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…

On this day in 1974 the Incan Superior North was launched in Vancouver, British Columbia. On her maiden voyage the vessel travelled from North Vancouver down the west coast, through the Panama Canal, up the eastern seaboard, down the St. Lawrence Seaway, and across the Great Lakes to her new owners, Incan Ships, Ltd., in Thunder…

On this day in Duluth in 1911, trapper John LeGarde, called by newspapers the “Oldest Chippewa in state of Minnesota,” died in his Fond du Lac cabin of “acute congestion of the lungs.” Duluth newspaper accounts of his life are slightly conflicting—they didn’t agree on his age, or his birthplace, and while the Herald called…

On this day in Duluth in 1966, fire destroyed the Ramstad Block at 2 1/2 East First Street, the southeast corner of Lake Avenue and First Street. According to Duluth Fire Department historian Jarry Keppers, “This fire started at 7:03 p.m. on February 26, when ten businesses were swept by fire at the southeast corner…

On this day in 1971, Duluth songwriter Sammy Gallop took his own life in a hospital in Van Nuys, California. Gallop was born in in Duluth in 1915 to a family of Russian immigrants. According to biographer David Ouse, in the 1940s Gallop headed to New York City to sell his songs. His first hit…

On this day in 1858, future Duluth pioneer George B. Sargent gave a lecture in Boston about the “New West.” At the time Sargent was serving as Surveyor General of the United States. He was attempting to gather others to help him build a new community that would rival Chicago. To convince his listeners, he…

On this date in 1826, Bureau of Indian Affairs agent Lawrence Taliaferro reported to Colonel Josiah Snelling that “There may be some whisky at Sandy Lake, but no large quantity nearer than the post of the American Fur Company, at Fond du Lac, Lake Superior, which would be too far for troops to march at…

On this day in Duluth in 1873, the Duluth Blast Furnace Company was established by pioneers J. B. Culver, Luther Mendenhall, J. D. Ray, J. C. Hunter, and W. W. Spalding and began construction on Rice’s Point that summer. They lured Pittsburgh’s John H. Schoenberger to operate the Schoenberger and Bryant Car Company Foundry to…

On this day in Duluth in 1916, a Duluth News Tribune reporter was shown a “secret elevator” to a “dungeon” in the basement of the 1909 St. Louis County Courthouse. He reported on it the next day, his lead paragraph claiming most Duluthians were unaware “that there are secrests and mysteries in Duluth official life.…

On this day in Duluth in 1981, fire destroyed the historic J. D. Ensign Elementary School in Piedmont Heights. Built in 1908 at 1013 Piedmont Avenue, the three-story building was named in honor of Duluth Judge Josiah Ensign. The thirteen-room school closed in 1979 after which it became a target of vandals. By the time…