencer was born Westminster, Vermont. After attending high school in Boston, Spencer came to Duluth in 1870 to manage the Union Improvement Elevator Company. In 1880 he entered the grain shipping business with Melvin J. Forbes as Spencer & Co. In 1889, he and Forbes parted company…

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Last Chance to Get Holiday Sale Deals!

It is now the final week of our Holiday Sale—and since we no longer sell our books via Amazon.com, these are the best prices you‘ll find on the internet. All our titles are on sale and we have some great package deals when you buy our latest, Duluth‘s Grand Old Architecture 1870–1940, and we’ve cut…

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Small Business Saturday: Author Signing at Zenith Book Store!

SMALL BUSINESS SATURDAY (November 26): Zenith City press’s Tony Dierckins will be signing copies of all his books—including the new “Duluth’s Grand Old Architecture 1870–1940” and “Duluth: An Urban Biography” (winner of the 2020-2021 Northeast Minnesota Book Award)—at Zenith Book Store, 318 N Central Avenue, from 1 to 3 p.m.  

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November 16, 1881: Fire destroys Duluth’s Clark House Hotel

On this day in Duluth in 1881, fire destroyed the Clark House, Duluth’s finest hotel and the unofficial seat of all business in the fledgling city since it was first built in 1870. The fire had originated in an old boiler room behind the kitchen—a boiler that was scheduled to be replaced the very next…

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This Week’s Author Events

  THIS THURSDAY (November 17): Zenith City’s Tony Dierckins will present “Duluth’s Grand Old Buildings” at the University of Minnesota Duluth Kathryn A. Martin Library Rotunda. The presentation, which is derived from “Duluth‘s Grand Old Architecture 1870–1940” and introduces the audience to Duluth Landmark structures and those listed on the National Register of Historic Places,…

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This Week’s Author Events

THIS WEEKEND (November 12–13): Zenith City Press will be setting up shop at the Festival of Trees at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center. Publisher Tony Dierckins will be on hand to sign all of his books, and we are offering special prices on several titles. A great way to pick up a signed copy…

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Upcoming Author Events for November

Monday, November 7: Zenith City’s Tony Dierckins will give a brief presentation on the history of ski jumping in Duluth before Minnesota author Peter Geyer takes the stage to read from his newest work, ”The Ski Jumper.” Hosted by the Bookstore@ Fitger’s, the event will take place in the Fitger Complex’s Spirit of the North…

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