Lost Duluth II - Full Documentary

funding for lost duth 2 is provided by the citizens of Minnesota through the Minnesota arts and cultural heritage fund the documentary is based on the book lost duth from Zenith City [Music] Press there are places in duth where time seems to stand still it really is like taking a walk back in time isn't it oh sure oh absolutely you know we're we're moving back decades and decades every foot that you go Century Old Stone arches and courses of brick work hidden beneath city streets relics that remain functional today it really makes me think of those folks that wanted to push the the boundary of the city limits and the only way they could do that is to start bridging some of the CCS that we have and they put together these these fabulous tunnels to do that on the hillside above the fled City a Grand Pavilion Gathering Place for thousands long ago lost to fire nothing remains but faded photos or is there more he's looking for the cement slab that he remembers seeing here but there's a lot of leaf covers so we haven't found it yet neighborhood streets bustled with horse and carriage and the well-to-do homes provid provided a helpful step down oh it was it was flush with the ground I mean it was just a plate so there was no stone sticking up you could walk over it I mean without stumbling it was just literally uh the red stone was just flat to the ground this is where you found it right emboldened by what they envisioned on the shore of the world's greatest Lake these men and women Stak their claims and their Futures in the zena City and it was the Wilderness uh the streets in duth were mud at that time it wasn't unusual to see a bear walking down Superior Street it wasn't unusual to have deer down on superer street and in the final burial place for many of the early leaders of this Pioneer town a story waiting to be told most of the people who became wealthy in the very beginnings of duth decided to be buried here the names and faces change buildings rise up only you crumble back to the Earth but across delose there are still places where past and present meet hidden masterpieces neighborhood beginnings and industries and businesses P this is the story of what was back then this is the ongoing story of Lost Duo [Music] duth at its heart is a port city from the time of the fur traders in their canoes to the settlers who came by steamship the Zenith city has been intimately linked with the big lake the shared Harbor with Superior and the St Louis River bridges like the blotnik bridge between duth and Superior important connections linking one city to another and providing a vital commercial Lifeline for both communities but before the first Bridge was built spanning the channel between Deluth and Superior a traveler had to be very resourceful in making the journey the way to get across from one side to the other was really by ferry boat or or rowboat or across the ice in the winter you were pretty much left to your own own uh means to come up with how you were going to get across from one side to the other as the cities grew on both sides of the harbor commercial interests clamored for a solution in 1890 Congress passed legislation authorizing a toll bridge between theth and Superior but disagreements between the two cities delayed construction for years for one winter a temporary Trestle built right across the Frozen and Ice of the harbor provided a Street Car Connection for those who were willing to Brave the precarious Journey finally with funding from the great Empire Builder James J Hill the Delo Superior Bridge Company was formed to conquer the channel just beneath the modern High Bridge lie the remnants of another Bridge the former Interstate bridge and while this old span no longer unites the two cities it offers a tangible link to early duth history this bridge was a result of uh uh really a push by James J Hill and coming up with the money in the Great Northern Railway to uh connect the two cities and he was really the money behind a delus superior Bridge company that was formed in 1894 to get this bridge constructed the bridge was formally dedicated in April of 1897 in order to comply with the contract of its Charter in reality the approach on the superior side wasn't completed for another 3 months then later in uh July there was an official opening and that was uh a lot of pomping circumstance uh those long- winded speeches the big the the political opportunities for the for the two Mayors to really L on thick um they took full advantage July 13th 1897 Superior and duth United the big Steel Bridge uniting Superior and duth was open for traffic at 2:30 Tuesday afternoon with appropriate ceremonies at that hour mayor trulson of duth and mayor Starkweather of superior met upon the great draw span which is the third largest in the world and in the presence of thousands of Spectators with appropriate speeches the whistle of vessels the Blair of brass bands formerly opened the Great Highway during his speech superiors mayor Starkweather called it the marriage of Helen and Troy reports pegged the final cost at around a million do a staggering sum for the time and she was impressive the bridge measured 1,094 ft over water with a center swing span a full 485 ft long so it rotated on a big Center structure a center Pier and what that really consisted of was the the part that rotated went on chariot wheels it was just a a whole series of um relatively small steel wheels underneath that were packed pretty