Updates – Zenith City Online

“Beer Book” update: Off to the Presses!

Four years after work began in earnest on Naturally Brewed, Naturally Better: The Historic Breweries of Duluth & Superior—and forty years after coauthor Pete Clure’s first started researching and collecting all things related to brewing in the Twin Ports—final corrections have been made and the layout files are off to the printer! The book covers from 1859 to today, telling…

FREE Superior Street History Tours!

Zenith City Press has teamed up with the Duluth Experience and the city of Duluth to create free historic walking tours of Superior Street during its reconstruction project. The tour covers the portion of Superior Street undergoing renovation between Third and Seventh avenues west, exploring the history and evolution Duluth’s main thoroughfare and the stories behind many of the…

“Duluth’s Historic Parks” winner of the 2018 Northeastern Minnesota Book Award for Non-Fiction

Zenith City Press is proud to announce that last night, Thursday, May 24, its 2017 release Duluth’s Historic Parks: Their First 160 Years, by Nancy S. Nelson and Tony Dierckins, took home the top prize in the non-fiction category of the 30th Annual Northeastern Minnesota Book Awards. This is Zenith City Press’s second NEMBA win…

“Duluth’s Historic Parks” book—33% OFF OR FREE!

In Honor of Duluth Parks Day May 19, for the entire month of May our Duluth’s Historic Parks book, regularly $25, is on sale (on our website only) for just $16.50—normally $25, a savings of 33%!—and 5% of proceeds will go to the Duluth Parks Fund. BUT… you can get a copy for FREE by volunteering to help clean…

Do You Know These People’s People?

Pete Clure, co-author of our upcoming book on the historic breweries of Duluth and Superior, has been collecting brewerania and research related to the Twin Ports’ historic breweries for nearly forty years. Part of his amazing archive is a collection of eight photos taken at People’s Brewery in Duluth in the 1950s. Unfortunately, we don’t know…

Up Next for ZCP: Twin Ports Beer & Railroad History

We’ve been keeping our nose to the grindstone here at Zenith City Press. Last week I finished writing a third complete year of “This Day in Duluth” entries, that’s 1,096 so far, including one for leap day. Meanwhile, coauthor Pete Clure and I have sent the manuscript for Naturally Brewed, Naturally Better: The Historic Breweries of Duluth…

The NorShor: “The Northwest’s most spectacular theater”

As those working on the $30 million renovation of Duluth’s NorShor Theatre race to finish the project in time for the scheduled opening on February 1, we thought it was about time we shared our history of the NorShor. To illustrate the piece, we were fortunate enough to have access to Jim Heffernan’s collection of historic photos…

ZCP author recognized with Duluth Depot Foundation Award

Nancy S. Nelson, author of Duluth’s Historic Parks: Their First 160 Years, has been named the 2017 recipient of the Duluth Depot Foundation’s 2017 Historic Interpretation & Preservation Award. The award is part of the foundation’s annual Arts & Culture Awards, created to recognize outstanding accomplishments in the areas of initiative, community enrichment, and lifetime…

Tour Duluth’s “Dark History” with the Duluth Experience

Our friends at The Duluth Experience have announced the return of their “Dark History” bus tour. This tour, developed in part with the help of Zenith City Press, explores some of the more notorious events in Duluth’s history and even includes a few ghost stories and an Ojibwe legend. The Experience’s Nick Shultz leads the tour, which…

If we “save” the LS&M, we first need a viable plan for its future

This article also appears in the Sunday August 13 edition of the Duluth News Tribune. August is a historic month for the Lake Superior & Mississippi Railroad. Its final spike was driven August 1, 1870, and passenger service between St. Paul and Duluth began three weeks later. August 2017 finds Duluth’s civic leaders considering the…