On this day in Duluth in 1958, Duluthian Wally Gilbert, then considered “the greatest athlete ever developed in Duluth,” died of lung problems associated with his work at the U.S. Steel plant in Morgan Park. Born in Michigan on December 18, 1900, Gilbert moved to Duluth with his family four years later. He attended Denfeld…

On this day in Duluth in 1902, Dr. Robert Ormsby Sweeney—the man who established the Lester River Fish Hatchery—in 1888, died in his home next to the hatchery. Born a Philadelphia Quaker, Sweeney came to Minnesota territory in 1852 as a trained pharmacist who considered himself an artist by occupation. A pioneer settler of St.…

On this day in Duluth in 1870, the dredging tug Ishpeming, owned by W. W. Williams & Co. and piloted by Major John Upham, bit into Minnesota Point along a dirt roadway platted as Portage Street. The undeveloped street followed the same path local Ojibwe called Onigamiinsing or “Little Portage”—the very trail thought to have…

On this day in Duluth in 1920, the Duluth News Tribune reported on the discovery of a fake city ordinance written in 1910 to mock a city alderman. Tracy Holmberg, secretary to City Clerk Fred C. Ash, came across the document by accident among other city records. It was apparently written to mock the efforts…

On this day in Duluth in 1922, merchant and civic leader Bernard Silberstein died at his home in Duluth. Silberstein was born in Budapest, Hungary, on March 4, 1848. He and his wife Nettie, along with brothers Asa and Henry Leopold, were Duluth’s first Jewish residents. Silberstein was the owner of Silberstein & Bondy Dry…

On this day in 1665, the namesake of Superior, Wisconsin’s Allouez neighborhood arrived at Saulte Ste. Marie, where the St. Mary’s River meets Lake Superior. Missionary Claude-Jean Allouez and six of his countrymen were traveling in the company of “four hundred Indians of different tribes, who were returning to their country,” after trading at Three Rivers in…

On this day in Duluth in 1889, the Duluth Ship Canal’s new Rear Range Light was lit for the first time. The beacon, also known as the Inner Pier Range Light, was designed to work in tandem with the South Breakwater Light to help mariners navigate the canal in the dark. (Duluth’s North Pier Light…

On this day in Duluth in 1870, Bert N. Wheeler was born to Oneota pioneers Henry and Sarah Wheeler, the last of their eleven children. According to his 1946 obituary Wheeler graduated Hamline University, where he lettered in nine different sports including football, baseball and track, in 1894 and returned to Duluth that same year…

On this day in Duluth in 1912, the Duluth News Tribune’s headline shouted: “GIRL IN OPIUM DEN WITH NEGRO! POLICE ARREST COMELY CALUMET YOUNG WOMAN AND COMPANION AFTER BREAKING DOOR! Under Influence of Drug! Taken into Custody!” And finally, the last part of the headline, which is perhaps even more offensive to modern sensibilities: “Negro…

Today marks the birth of Idaho politician Henry Dworshack, born in Duluth on this day in 1894. Henry Jr. began working for his father, a printer, around age 15 and later worked as associate editor of Labor World and managed Duluth’s Northwest Printers’ Supply Co. in Duluth. In 1924 the family moved to Burley, Idaho,…