tightly that the the bridge actually rotated on when opened a channel 200 ft wide on either side of the draw span allowed clear passage for ships two other swing Bridges served railroad traffic in the harbor but from the beginning the interstate Bridge served a variety of needs it was going to be for both uh pedestrians and Rail and street car traffic so it was a real important connection between the two cities a physical connection the toll was 5 cents whether on foot or bicycle 15 cents for wagons and a nickel on the street car so now travel between duth and Superior was conven venient and relatively inexpensive there was uh room for rail traffic as well as street car traffic and that I think probably carried the majority of people the interstate Bridge operated smoothly in the busy Harbor for nearly a decade until the early morning hours of August 11th 1906 and it was a a steamer called the Troy and she was headed Upstream it was dark she had whistled the the um appropriate whistle signal I think it was a long short long uh for the bridge operator to begin swinging and and this bridge was kind of notorious for being a little bit slow and a little bit late on opening by the time the captain realized the bridge was not fully open it was too late the Troy smashed into the draw span knocking it into the water of course once the bridge was um out of balance then the other side side just slowly dipped down into the the water and tilted the the center house or the operator's cab and the and the rotating part so the bridge was pretty much demolished superior's Whitney brothers were contracted to clear a shipping Lane and quickly got to work remarkably traffic was moving again in just 89 hours rebuilding the ruined swing span was a much lengthier process and it was 2 years before the bridge was back in operation in the meantime a tug and barges again carried wagons and pedestrians from duth to Superior there were other changes to the bridge over the years it was refitted for automobile traffic and the street car rails were removed in 1938 by 1960 the new hybrid was Rising nearby and the days of the interstate Bridge were numbered the day after the blotnik Bridge opened on December 3rd 1961 the interstate Bridge was closed the swing span was locked in the open position and in 1971 all but one portion of the bridge was dismantled the northern rafting span on Rice's point was saved and converted into a fishing pier I think we're really fortunate that that they left this span here um so we can see this this structure when we walk out here onto this bridge we're actually walking inside the old wooden Trestle and then we we go around one of the the uh the bases for the bridge and we find ourselves then underneath the center part of the bridge underneath the steel and you can see the the lovely curves of the underneath arches that hold up the two walkways there are a lot of interesting details in the structure of this bridge and one I find fascinating is some of the undering um the where they're the pieces are actually pinned together historically it's it's wonderful that it got saved and for me being interested in the ships this is a point that sticks out in the harbor where you can get really close to the [Music] boats [Music] Deluth was well positioned for the grain trade as the Western most port on Lake Superior as the first rail Lin stretched to the dtas the Zenith City offered great advantages for lowcost shipping when we started taking this grain instead of shipping it to St Paul that it used to go through it became it began to ship to duth grain elevators became began popping up flower Mills all that grain streaming to its Mammoth grain elevators made duth a natural spot for flower Milling Minneapolis had earned a reputation as Mill City but duth entrepreneurs saw an opportunity by virtue of the city's location while some small Mills were already in operation in 1888 businessman Roger Munger and partners invested in a new kind of flower making plant the grandest of these was the Imperial Mill and when it was built it was the largest uh facility of its kind in fact it was an experimental facility at the heart of the six-story Imperial Mill was an engine powered by Massive boilers that ran the Milling equipment wheat from the nearby grain elevator was fed to the mill on a conveyor belt it was cleaned and Polished then broken down on the grinding floor the ground flower was then sent to the bolting floor where giant sifters separated it into different grades the grain was transported from floor to floor through an ingenious system of spouts divided into different floors with shoots that that carried grain down different levels to different processing things and uh it came in on rail car at one side as rough grain and at the other side it came out as processed bags of flour with Crews working Around the Clock Imperial could produce 1,500 barrels of flour each day a figure the owners claimed was a world record 4 years later capacity was increased and the mill was turning out 6,300 barrels a day but Delo success as a flower Milling Mecca was to be shortlived the achievement of the Imperial Mill had garnered attention from the south it was beating the Pillsbury Mills down in in Minneapolis and everything but it was when the Pillsbury eventually bought them out um and then shut it down a number of other flower mills came and went inth but a combination of falling wheat prices inexpensive railroad shipping costs and a change in the tariffs on grain conspired