Duluth, Minnesota

“ At first we lived in Superior, Wis., but in September of that year we went down to Madeline Island to the Indian payment when the government bought the Duluth property from the Indians. My husband got title to the best of Minnesota Point. This was the same payment where they gave Chief Buffalo his four square miles of land in Duluth.
Minnesota Point is a narrow neck of land seven miles long and about a quarter of a mile wide projecting from the mainland in Duluth and separating Lake Superior from St. Louis Bay. One day we had a picnic party of Superior people over on Minnesota Point. ”

“ There is no place for idlers here. Such a wide-awake community naturally weeds itself of them; and, consequently, the society is industrious and moral, if not always elegant and pretentious.
Duluth will in time possess a completely landlocked harbor, and indeed has it already, but not at present as accessible as it will soon be made to the commerce seeking her wharves. ”

“ At Duluth, Minnesota.—Although the joint city and county work farm had been in operation little over a month by February 9th, prisoners sent there have already cleared the underbrush from nearly 20 acres. It is expected by spring over 200 acres will be cleared. During the summer the men will prepare the land already cleared so that it may be plowed in the spring of 1915.
According to Superintendent Fred Ward of the farm, all men now at the institution are apparently satisfied with conditions and appear willing to work. ”

“ Duluth is at the extreme western limit of all the great lakes of the interior, and must eventually become the commercial centre for the Northwest. It is already reaching out its arms to grasp the trade and commerce of that region, which, once in its control, must ever remain tributary to it. The Lake Superior and Mississippi Railway—one hundred and fifty-four miles in length—above referred to, inaugurates a new era in the agricultural interests of the State, and opens an entirely new line of travel. ”

“ In the northern part of the State I have seen men start out in the morning with an ox team and return at night, blind themselves and the oxen, too, from the sting of the buffalo gnat. The mosquitoes came in great clouds and were everywhere.
Every little clear space of a hundred acres or more was called a prairie.
When I first saw Duluth it was only a cotton-town. That is, log houses with canvas roofs or tents. Most mail carriers used dog teams. Three dogs hitched tandem was the common sight. I have seen three dogs haul a dead horse. ”

“ Paul. Wm. Hollinshead, a brother-in-law of Edmund and H. M. Rice, died some time in the '50s. J. W. Bond was the author of the first history of Minnesota. Chauncey Hobart was chaplain of the first legislature. John B. Spencer, carpenter and contractor, built the first breakwater and dock at Duluth.
Thomas Foster became editor of the Minnesotian, and subsequently issued a paper at Duluth. He gave the name of "The Zenith City of the Unsalted Sea" to Duluth. He was too much of a critic to be popular. He died near Washington, District of Columbia, in 1884. ”

“ Paul, completed in 1870, and a sudden influx of capital consequent upon this new outlet of trade, and more than all this, the proposed construction of the great Northern Pacific railroad, gave a new impetus to the growth of the city. The three years succeeding were years of great activity and progress. The population increased from 3,000 to 5,000, and many of the finer older buildings of the city were constructed. The canal was cut through Minnesota Point, thus giving to Duluth the most magnificent harbor on the lake, if not in the world. ”

“ The city is especially favored with facilities for transportation by rail and water. It is the terminus of the Chicago and Northwestern, the Great Northern, the Northern Pacific, and of six other railroads, and of thirteen steamship lines. Duluth has a natural harbor, nine miles long and two miles wide, entrance to which is made by two canals, the principal one being at Duluth, the other seven miles south, both piercing the narrow strip of land called Minnesota Point, which separates the lake from the harbor. ”

“ A day spent in Duluth and Superior, driving around the boulevards in Duluth and in visiting the coal and ore docks of the two cities, will not be time thrown away. These enterprising young cities, one in Minnesota, the other in Wisconsin, are fair exponents of Northwestern vim and progress. ”

