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On this day in Duluth in 1988, the movie Far North premiered at the movie theatre within Miller Hill Mall. The film was shot in and around Duluth and starred Cloquet native Jessica Lange, Charles Durning, and Lange’s husband Sam Shepard, who also wrote and directed the piece. Laurie Hertzel and J. P. Furst of…
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On this day in 1890, the pioneer Merritt family of Duluth ordered their test-pit crew, Captain J. A. Nichols to “Start digging!” According to railroad historian Jeff Lemke, “the Merritt’s good fortune in finding Mesabi Range hematite ore came after Cassius Merritt became employed by the Duluth & Winnipeg Railroad (D&W) in 1888 as head…
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On this day in Duluth in 1927, the Duluth News Tribune celebrated Dave Schwartz, a patrolman of the Duluth Police Department and a heck of a violin player, calling him “Duluth’s Fiddlin’ Copper.” Apparently Schwartz, who was shy about his talents, accompanied his fellow officers as they sang—the newspaper called the DPD’s chorus “one of…
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On this day in 1920, Duluth resident John Maur asked St. Louis County Sheriff Frank Magee for a letter of reference to prevent him from once again being mistaken for a murder suspect and thrown into jail. Three days earlier, Mauer had been arrested in Virginia, Minnesota, for the murder of Duluth taxi driver Johnny…
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On this day on Lake Superior in 1920, the crew of the 416-foot steam freighter Francis J. Widlar fought a November gale on her way from Duluth to Cleveland that drove the 16-year-old vessel onto the Pancake Shoals near Whitefish Point. William Rorke, captain of the steamer John Ericson, reported the foundering vessel when he…
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On this day in Duluth in 1966, organizer’s reached their goal of raising $21,000 for lighting that would illuminate Duluth’s famous Aerial Lift Bridge at night. The effort, led by the project Duluth Committee, was explained by chairman John Grinden: “The Aerial Lift Bridge is the symbol of Duluth [and] we want to do everything…
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On this day in Duluth in 1909, fire ravaged several building along the 300 block of Central Avenue in West Duluth. One of the buildings damaged in the conflagration was the Traphagen Block, designed by noted Duluth architect Oliver Traphagen and home today to Gannucci’s Italian Market. The building, home to Dr. David Graham’s hospital, was completely…
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On this day in 1872, Ole Georgurious Thrana was born in Steinkjer, Norway, where he apprenticed as a stone carver. Thrana—who went by “George”—moved to Duluth in 1889, when he was just 17 years old and had no friends or relatives in America. His first job in Duluth was working on the First Presbyterian Church,…
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On this day in Duluth in 1917, the Duluth School Board announced that it had completed a process of “cleansing” its schools “objectionable laudatory passages for Germany, the kaiser, the German flag, the crown prince and other Hohensollerns” in books used throughout Duluth’s schools. America had entered the war in Europe earlier in the year,…
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On this day in Duluth in 1952, former mayor Samuel Frisby Snively died at the home of his niece Zelda Overland, where he lived for the final three years of his life. Snively, a lifelong bachelor, was an attorney by trade and a road builder by passion. Elected five times, he was Duluth’s longest-serving mayor…
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