to shift Milling further east and duth lost its position um as a grain trading center and so um it wasn't as efficient to run the flower mills even though Universal du Universal flower ran through most of the first half of the 20th [Music] century the Golden Age of the flower Milling industry coincided with a golden age for the advertising business Billboards flyers and signs were everywhere in the city as businesses promoted their goods and services one of the best examples of The Talented artists that work in the advertising business can be seen in this beautiful artwork for Imperial flower it had a balloon with three lovely ladies in it and the the the balloon itself was a loaf of bread and they were talking about how how much their bread Rises the balloon is floating high above the Deluth Harbor and if you look closely you see the Imperial Mill Far Below as money poured into the zena City at the turn of the 20th century businesses competing for the consumer dollar saw the advantage of a strong advertising campaign department stores like uh glass block and or had artists full-time OnStaff artists the printing companies often have artists uh Stuart Taylor had some some of the very finest of the oldtime commercial artists the very earliest ads were often painted on the side of a delivery vehicle all manner of unusual conveyance was seen daily on the city streets if it moved and delivered Goods it more than likely had a sign painted on it they usually didn't have a message they were they wanted you to know where they were and what they sold later the advertising became more sophisticated and more abundant with no sign restrictions enforced every inch of space that wasn't occupied by a building seem to be covered with posters and billboards bigger Bolder and more colorful artwork competed for the attention of passers by what is the trick for making this message compelling and attractive enough or engaging enough so that it will uh it will be noticed and the reader or the viewer will pause and pay attention we used to say that the that the that the measurement was at the cash register if the cash register went jingle jingle that meant that the advertising was working all of this creative work was being done by hand in an era advertising people call BC or before computers artists had drawing boards they didn't have keyboards they had some of the very finest artists um if if you you think about uh Billboards even yet today how skilled somebody has to be to draw a picture of a steak that makes you want to go and order one in the American tradition of bigger is better some artists took an even larger challenge painting ads on the sides of huge buildings I think of people hanging from scaffolds painting uh you know that they didn't have any way of of uh prep painting those and then mounting them later uh they were they were actually painted right on the bricks much of this great work has faded into history but some can still be seen in different places around town if you drive through the West End uh today and look at some of the buildings along Third Street you'll see ads for un a flower it's fading but it's still there and it's fun to see those and but they were all painted by hand by somebody hanging from a rope you [Music] [Music] know one can sense the early history of the Zenith City through its cemeteries some of the oldest are in Far Western duth near the village of fond deac in J cook State Park the first white fur Traders lived side by side with the native population and they were laid to rest with the Christian Indians in the Trading Post graveyard some years later the graves were moved to the current site as the coming railroad threatened to desecrate the graveyard nearby the old Thompson Cemetery Bears witness to the difficult lives facing Pioneers at the head of Lake Superior later as Timber and iron brought wealth to the region the more well-to-do residents moved East most of the people who became wealthy in the very beginnings of duth decided to be buried here here is Forest Hill Cemetery off Woodland Avenue in duth where local educator and writer Heidi Bach Hansen gave our video crew a history lesson the Presbyterians ran things basically I mean the Scots the English the lutherans as immigrants were had less status I mean it's just the fact of old timey America so the Lutheran Cemetery has fewer people that have the big money and the big Power you would join the Presbyterian church because that's where the wealthy people went to church and you wanted to be amongst your buddies beginning before the turn of the 20th century some of du's most influential and Wealthy residents were buried here like Josiah Davis enzen he was a mayor and he was a lawyer he did a lot of the early fighting to make sure that the canal came to duth instead of superior Paige Morris was a district judge then he was elected to congress three three times William abonal was a um he was the railroad guy when he died actually the railroads all stopped for 5 minutes all railroad work in the Northeast Minnesota stopped for five minutes when he during his funeral W Ames um was a major funer of the YMCA he was grain big and grain some of the names are familiar others have faded from public memory Samuel Sedin wallbank he was a um doctor he uh was from England Devon Shire England and he came to duth via Canada like so many did and he um became a pharmacist he uh bought a bunch of land in Lincoln Park and actually Devonshire Street and all of those British streets