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On this day in Duluth in 1911, the Aerial Transfer Bridge was knocked out of commission, scaring passengers and causing at least one Park Point resident to cry foul. Indeed, four Park Point residents had been “nearly frightened out of their boots,” according to the Duluth News Tribune, when the ferry car abruptly stopped and…
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On this day in in 1857, Registrar Samuel Clark of the Buchanan Land office sent the first message from the newly established outpost in the wilderness of Lake Superior’s North Shore to his boss T. A. Hendricks in Washington D.C.—and he was not happy. The previous year the town of Buchanan—platted by W. G. Cowell and…
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On this day in Duluth in 1910, the Duluth News Tribune reported that national officials were concerned that the pompadour hair style would make a comeback, something they would consider “dangerous.” A. C. Mendell, district organizer of the Journeyman Barbers’ International Union of American, told the paper that “all barbers dread the coming of the…
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On this day in Duluth in 1971, the Duluth-Superior Bridge, aka the “High Bridge,” was renamed in honor of Minnesota’s 8th District congressman, John A. Blatnik. Built to replace the Interstate Bridge, the 7,975-foot Duluth-Superior Bridge, which stretches between Duluth’s Rice’s Point to Superior’s Conner’s Point, first opened in 1961. Its construction resulted in the…
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On this day in 1928, future Duluthian and newscaster Roger Grimsby was born in Missoula, Montana where he was adopted by Lutheran minister Oscar Grimsby and his wife Ragna. Four years later Reverend Grimsby took a position with Duluth’s Zion Lutheran Church and moved his family to the Zenith City. According to biographer David Ouse,…
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On this day in Duluth in 1940, 21 Duluth firefighters required medical attention after fighting a fire at Duluth’s Glencoe Building at 26 North Third Avenue West. The blaze was thought to have started in the building’s subbasement and nearly destroyed the basement and first floor; it’s top two floors suffered heavy smoke damage. It…
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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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On this day in 2004, Duluth native and one-time Under Secretary of the U. S. Air Force Townsend Hoopes II died while visiting Baja California, Mexico. Hoopes was born in Duluth April 28, 1922, the son of Great Lakes shipping magnate Henry Townsend Hoopes. and the grandnephew of Duluth pioneer Townsend Hoopes. After graduating Yale…
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On this day in Duluth in 1926, the NFL’s Duluth Eskimos defeated the Kansas City Cowboys 7–0 at Athletic Park, and then never played another game at Duluth for the rest of their legendary 29-game season. The struggling league had designated both squads as traveling teams, in part because they were distant from other NFL…
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On this day in Duluth in 1910 the Alger-Smith Lumber Company on Grassy Point was destroyed by fire. A Duluth firefighter on his way to work at Engine House #8 on Grand Avenue in West Duluth first noticed the blaze at 6:30 a.m. By the time firefighters arrived, according to the Duluth News Tribune, “flames…
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