Monday, being Labor Day, we decided to take in the Cloquet
Labor Day Parade—which I hadn't been to since I marched in the band in 1967. I
have to say that I don't remember it being so political, although it was
probably because I was in the band and not a bystander, or interested in the
politics of the day.
Here are some of the highlights:
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| Mr. Moneybags |
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| How many suckers can one fit in one's mouth...??? |
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| A mini-Mustang and trailer |
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Some of the Wilderness Hockey Team players, a junior hockey team
in the North American Hockey League (NAHL) based out of Cloquet, MN |
Afterward, we took in the car show being held in downtown
Cloquet. Lots of cool cars; here are some of our picks.
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| 1934 Ford |
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| Above and below: 1962 Corvette |
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| 1968 TVR (English) |
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| 1932 Chevy Fire Truck |
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| 1933 Ford Roadster |
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| 1934 Oldsmobile |
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| 1935 Studebaker |
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| 1937 Packard |
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| 1941 Ford Convertible |
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| 1956 Mercury |
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| 1950 Ford |
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| 1953 Studebaker Pickup |
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| 1965 Mustang |
Tuesday, we played “tourist,” which we've never done—even
though I grew up and lived in this area. First I’ll share a little information
about Duluth, MN which has become a destination city during recent years.
Duluth is named for Daniel
Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut, the first known European explorer of the area. As a
result of his exploration, this area is heavily populated with Scandinavian and
Northern European descendants. Duluth is the 5th largest city in
Minnesota, located at the very western point of Lake Superior and the Great
Lakes. One of the highlights of the city is the aerial lift bridge, which spans
the Duluth ship canal leading into the Duluth-Superior (Wisconsin) Harbor. Just
adjacent to the lift bridge is Minnesota Point (or what locals call Park Point)
one of the world’s longest freshwater “baymouth” bars. With a length of 6
miles, this bar is the result of sedimentary deposits that over time sealed off
the bay from the main body of water, in this case Lake Superior. Duluth also
features America’s only all-freshwater aquarium. Not bad for a city of less
than 100,000 people!
By the way, Lake Superior is generally
considered the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area, 31,700
square miles.
Duluth is accessible, via what is
called the Great Lakes Waterway and the Saint Lawrence Seaway, to ocean-going
vessels from the Atlantic Ocean, just a mere 2,300 miles away. This access
allows Duluth and neighboring city Superior to boast the Great Lake’s largest
port transporting coal, iron ore, and grain. In order to accommodate the large
ocean-going vessels, the Duluth Ship Canal was constructed. Begun in 1871, this
artificial channel cut through Minnesota Point, was originally a private
endeavor but was put under federal supervision and maintenance several years
later. It’s interesting to note that an 1866 report from the Bureau of
Topographical Engineers recommended that a channel be cut through Minnesota
Point, but due to cost no action was taken. Not to be cast aside, the city of
Duluth combined forces with the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad to dig a
channel on their own, so on April 30, 1871 a group of city residents came to
the site with shovels and picks and dug the first connection between Lake
Superior and the bay. Ha! The canal is currently maintained by the Corps of
Engineers.
In 1889, however, an attempt was made by
Wilhelm Boeing (of the Boeing aircraft manufacturing family, and who owned
property on both sides of the canal as well as thousands of acres near
Chisholm, Minnesota) to charge tolls for use of the canal. Flyers distributed
to shipping offices stated that a rope would be stretched across the canal on
the 15th of each month to deny passage to all vessels. It’s not really clear
what Boeing’s intentions were, or whether he carried out his threat; but his
death within the next month ended the matter.
The canal is defined by a pair of
concrete breakwater walls, 1,720 feet long and 300 feet apart. The channel
itself is 245 feet wide and 28 feet deep, allowing easy passage of the large
ocean-going ships. Three lighthouses mark the passageway: the North Pier Light
and the the South Breakwater Outer Light mark the ends of the channel on the
lake side; and the South Breakwater Inner Light marking the end of the
breakwater and entrance to the harbor.