that are near a an obscure Park that no one's ever heard of called wall Bank Park right there it's called wall Banks Edition in the old maps and so it's all all of the streets that are British oriented in Lincoln Park that are sort of angled funny that don't sort of match up with the other avenues and the and the streets many names Rose to prominence from the wealth they gained in the Boom Town of duth the thing about these guys is they they had the money so they got in they started with Lumber they helped cut down the trees and then when they were done with that they got into Mining and then you know then it was land speculation and developing others chose to help the people who scratched out a living on the docks and Factory floors the Reverend Dr Charles cotton Salter first preacher at the Pioneer Pilgrim Congregational Church was called to serve the poor he started out with a tent but then he built like the first bethl down on sufin in Canal Park it was for Sailors primarily his goal go was to keep the sailors out of the bars um and to keep them holy eventually it grew into bethl which the duth bethl which was all for again primarily for Sailors but basically for people it became a place for people who were destitute who needed help others who found their final resting place at Forest Hill made the ultimate sacrifice for their country this is the military part of the cemetery um in the front there are some Civil War uh veterans um number eight in row one is Doris Martin who was the first uh veteran of the Civil War to die um he was actually buried in Lafayette Park originally and to much fanfare the first Memorial Day when the Civil War broke out there were a couple people who traveled and traveled really through trying circumstances to get to the civil war to fight Doris Martin was in his 50s and he went to Minneapolis or St Paul to sign up and they told him no because he was too old and so he came back home and he borrowed money from someone he blackened his hair and then he walked to Madison walked to Madison and signed up and got to be in the war and when he came back when the war was over he was very proud he always wore his uniform and he would all the time and wanted to die in his uniform Doris Martin got his wish he died wearing his Civil War uniform while leaning against his cabin the first of Delo veterans to pass away following the [Music] war it took gods and Imagination to relocate to a Pioneer town like duth in 1870 just after the city was incorporated a honeymooning couple landed in the Boom Town intent on making it their home and Bernard and Netty came in 1870 and they landed on Park point and some records will say that netti was the first White bride Bernard Silverstein and his wife netti came from Detroit by way of Budapest the first Jewish settlers in duth Bernard had entered the Dry Goods business working at Marshall Fields in Detroit and was told he might do better if he opened his own store but establishing a business in duth took a real vision for the city's future prospects the streets in duth were mud at that time uh there were reports uh in fact we have a one picture that shows the very first store you know being a little uh kind of a ramshackle place and they sold fresh water and unusual kinds of things that they would import and start selling and the store did well Bernard's instincts about duth had paid off and in 1884 The Firm moved into a fine new Redstone building at 9 West Superior Street just across the street from the original Store the store immediately was a success you know duth was getting a lot of mansions being built there were you know immigrants coming into the area there was a lot of houses that needed a lot of draperies and a lot of Oriental carpets and things and that was the first of the real success for Bernard was importing all of those Fine Fabrics importing all the Oriental carpets and and selling them in the store there Silverstein and Bondi was a trend Setter in the growing Town offering the finest merchandise and appealing to a select customer base they catered to what they called The Carriage Trade the people who would come by carriage and would be dropped off off at the front door they actually had a doorman who would greet the uh the guests help them out of the you know a light from their carriages the store had you know wide aisles had nice display counters sold you know all the same kinds of general merchandise that you would have found at the time at Dayton in Minneapolis or or at Marshall Fields in Detroit or New York the Silverstein and Bondi department store grew to be one of the largest and finest in the Northwest and weathered the ups and downs of the economy without pause for decades Bernard Silverstein loved aluth and served as a City Commissioner early in the 20th century and he believes strongly in the value of public parks Bernard often times would take money out of his own pocket to when the city was having economic challenges uh to fund the the construction of a new city Park recognizing how important that quality of life was to the citizens of the city family was very important to Silverstein beginning with a remarkable relationship with his wife of more than 50 years Bernard uh started the store but his wife was right alongside him and she worked in the store you know for many many years um you know helping him sell the merchandise display the merchandise you know unpack and Mark and get it ready for displaying things so it was really a family effort perhaps