January 1, 1895: Fond du Lac Joins the City of Duluth

On this day in Duluth in 1895, the Village of Fond du Lac officially joined the city of Duluth, extending the Zenith City’s western boundary. Prior to European settlement the entire area familiar to us as Duluth and Superior was known as Fond du Lac, French for “bottom of the lake.” The name was also used for an Ojibwe settlement eighteen miles up the St. Louis River from Minnesota Point. In 1816 John Jacob Astor built the American Fur Post at Fond du Lac; the Ojibwe, who partnered with Astor in the fur trade, occupied an island adjacent to the fur post. The fur post was out of business by 1839, but a few people stayed. When the land opened to development in 1854, the previous infrastructure made it an ideal spot for a townsite, and in 1857 the village of Fond du Lac was incorporated. In March of 1870, when Duluth became a city for the first time, it did not include Fond du Lac. Duluth regained its city charter in 1887 and spent the next eight years convincing neighboring towns to join the Zenith City. Duluth was also determined to take Fond du Lac in the same annexation. Fond du Lac’s leaders hesitated, worried their community wouldn’t receive proper aldermanic representation and when it joined Duluth that January, it did so reluctantly. Read more about the history of Fond du Lac here and here.

A Clow & Nicholson postcard made between 1900 and 1915 showing the steamer Newsboy docked at Fond du Lac. (Image courtesy Herb Dillon)