On this day in 1874, the man for whom Thomson Township takes its name—J. Edgar Thomson—died in Philadelphia. Thomson was an industrialist best known as the “Father” of the Pennsylvania Railroad. During his 22-year reign as the railroad’s president, the Pennsylvania grew from 250 miles to more than 6,000, and stretched from New York and…

On this day in 1903, Duluth Eskimo and national Football League Hall of Fame inductee Walt Keisling was born in St. Paul, Minnesota. Perhaps the purest “leatherhead” among the Eskimos—and certainly worthy of their “Iron Men of the North” nickname—Walt Kiesling spent his NFL career both in the trenches and on the sidelines. He was…

On this day in Duluth in 1932, the first nine holes of the Lester Park Golf Course opened to the public. The course was developed to give the working-class public another place to play besides Enger Park Golf Course, and to put men to work in the midst of the Great Depression. Park Superintendent F.…