most telling of that love for family is this Gracious Home at 21st Avenue East and First Street in duth it was built as an anniversary gift for netti the surprise was revealed as they walked home together after celebrating their anniversary at a family gathering in 1914 and when they got to the corner of uh First Street in 21st Avenue East or Oregon Street as it was called at that time Bernard stopped and asked NY he said do you like this house and she goes I like it very much I don't know whose it is I've watched it being built for two years now and he pulled the key which we have here out of his pocket and said well this is your house happy anniversary dear and presented her with the key to the to the house the Silverstein named it High Point house and it is owned today by denn lampin and John neimi who opened up the house for our camera the original blueprints of the house uh drawn by uh fredi German and uh we have all the elevations we even have an alternative uh plan for the front of the house they chose one style but they had two different options that they considered we chose to do this mural because firstly it's John and my favorite painting at the Minneapolis art institute and um it kind of depicts the life that U brought Bernard to theth um Bernard uh sold Oriental carpets in the store he would he made the majority of his fortune selling those Oriental carpets he would actually go to Turkey and buy carpets for the store at a Turkish Carpet Mart and uh so we thought that it was representative of what you know was appropriate for the for the house well this was Bernard's Counting Room and when he would come home from the store at the end of the day he would uh come in there was a little chair here drop down the desktop and uh make his uh count up the cash for the day and make his bank deposit out of here it's all uh steel ibeam construction all the floors are concrete there's clay tile between every wall it's uh really built because he used a a an architect who was most skilled in building commercial buildings it's really built as a commercial building just like the house the Silverstein and Bondi department store building at 9 West Superior Street still stands although its original facade was altered with a terracotta renovation dating back to the 1920s and thanks to thoughtful preservation of the High Point house two of Duo's most remarkable Pioneer residents have not been forgotten it was more than just making this a nice house for John and I you know it it was about restoring it and preserving maybe bringing back to light a little bit of the history of the Silverstein family back before automobiles ruled the road getting around town often involved a horse and carriage Delo Boulevard drive today known as Skyline Park Parkway offered Majestic views for Coach parties today there are very few reminders of the horse and buggy days in this thoroughly mechanized City but one duth homeowner found a link to that lost history while digging up a stone he had noticed buried in his backyard it was flushed with the ground I mean it was just a plate so there was no stone sticking up you could walk over it I mean without stumbling it was just literally uh the red stone was just flat to the ground this is where you found it right we thought it would just be a block of sandstone from the house uh that was probably as I said damaged in the building process the home of Clyde and Jean Olen at 21st Avenue East and Superior Street was built for iron mining Mogul George Crosby at the turn of the 20th century the massive red Sandstone used on the exterior was one of the most popular building materials of the day and it seemed likely the stone buried in the backyard was a Remnant from construction the stone that you could see just the plate if you will was textured similar to the house uh sandstone and I got my shovel out and dug down and I had to dig down probably 3 or 4 ft along the stone so I hooked my truck on flipped it out of the ground and on the back of it was carved Crosby the stone Olsen dug up has an intriguing connection to an early I way of life horses and carriages were high off the ground and these would sit on the curb in front of the house you would step out of the carriage onto the stone onto the sidewalk but did this Stone actually serve that purpose at the Crosby house the olon rummaged around for some of their earliest photos of the house and found the answer they were looking for we had never noticed it before until we found the carriage step but lo and behold there it sits down at the base of the stairs on Superior Street and I suspect a lot of the Big East End U and prominent homes in the West End in the in the turn of the century had carry steps because it was the mode of transportation certainly the late 19th century homes had them so why are there no Carriage Stones dotting the streets of duth today Olsen's neighbor Dennis lamin of the duth preservation Alliance told him the answer lies with that modern convenience the snowplow when motorized snow plowing started he said they didn't have the control and the rapid ability to switch subtly if you will and uh it was hard on both the stones and the snow plows apparently that may explain the damage to the Crosby Stone and forell the end of an era in theth in 1907 Carriage Stones were outlawed by the city council as a hazard to Street plows for a full Century this Carriage Stone sat undisturbed slowly sinking into the ground thanks to a chance Discovery it now helps tell the story of