“ Paul to the head of the lakes was projected, there is no doubt Superior would have been the terminus of the road; but it was found to be almost impossible to procure title to any land in Superior, on account of its having been sold by the proprietors in undivided interests to parties all over [197] the country, and it was situated in Wisconsin, so the railroad people procured the charter of the company to make its northern terminus on the Minnesota side of the harbor, where Duluth now stands, and founded that town as the terminus of the road. ”

“ And previous to the act of the city of Duluth, presently to be mentioned as the foundation of this suit, it was the only passage for vessels into and out of the bay. There was here in this bay a natural harbor where vessels could anchor in safety, and it was the only one on Lake Superior within fifty or sixty miles of its western limit. Here grew up Superior City, at which all vessels landed which came by the great lake system so far west. Outside of the bay and east of Minnesota Point the lake was rough, and there was no protection for vessels from the winds and waves. ”

“ Louis County; but neither the university nor the state authorities took sufficient interest to cause a proper examination of the region to be made. George C. Stone of Duluth conducted explorations whose revelations led to the formation of the Minnesota Iron Company and the building of the Duluth and Iron Range Railroad in 1884. In that year 62,122 tons of ore were shipped from the mine opened at Tower. Four years later the railroad was extended to Ely, and 54,612 tons were carried from the Chandler mine. The product of the Vermilion range increased with astonishing rapidity. ”

“ Minnesota enjoys a great advantage in point of transportation to both oceans in the competition of Canadian roads, with branches penetrating to her principal cities. The water route eastward from Duluth has moderated costs of shipping out her staple products—grain, ore, and lumber—and given her favorable rates on returning merchandise.
The new states of the Northwest have departed far from the conservative doctrine that governments exist merely for the protection of persons and property. ”

“ During the summer of 1882, the United States government had advertised that it would offer at public auction, many townships of land lying along the border between Minnesota and Canada, in Cook, Lake, St. Louis, and Itasca Counties. This country was difficult to reach. The distance from Duluth to Lake Vermilion was upwards of ninety miles. There was not even a road through the woods, over which a loaded team could be driven. Men were obliged to take their supplies upon their backs and carry them over a trail, all of this distance. ”

“ Of all American cities, there are only five others that can put roofs over 10,000,000 bushels of grain. Duluth-Superior stands at the head of these, with twice the storage capacity of New York. This double city, with the picturesque location, Duluth on her Minnesota hillside and Superior on her Wisconsin plain, has in recent years overtaken all competitors and [216] is now the leading wheat-shipping port in the world. Buffalo comes next as an elevator city, having twenty-eight towering buildings of steel operated by the energy of Niagara Falls. ”

“ Grand Marais is one hundred and ten miles from Duluth, on the north shore of Lake Superior. It is the best harbor that Minnesota has except Duluth. It is thirty miles south of the international boundary line, and forty-five miles northeast of the line by Lake Superior. It is the natural outlet for the mineral deposits north. There are large quantities of iron ore within thirty-five miles of the harbor. A railroad line has been run, and men are now at work on the iron deposits with a view of shipping the ore from Grand Marais to points where it is wanted for smelting purposes. ”

“ Daily communication is already had by rail with the cities of Chicago, Milwaukee, and Duluth, and in the near future another, and, perhaps, in some respects; the most important link of all, that connecting St. Paul with Omaha and the Union Pacific Railway, known as the St. Paul and Sioux City Road. This line traverses the most fertile district in the State, as well as the most populous, following up the rich valley of the Minnesota to Mankato, where it leaves the river, holding a southwest direction for Sioux City in Iowa. ”

“ The fisheries, which are of great value, are carefully supervised and systematically replenished from, the State Fish Hatchery at St Paul, and the Federal Fish Hatchery maintained at Duluth, in which particular attention is devoted to the fish of Lake Superior. Minnesota ranked third among the states of the Union in 1900 in the production of lumber, but in 1905 was fifth, the supply having diminished and the industry having been developed in the states of Washington and Louisiana. ”

