PDD News Sieve

Duluth’s primary election ballot on Aug. 12 includes citywide races for at-large seats on the city council and school board, and a school district referendum question. Citizens in the Endion, Congdon, Chester Park and Kenwood neighborhoods will also vote on the Second District City Council race.

The general election on Nov. 4 will include three more races — Fourth District City Council, District One School Board and District Four School Board.

We passed through the old Superior entry into Superior bay about 2 p.m. on Oct. 28, 1856. I wish that you could have seen how beautiful the Head of the Lakes looked at that time. It was practically in a state of nature. The Indians were there, with their wigwams scattered up and down Minnesota and Wisconsin points, with the smoke curling from the top of the wigwams, and their canoes skimming along the waters of the bay or hauled upon the shore. Fish and game were in abundance. Tall pines and hardwood trees were growing on the hillsides and down to the water’s edge, and with the leaves of the hardwood trees turned as they were in the fall, what a beautiful sight it was. I have many times wished that I had a picture as it looked then, or a gift of language to describe the beauty of the Head of the Lakes as I saw it as a boy of 9 years old.

— Alfred Merritt

On July 24, 1925 — one hundred years ago today — the Duluth Herald published the reminiscences of Duluth pioneer Alfred Merritt. The text was excerpted from Merritt’s autobiography, which had been penned 10 years prior. …

The former Loiselle Liquor store in Duluth’s Central Hillside neighborhood was demolished last week. It was the oldest liquor store in Duluth, established in 1934. The store was sold in 2022 and took a new name — Lake Superior Liquor Cabinet — but eventually closed. The building was sold to Essentia Health in April. …

Alan Terway (left), bartender at Mr. D’s Spirit Valley Bar and Lounge, 5622 Grand Ave., talks with retired bartender Johnny Matheson of Superior. Matheson tended bar there in the 1940s and ’50s, when it was called Teve’s West Duluth Bar and Grill. (Duluth News Tribune & Herald photo by Charles Curtis, 1985)

And now, a look back at a look back. Forty years ago today — July 18, 1985 — the Duluth News-Tribune & Herald published a special Community Herald section with several stories about West Duluth. The cover story delved into neighborhood bar nostalgia. …

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