a house and a growing City flag River it's a it's a nice label uh for the house I mean it's it completes that identification which is I think a a good [Music] thing it's incredible absolutely incredible and to be able to try to replicate this today would be incredibly difficult and costly just for the manows to do it as Del's population grew so did the need for infrastructure like streets Water and Sewer Service but the city's difficult location on a rocky Hillside posed quite a challenge the ruins of the first first water Reservoir built in 1884 can still be seen between 10th and 11th Avenues West it was built by a private company to take advantage of a natural spring by 1898 theth had begun building the present day water system and the reservoir was eventually abandoned the numerous streams along the city's Hillside were obstacles to Street construction but the Eng Engineers of the day overcame that challenge ornate Bridges were often constructed and in many parts of duth the stream channel was enclosed and capped with beautifully crafted arches the tunnels were done in sections some were done privately because somebody had some property and wanted to develop it and some were done by the city because they wanted to convey some traffic to encourage some development um people have been traversing Superior Street for a long time and this was probably one of the earlier earlier tunnels that was established City employe Todd Carlson has walked every mile of Delo 43 named streams many of them have been piped underground sending them beneath streets and even homes and businesses construction of the tunnels mired the growth of a city it really is like taking a walk back in time isn't it oh oh absolutely you know we're we're moving back decades and decades every foot that you go and you know you can see the different brick colors the city's dreams double as storm sewers where clean runoff and groundwater makes its way to Lake Superior the old system has held up well even through the Epic flooding of 2012 to look at this type of construction that could last for 100 years years it it's absolutely amazing and when you you look at it it's it's not deteriorating it's not coming apart it's true craftsmanship when you look at at how the stones were laid in and then the Sandstone placed in such a perfect arch over the top it's it's truly a remarkable structure the tunnels may be out of sight but they aren't out of mind to city employees our visit to these Hidden Treasures was under strict protocol for confined spaces including air quality monitoring they are off limits to the public due to the potential of toxic gases or sudden downpours the outstanding condition of the tunnels is a tribute to their rock solid foundation and the care and tending of city workers the structural Integrity of the arch sitting on these Blu stone walls that sit on the Bedrock there isn't a lot that can move them different material are used throughout the various tunnels in some places you can even see p Stones lining the channel similar to the material used in some of du's earliest streets the tunnels receive regular inspection and have earned the admiration of Todd and his colleagues somebody did some calculations to decide how big this should be on a pencil and paper you know they they took their Slide Rule and they figured out the drainage area for the the creek and what they needed to convey to the lake and they came up with a size that's been extremely functional today the names of The Men Who Built these structures may have faded into history but their craftsmanship lives on those folks that built these tunnels and this did this type of work came as immigrants to the area um found work and the work they did was phenomenal and it's lasted forever duth not only has lost buildings and landmarks it also has a lost sport Toth was a ski gumping Maca for uh nearly 100 years the Delo ski club was officially organized in 1905 made up mostly of Norwegian and other Scandinavian immigrants who brought the sport with them from their Homeland from the beginning Ski Jumping flourished in the city we got early snow and late snow we're right in the middle of a city and we have all the Scandinavians that we needed in 1907 the club acquired some land in an area known as Chester bull which had the perfect topography for a jump that winter they hosted the national championship and Deluth jumper OE fairing set a US record on the hill soaring 112 ft fairing shattered the old Mark by a full 30 ft and the popularity of the sport was soaring as well so it was thrilling to watch and thrilling to do and here you are essentially you're flying and back in 1905 ski jumpers were the only ones that were flying the club disbanded for a time during World War I but by 19 1924 a reorganized deloo Ski Club had built big chester a 115t tall structure that was the largest in the world these were indeed the Heyday of the sport in duth as participation grew and so did the crowds what they realized was ski jumps were getting bigger and the bigger the ski jump the farther the flying Chester Bowl had been the center of the US Ski Jumping World but the lack of part parking at the facility limited the size of events that could be held there and so they decided to do another survey of the city and came up with fodac and so they built what was at the time a world class facility and they attracted worldclass athletes to their events the fond deac winter sports center was built by the works progress administration in 