April 20, 1872: Newspaper reports two men killed building ‘unnecessary’ dike

On this day in Duluth in 1872, Dr. Thomas Foster’s Duluth Minnesotian reported two fatal accidents that occurred during the construction of the dike (or “dyke,” in Foster’s usage) that had been ordered built between Rice’s Point and Minnesota Point as part of Duluth’s ongoing legal struggle with Superior and the state of Wisconsin regarding the Duluth Ship Canal. Foster’s lead sentence all but accused those behind the lawsuits with murder: “The men or jealous rivals who made that unnecessary dyke necessary for us to preserve our harbor from destruction at a burdensome cost to our treasury, may be charged also with expenditure of life and limb incident to its construction.” He went on to report that “A Swede from St. Paul named Hendrickson…was riding on a dump car of the train, when the car accidentally and suddenly tilted on one side—throwing him down on the track—where eleven cars passed over him, killing him instantly. He also reported that a “Frenchman” at work on the dyke was seriously injured when he was struck in the arm by an axe wielded by a fellow worker. Foster closed dramatically: “Great public works, it is said, like great causes, must be baptized in blood, for their enduring success, but on this dyke we think the ceremony is already overdone.” Read about the dike’s strange history here.

The dike that stretched from Rice’s Point to Minnesota Point in the 1870s, created to resolve a legal dispute between Duluth and Superior over the digging of the Duluth Ship Canal. (Image: Lake Superior Maritime Collection)