This 2024 PBS North documentary, now available on YouTube, digs into the Cold War and northern Minnesota’s role in the global conflict. It features Cold War heroes like Ray Klosowski, Jim Chapman and Ronald Hein, and visits military sites in Duluth, French River and Finland.
Following his Duluth episode, Dāv Kaufman heads up the North Shore in this week’s edition of Dāv Kaufman Eats the World. …
For some reason, the Duluth Public Library decided to deaccession some of its reference Minnesota collection. …
North Country Cadence in the literary history of the DuluthRead more
Go the distance with this week’s current events quiz!
An outdoorsy quiz treks your way on July 13. Please submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at alisonlinnaemoffat@gmail.com by July 10. …
Local YouTuber Vibe with Mike took a ride on the Duluth Fire Department’s fireboat.
West Duluth’s Alhambra Theater reopened under a new name, The State Theater, on June 27, 1925. The name change came after a renovation of the space, which had originally opened on Sept. 15, 1913.
The State Theater closed circa 1928. The building housed a variety of businesses until it reopened as the Alhambra on May 16, 2025 — one month ahead of the centennial of its name change. …
Minneapolis native Dāv Kaufman “travels to new, remote, and sometimes dangerous wild destinations on every continent on earth” to shoot videos for his four YouTube channels. In this week’s edition of Dāv Kaufman Eats the World, he travels to the most remote and wild of destinations possible: Duluth. …
John Clellon Holmes’ 1953 beat jazz novel The Horn contains a couple references to Duluth. In the 1988 edition by Thunder’s Mouth Press, the first mention occurs on page 131. I cite it below with a couple paragraphs for context, which make it clear “Duluth” is used synonymously with “some out-of-the-way city on the road.” …
Working mostly with Copic markers, digital drawings and occasional oil paints, Kai Murphy has created commissioned artwork for Duluth Superior Pride, Trans Northland, the H.O.T.D.I.S.H. Militia and more. Murphy started their practice making fan art in online communities, and has since branched out from there. Readers can view their artwork and learn more in the interview, below: …
A short way up the Kadunce River on the east side of Cook County, hikers on the Superior Hiking Trail can view a large natural cave next to a waterfall just off the trail. Local musicians Barbara Jean Meyers and Mike Lewis trek across the river and perform two original songs, “Big and Small” and “Traces,” inside the cave in the woods.
Music in the Weeds is a new video series from WTIP North Shore Community Radio that showcases northern Minnesota artists performing original music at scenic and meaningful locations around Cook County. It is produced by M. Baxley and Will Moore.
The latest montage video from the Voyageurs Wolf Project features highlights from a trail camera set up in a remote section of Voyageurs National Park for more than 10 months. The camera captured the typical cast of elusive forest characters, including wolves, moose and lynx. A bear helps direct the video by adjusting the camera.
The images in this post are all touched up versions of photos from postcards for sale by eBay seller Llvintage. They appear to be circa 1925. Two depict scenes from North Shore Drive with Duluth captioned as the location, though they might have been shot outside Duluth city limits. …
Postcards from North Shore Drive / State Highway No. 1Read more
1983 St. Louis County jailhouse interview with “Turbo” Ted Van Brunt
Interviewer: Tell me about your escape from Duluth.
Turbo Ted: Escaping Duluth is a coin flip. Half my friends tried and couldn’t reach the velocity, came back after two or three years of getting kicked around out there. I tried a couple times.
What you’re really asking about started a couple springs ago, when it rained then the temperature plunged. The city woke up with a coating of clear ice on every surface. Branches falling in the road. Whole city shut down, nothing could move.
Except my black, street stock, ice racing stud car, a 1976 Chevette with a roll cage and 500 spikes on each tire — sheet metal screws we screwed in ourselves. Fender all chewed up. Commonly called the worst car of all time but it did everything we asked. And Johnny said it was go time. He was the brains, had it all worked, how to disarm the system at the Superior Street jewelers there. He got that with a bribe. It was only a question of when, and this was our crisis of opportunity. “The cops won’t stand a chance,” he said, and they didn’t. They even had chains on but they still didn’t know how to drive. Anyway so Johnny robbed it, but he didn’t get all the alarms. And I was the getaway driver but I still get half. Which wasn’t much — a couple display cases worth of diamond jewelry. Pulled him behind the car on a tether as we blew down Superior through deserted intersections, cross-training for frozen lake ice races at the same time we’re robbing a jewelry store. Just on his feet — no skis, just boots. And of course the cop shop is right there. But their interceptors fell behind. It was beautiful. …
Since moving to Duluth from the South about two years ago, Atlas, or the artist behind Promontoy Palace, has been interweaving his solo artistic practice into local arts projects. His work can be found at the upcoming Dollhaus event, as well as an upcoming show in August at Studio Cafe. He utilizes puppets, poetry, paintings and ambient music to tell stories through a variety of mediums. To learn more about his current and upcoming work, check out the recent interview below. …
Selective Focus: Puppets and Poetry with Promontory PalaceRead more
To mark the 40th anniversary of the “Weird Al” Yankovic album Dare to Be Stupid, Nick Prueher posted a Facebook Reel with a clip from a July 7, 1985 AL-TV segment on MTV in which Yankovic runs down a list of fake tour stops, including Walter & Sheila’s Cheese Hole in Superior.
Yankovic actually did play a gig in Superior that year; he was a featured act at the Head of the Lakes Fair on Aug. 9, 1985.