1940 on the hillside above Mission Creek the facility included CrossCountry ski Trails a tobogan slide and Alpine skiing but the centerpiece was the ski jump which rose a full 325 ft 60 M the Fondulac jump was first used for a tournament in 1941 when 5,000 people turned out for its dedication in 1942 the national Ski Jumping championships were held there with record crowds they had literally thousands and thousands of people lining the bowl and they were there were cars all the way out Highway 23 from what I understand successful Ski Jumping tournaments continued to be held at fond laac in the 40s 50s and 60s but in 1972 flooding eroded the land around the jump making it unstable it was removed and never [Music] rebuilt the the sport did continue to thrive at Chester bowl and new 55 M and 35 M jumps were added by the early 70s five different jumps of varying sizes occupied the hillside former ski jumper Steve pyow has fond memories from those days I will always remember my first jump on big chester and flying through the air and I I uh that's the best memory I have of any first jumps at Chester Bowl Deluth skiers made their Mark over the years garnering 12 World Championships between 1926 and 1979 and the Zenith City produced Olympic skars throughout the decades right up to the early 80s when Brothers Jim and John Denny along with John Broman were the last Deluth ski jumpers to make the Olympic team by the late 80s interest in Ski Jumping was on the decline and costly repairs on the jumps were put off efforts to revive the sport failed due to apathy and lack of funding in recent years portions of the unused big and little Chester jumps have been removed for safety reasons and that leaves the skiers who came of age on these soaring landmarks wondering what will become of Duo Ski Jumping Legacy we've essentially eliminated the an entire Olympic sport in our community and it's it's sad because uh it's a winter Sport and we should be leading in that area like we used [Music] to many Industries have come and gone in the zena City over the decades giant steel mills have been shuttered and manufacturing plants that built everything from cranes to rail cars have long since disappeared but the quiet community of Riverside in Western duth maintains a direct connection to the city's Rich industrial Heritage it's historically important because it's sort of the the uh the the tangible remnants of uh du's uh past is a major ship building facility history professor Matthew Dy has spent years researching the shipyard that once employed thousands on the banks of the St Louis River it was the final major project in the career of Captain Alexander McDougall inventor of the whaleback ship he partnered with financier Julius Barnes to construct the shipyard and help meet the demand for vessels during World War I McDougle Deluth started before the war they were hoping to to make money off of the war and sell stuff but not be dependent on it the shipyard sprang up seemingly overnight in 1917 as slips were dredged in peers readed for a fullscale industrial operation it's quite a sophisticated operation in a very small space uh that's pretty impressive that they do uh this many ships in this small space and in such a short amount of time they do it incredibly fast and they're going to be building the yard as they're building the ships at its peak 4500 workers were employed in the McDougall duth Shipyard to house many of them the company plotted out a town site it had a hospital a general store and even a movie theater Riverside is thought out it was planned there's blueprints they had they had a whole idea it's a consistent architectural theme you walk through there's about four or five different housing types that's it they had a hotel they had everything so this is a company town the shipyard itself was a remarkable operation more than 30 buildings at the site housed operations that created every part of the vessels from stem to St McDougall duth could build their own engines they could build their own Parts they could Bend all the stuff custom fit they could bend the plates do the sort of uh chipping uh reaming the whole nine yards they could do it here that was a real advantage to them because they would just send them raw steel plates and they would take care of the rest of it this facility uh is the largest uh privately built uh operation for the first world war um many of places built ships but they did not have a neighborhood the way that this uh location does and that makes it very special McDougall and Barnes invested more than $2 million in the shipyard and even more was put into the Riverside Neighborhood Hood it was a model plant in town site a project built for the long term and a source of Pride for duth city leaders said this is proof that duth really is the Chicago of the north that were on a roll we had ships at one time kind of died down we're back we never went away when the war ended suddenly in 1918 McDougall retired and Barnes took over as president president of the company but the writing was on the wall and after the war I mean they made it for about 3 4 years on their own outside of government contracts but the market was so flooded with ships uh it was so hard to get steal up here um everything cost more and it was just non-competitive with no new contracts and Bleak prospects the shipyard closed in 1922 the dormant facility would bring back to life for a time during World War II but it closed again after that conflict today the Riverside