February 19, 1914: Mayor Prince wakes up in the wrong community

On this day in in 1914, Duluth Mayor William Prince woke up on the Iron Range when he thought he was in the Zenith City. The Duluth News Tribune had fun with the story, so rather than us reinterpreting it, here is the whole thing: “MAYOR WAKES UP TO FIND HE’S ON RANGE INSTEAD OF HOME. Carelessness on the part of employees of the Duluth, Missabe & Northern Railway company deprived Duluth of its mayor for five hours yesterday. Mayor Prince went to Eveleth on Wednesday to give members of the Commercial Club of that place his ideas on municipal government and incidentally to partake of a banquet. He made the trip in the private car of one of the road’s officials. Following the feast, the mayor retired to the car and went to bed, expecting to be speeding toward Duluth [and there by] 10:30 a.m. Through a mistake the private car was not coupled to the train, and ‘his worship’ was still on the range when he awoke. In consequence he did not get home until 3:20 p.m.” We are not sure why the News Tribune called Prince “his worship,” but you can learn more about Prince here.

William I. Prince. (Image: Duluth Public Library)