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| North Pier Light |
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| South Breakwater Outer Light |
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| South Breakwater Inner Light |
Because there are no locks in this
canal, most ships move through the canal under their own power; there are
tugboats available should the need arise, or during bad weather. About 1,000
vessels enter the Duluth-Superior Harbor every year during shipping season. Winter is especially treacherous for ships of all size on Lake Superior, as is evidenced by these photos taken in 1926 of the ship City of Bangor during an ice storm.
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| The ship City of Bangor 3 months after being stranded on Lake Superior in an ice storm |
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| As the ship appeared January 25, 1927 |
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Clearing the deck of snow and ice to remove the remaining 230 Chrysler automobiles.
18 were lost overboard. |
At Canal Park is the Maritime Museum, filled with artifacts and historical displays of vessels found on the Great Lakes.
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| Topographical map of the great lakes--interesting... |
As I mentioned, one of the main attractions
to this area is the Aerial Lift Bridge, connecting the main part of Duluth to
Minnesota Point, and spanning the canal. The bridge began as a “transporter
bridge,” the first of just 2 such bridges ever constructed in the U.S.
Originally built in 1905, the bridge was upgraded by 1930 to a rather uncommon
vertical lift bridge, and is on the National Register of Historic Places (added
in May 1973).
Spanning the ship canal the bridge allows
residents on Minnesota Point to get across. Several different methods of
transportation were tried (ferries and a swinging footbridge), but most were
complicated by fierce winter weather. So, in 1892 a contest was held to find a
solution. The winning design was for a high-rise vertical lift bridge. But,
even though the city of Duluth was eager to build the bridge, the War
Department objected to the design and the project was cancelled.
New plans were drawn up for a
structure that would ferry people across, known as an aerial transfer, ferry,
or transporter bridge. Completed in 1905, it had the capacity of carrying 350
people plus wagons, streetcars, or automobiles. The trip took about 1 minute,
and the ferry car moved across about once every 5 minutes. Due to the growing
population on Minnesota Point, more cars, and an increase in tourism, a remodel
was planned that would incorporate a lifting platform into the structure that
would handle the increased traffic as well as ensure that tall ships could
still pass beneath. Reconstruction began in 1929. The new bridge first lifted
for a vessel on March 29, 1930. The bridge can be raised to its full height in
less than 3 minutes, and goes up at least 30 times per day during busy parts of
the shipping and boating season.
We were excited to be there when
the lift bridge went up to accommodate the departure of the 739’ 10” CSL Laurentien
loaded with iron ore. The CSL Laurentien was converted from most of the former
Louis R Desmarais. In the winter of 2000-01, she had a brand new hull attached
to the engine room of the Desmarais. She also got a new, state-of-the-art
self-unloading system, and a new name. CSL stands for her owner’s name, Canada
Steamship Lines of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Here's a video of the
lift bridge raising to accommodate the
CSL Laurentien leaving port.
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| Lift bridge with the bridge span in its full raised position. |
After lunch at Red Lobster, our next
stop was to visit the SS William A Irvin, named for the 4th president of US
Steel, William A. Irvin. William dropped out of school when he was in the 8th
grade to support his mother following the death of his father. He worked in the
mines, gradually working his way up in the corporation, where he eventually
became president. He and 2nd wife, Gertrude were the first guests aboard his
namesake.
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| William A. Irvin |
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| Gertrude Irvin |
Launched in November 1937 at the
yards of the American Ship Building Company in Lorain, Ohio as part of US Steel’s
lake fleet, the
William A Irvin was the flagship of the company from 1938 until
1975 when she became a general workhorse of the fleet until her retirement in
1978. At a cost of about $1.3 million, she set about hauling bulk materials
from Duluth and Two Harbors, MN to US Steel mills on Lakes Michigan and Erie. On
August 27, 1940 the Irvin set a record by unloading 13,856 tons of ore in 2
hours and 55 minutes; and, as she has no self-unloading system as ships today
have, this record will probably never be broken. The
William A Irvin was
retired in 1978 because of her size: 610 feet 9.75 inches; overall width of 60
feet; a depth of 32 feet 6 inches. Her carrying capacity is 13,600 gross tons.