“ Your oratrix further alleges that immense quantities of wheat and other products are shipped annually from East Grand Forks, Crookston, Moorhead, Fergus Falls, and other competitive points within the state of Minnesota, and all on the lines of railway of the said Great Northern and Northern Pacific Railway companies, hereinafter referred to, to the cities of Duluth, St. ”

“ The upper Mississippi—Duluth.—While La Salle was operating in the Illinois country, others were at work in northern Wisconsin and Minnesota. In 1678 Duluth, a cousin of Tonty, left Montreal for the west. ”

“ Of the 14,358 coloured inhabitants, 4959 were negroes and 9182 Indians, 8457 of whom lived on reservations. The urban population (i.e. inhabitants of cities of 8000 or over) was 26·8% of the total population, as compared with 28·2% in 1890. By the state census of 1905 the population of the principal cities was as follows: Minneapolis, 261,954; St Paul, 197,023; Duluth, 64,942; Winona, 20,334; Stillwater, 12,435; and Mankato, 10,996; by the same census four other cities, all in the mining region in the north-east, had passed the 5000 limit, viz. ”

“ Paul, White Bear, Forest Lake, Wyoming, Rush City, Pine City, Hinckley, Sandstone, Moose Lake, Carlton, Duluth, Two Harbors, Grand Marais and intervening and adjacent communities a reasonable means of communication, each with the other and other places within the State. ”

“ This shows that an increasing amount of the great volume of wheat raised in north Dakota and north-west Minnesota (that is, largely in the Red River Valley) is seeking market by way of Duluth and water transportation. In 1869 Minnesota raised about 18,000,000 bushels of wheat; in 1886, about 50,000,000. In 1869 Dakota grew no grain at all; in 1886 it produced about 50,000,000 bushels of wheat. To understand the amount of transportation the reader has only to look on the map and see the railway lines—the Northern Pacific, the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Omaha, the St. ”

“ There were about seventy white people in the neighborhood in 1860, and in 1869 its present site was a forest, while the railroad, which had many set-backs, had only brought about three thousand people there in 1885. The completion of other railway connections in various directions, the discovery of iron deposits, and the recognition of its advantageous position for traffic, subsequently gave Duluth rapid growth, so that it now has eighty thousand people, and is the greatest port on the lake. ”

“ Duluth itself, with good harbor facilities, has only a strip of level ground for a street, and inadequate room for railway tracks and transfers. The town itself climbs up the hill, whence there is a good view of the lake and the Wisconsin shore, and a fair chance for both summer and winter breezes. ”

“ During these local and national disturbances the material prosperity of the State was unabated. Notwithstanding the heavy cost of the civil war and the Sioux massacre, the census of 1865 showed a population of 250,099. Railroad construction began to be energetically carried forward; in 1870 329 miles were made and 1096 miles were in operation; a road to Lake Superior was completed, and the Northern Pacific was fairly under way. In 1873-76, and to some extent in 1877, successive visitations of locusts destroyed the crops of the south-western counties. ”

“ Sir, I might stand here for hours and hours and expatriate with rapture upon the gorgeous prospects of Duluth, as depicted upon this map. But human life is too short and time of this House far too valuable to allow me to linger longer upon the delightful theme. I think every gentleman on this floor is as well satisfied as I am that Duluth is destined to become the commercial metropolis of the universe, and that this road should be built at once. ”

“ If gentlemen will examine it, they will find Duluth not only in the centre of the map, but represented in the centre of a series of concentric circles one hundred miles apart, and some of them as much as four thousand miles in diameter, embracing alike in their tremendous sweep the fragrant savannas of the sunlit South and the eternal solitudes of snow that mantle the ice-bound North. ”

“ It must become the most important railroad centre in the State outside of the capital. Situate in the very heart of the most fertile district, and possessing a population both industrious and enterprising, its future is bright and promising to a high degree. Its location is unfavorable for invalids, and should, as a rule, be avoided by them. Fogs occur here, and the place is low, and soil too rich, and of a generally too wet character to insure the highest health to delicate and enfeebled visitors. ”