Zenith City Online Contributors

Heidi Bakk-Hansen
Heidi Bakk-Hansen is an educator and writer who fled to the Air-Conditioned City during the Chicago Heat Wave of 1995. She was one of the founders of the Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial Committee and wrote for the Ripsaw News during its heyday as an alternative weekly newspaper. Heidi resides in Hunters Park and is currently developing a book about Duluth place names for Zenith City Press. Click here to access Heidi’s archived stories.

Anthony Bush
Duluth native Anthony Bush works as a Special Education Paraprofessional for Duluth Public Schools and the pitching coach for the Proctor Rails high school baseball team (Bush is a 1994 graduate of Proctor) and acts as pitcher, president, and general manager of the Duluth Padres amateur baseball club of the Wisconsin Baseball Association’s Upper 13 League, which play its home games at UMD’s Bulldog Park. Bush, a member of the Society For American Baseball Research, began writing about the history of local sports in 2012 and is currently working with Bob Silverness on a history of Proctor baseball.

Tony Dierckins
Zenith City Online founder and publisher Tony Dierckins is a historian, author, and book designer  from St. Paul, Minnesota, working and living in his adopted home town of Duluth, Minnesota. Dierckins has worked in publishing since 1988 and has written or co-written nearly two dozen books, from the ridiculous Duct Tape books and calendars to the informative Crossing the Canal; An Illustrated History of Duluth’s Aerial Bridge (a 2009 finalist for the Minnesota Book Award). In the mid 90s he and Duct Tape co-creator Tim Nyberg operated Bad Dog Press, a national humor publisher specializing in parodies of self help books. Click here to access Tony’s archived stories and here for his full biography.

Jim Heffernan
Former Duluth News Tribune columnist and journalist Jim Heffernan continues his musings while in retirement on his blog (www.jimheffernan.org) and as a monthly columnist with Duluth~Superior Magazine. A collection of Heffernan’s classic newspaper columns in his book, Cooler Near the Lake, depicts his wry humor, interesting life perspectives and as a chronicler of Duluth history. Click here to access Jim’s archived stories.

Nancy Nelson
Nancy Nelson is a writer, geologist, and educator. She moved to Duluth from northern Illinois in 1987 to live near Lake Superior and attend UMD. A co-founder of Duluth’s Skyline Planning and Preservation Alliance, she is fascinated with history at all scales and is currently working on a book about the history of Duluth’s park system for Zenith City Press. Click here to access Nancy’s archived stories.

Maryanne C. Norton
Historian and Minneapolis native Maryanne C. Norton has made her home in Duluth since 1987, where she has worked as assistant director of the St. Louis County Historical Society and currently volunteers at the Duluth Public Library, helping others with historic and genealogical research. She worked as an archivist and librarian for the Marathon County Historical Society in Wausau, Wisconsin and is co-author of several books, including Images of America: Duluth, Minnesota and Lost Duluth by Zenith City Press Lost Duluth: Landmarks, Industries, Buildings, Homes, and the Neighborhoods in which They Stood, a finalist for the 2013 Minnesota Book Award. Click here to access Maryanne’s archived stories.

David Ouse
Duluth native David Ouse is the Supervisor of Public Services at the Duluth Public Library and has worked as a reference librarian for over thirty years. A graduate of UMD and the University of Minnesota, David is the author of the book Forgotten Duluthians and contributes the Duluth News-Tribune’s “Bygones” slices of history. Click here to access David’s archived stories.

Mark Ryan
Mark Ryan is a Twin Cities writer and photographer. He’s a regular contributor to the Science Museum of Minnesota’s Science Buzz. His writing has also appeared in such publications as Minnesota History, Lake Superior Magazine, City Pages, and online with Speaking of Geoscience. Ryan is the recipient of a Loft-McKnight Award in Creative Prose. Click here to access Mark’s archived stories.