Larger ships were needed to handle the increased need for cargo. At any one time there were 9 officers and 35 crew assigned to the
Irvin.
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| Docent Brian |
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This was interesting: crew members were swung onshore
by use of this boom, in order for them to help tie up
the ship when docking. No better way of getting
crew onto shore has ever been developed! |
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| Stern from the wheel house |
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| The wheel house with Brian |
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Survival suit made of neoprene were provided for
each crew member, and was supposed to be able to help you
survive up to 72 hours; However apparently no one has tried it in
Lake Superior, where temperatures vary only a few degrees
from winter to summer. |
The
Irvin was one of the first to
be powered by coal-burning steam turbines as opposed to the standard
reciprocating triple expansion steam engines. She burned up to 1.2 tons of coal
per hour, allowing her to move at just over 11 mph fully loaded, and 12.5 mph
unloaded. In addition, the
Irvin also included welding in much of her
construction and was also the first to have all areas of the ship accessible
from the interior of the ship which allowed the crew to stay inside during
rough weather. The following photos are of Irvin's engine room, with docent Brian.
These photos are of the crew galley, mess and quarters.
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| The ship's main galley |
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The crew didn't go hungry! This Thanksgiving menu features Lobster, Filet Mignon, and Tom Turkey with
all the fixin's. |
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| Officer quarters. |
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Crew quarters
|
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Interior hallway allowing crew to be inside
during bad weather. |
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| Officers' mess |
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Crew mess; the stools are attached to the table
and fold up underneath when not in use. |
The
Irvin was built with a
3-tiered bow cabin to accommodate many company guests in exceptional luxury on
behalf of US Steel, including a suite of 4 guest cabins, a guest lounge, and a
guest dining room. These parts of the ship were trimmed in oak paneling and
walnut veneer with brass hand railings, rivaling many of the passenger ships of
that time. Guest cooks and porters were brought onboard to accommodate the
every need and whim of the guests.
On our way home we stopped and
visited with Mom for a while. She so enjoys being outdoors, so we took her out
to the garden where we spent time reading to her and pushing her around the
walkway through the flowers.
Wednesday, another school year starts for Cloquet. And…MacKenzie is in the 8th grade! Wow! Time flies! I remember her being in kindergarten—seems like just last year…
Thursday we were wakened by heavy thunder storms and rain. Thankfully the storm passed through by noon, so we were able to be outdoors when we visited Mom. I read to her again; even though she probably doesn’t remember what I read, she’s very attentive.
That evening we headed to
Hermantown, just outside Duluth, for one of MacKenzie’s Jr. Varsity soccer
games. They won 1:0. Woot-woot! She’s still not 100% from her injury a few
weeks ago, but she did play for about half the game.
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| MacKenzie is second from left in the back row. |
The weather has been typical
fall-like here in the northland, with temps dipping to the low 50s at night but
soaring to the mid-70s during the day. Sun, clouds, sun, clouds seems to be the
norm. Nice…
Saturday we visited with Mom for a
while, and then headed home to prepare for dinner. Rich, Karen and MacKenzie
were coming for dinner and game night. We decided that taco pie, fruit salad
and ice cream would be easiest. Yum! We played Pegs and Jokers for the first
time in months (Rich won), and then a game of Golf (I won). What a fun evening.
Well, that’s it for this week.
Hope you’re enjoying our stay with us here in Minnesota. It’ll be over soon,
when we hit the road again, heading for Texas.
Love ‘n’ hugs,
RJ and Gail
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