Marina occupies the site where so many ships were once launched and the town site retains much of its original character and charm the neighborhood is continued on uh despite all the economic changes and social upheaval uh it continues as a viable and uh very Vibrant Community it's a very uh interesting Loc all by itself only one building remains from the original Shipyard but for daily the Riverside Marina upholds a maritime Heritage that began in the Port City more than a century ago uh all three peers are still here you can see the original pilings you can see where it was put together uh and it's still serving its purpose for for ships of a different variety I think uh McDougall and Barnes would be pleased that it's still here one of du's most famous landmarks of the past was the incline railway providing a connection for Riders from Superior Street to a trolley line that served the duth Heights neighborhood in fact the incline our our 7th Avenue West incline was built to help develop duth Heights at the top of the incline was another Short Line the developers of these areas would actually build build the track to get people out there and then they would turn over operations to the delut street car uh Street Railway Company open to passengers in 1891 the half mile long incline Rose 500 vertical feet up the hillside for much more convenient access to and from downtown it's been said only memories remain of the incline but there is more than that here and there re of footings can be found marking the 7th Avenue West Route and stretching up the hillside there is concrete evidence of Delo Sky Ride the old incline railway is long gone but its sidewalk remains marking the route that Delo Sky Ride took up and down what would have been 7th Avenue West that same sidewalk can clearly be seen alongside the incline in this vintage photograph the old sidewalk is still used by local residents although the path is overgrown in places and while the incline is still well remembered and often mentioned as a piece of duth History few may know about the great Pavilion that once stood at the top of the line he's looking for the cement slab that he remembers seeing here but there's a lot of leaf covers so we haven't found it yet the original configuration of the incline included two specially built cars which carried horse and wagons as well as people up and down the hillside on Parallel tracks the 30ton cars acted as a counterbalance when one was at the top of the incline the other was at the bottom incredible Scenic views convinced the Delo Street Railway company to build a large Pavilion at the top of the hill as a way to increase ridership named The Beacon Hill Pavilion it became an instantly popular destination designed by prominent local architect Oliver traphagen it was built adjacent to the incline Powerhouse where giant boilers powered the steam hoist for the incline cars The Beacon Hill Pavilion opened just in time for independent day in 1892 that day nearly 15,000 people paid 5 cents each to ride the incline to the Pavilion for a grand celebration open from May until late fall though one 100t wide and 300t long Pavilion quickly became the most fashionable place for parties and picnics but in May of 1901 one preparations were being made to reopen The Pavilion for the season when disaster struck a fire started in a coal bin of the incline Powerhouse and quickly spread to the Pavilion the wood frame structure was soon engulfed and burned to ruin in less than an hour at the top of the incline Engineers Brave the heat to lash the empty East car to the rails as heat from the fire threatened to part its steel cable what happened next is the stuff of Legends theth Evening Herald May 28th 1901 at Great Peril to themselves they lashed the car to the tracks but the heat was fierce it melted the steel cable and twisted up the rails swifter than the flight of a parthan arrow it dashed down the hill a WHL wind of flame it covered nine blocks from the burning Pavilion to Superior Street in less than 10 seconds hundreds of people saw the car from the top of downtown business blocks they saw a streak of fire heard a rumble and a crash when the car hit the bottom of the hill there was a sound as of an explosion the Flames shot up in the air for fully 100 ft the car and station were smashed and thrown clear across the street The Pavilion burned down to its stone foundation and was never rebuilt over time even the stones from The Pavilion Foundation were were carried away likely used in homes and other buildings constructed along the hillside the incline returned to operation first with one smaller car and later with two redesigned trolleys it made its final run on Labor Day 1939 today nothing much remains at the S side of the old Pavilion the brush covered Hillside above 9th Street off offers few clues of what once stood okay so you found it Tom neighbors helped us find this stone slab perhaps The Last Remnant of the great edifice where thousands once gathered to admire the Great Lake below only memories now remain [Music] for [Music] [Music] funding for lost Deluth 2 is provided by the citizens of Minnesota through the Minnesota arts and cultural heritage fund the documentary is based on the book lost duth from Zenith City [Music] Press

Channel: PBS North

Views: 1,139,800

Keywords: Local Special, non-show, Duluth, MN, Historical Documentary, WDSE WRPT, PBS

Id: 8LtrsYVWezY

Length: 58min 1sec (3481 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 28 2013