Hibbing to Duluth Minnesota

 

March 30, 2021 - Today is our 52^nd Anniversary.  We were married in Sunnyside, WA at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church.  The day was warm with blue skies.  My father cried and John’s best man had to hold him up as he was about to faint.

Here we are 52 years later with two beautiful children and 2 handsome grandsons, Max, and Mason.

Today the high is supposed to be 25, snowflakes are blowing in the air again and the wind is very strong.  Tomorrow is to be the same, but we will not be here so hard to tell what we will run into.

We had three antique stores on our list.  One turned out to be in a house way off the beaten track.  Another one does not open until Wednesday and of course today is Tuesday and the other one closed months ago.  We did find an old junk store that was 3 rooms and totally unorganized.  I found a book I wanted, and he would not sell it.  In the store we met someone that had lived in Bellingham and moved here for a boyfriend.  Silly girl.

The area we are in has very large iron deposits across the middle of the state.  In the early 1900’s the town of Hibbing was located on a hill to the east of the existing town.  As the mining moved from place to place, the mining companies decided they really needed to mine where the town of Hibbing stood.  So, the mining company literally moved the town to another location and donated and built a huge high school for the city.  That may not sound outstanding, but this high school is beautiful and sits on an entire city block.  One person way telling us that they have Austrian chandeliers in the school.  It is 3 stories with tall spires forming the entrance to the school. 

We drove to where we were supposed to be able to see the mine pit however, the road and tour are closed, probably due to the cold weather.  Maybe sometime in the future we will be back in the area.

Hibbing is no longer a large city and it appears that many of the rooms in the school are not used.

Another bit of history is that Bob Dylan was raised in Hibbing.  The house still stands and is about 3 blocks from the high school.

                                                             Bob Dylan’s boyhood home

About 2:00 pm we started our way south to Duluth, MN.  It is less than 100 miles.  Duluth is a bit smaller than Yakima and sits on the northern edge of Lake Superior.  This is the first time we have been to any of the Great Lakes.

After checking into the hotel, we ventured out to find Duluth Trading Co.  We asked about the store at the hotel and were told the story about Duluth Trading abandoning Duluth about 30 years ago, keeping the name but moving their headquarters out.  There is also Duluth Pack which is the same type of store and which the people of Duluth hold dearer to their hearts.

I wanted to insert a couple of pictures of the north eastern part of Minnesota that we saw a couple of days ago.  It is really pretty up here.  As you can see there is still a lot of ice.

Upper part of MN near International Falls

       

 

March 31, 2021 – We were rather excited today to venture into the antique stores that Duluth had to offer.  When we found them we found they do not seem to carry anything we are interested in.  There was a lot of glassware and many things that remind me of the Plaid Door.  Found our way into an old church that had a few pieces of glassware and some furniture.  But if they had 1 book they had thousands.

Lake Superior comes into Duluth and is the furthest west port on the Great Lakes.  In 1870 the lake was dredged out to allow ships to come into the port.  Massive amount of timber was hauled out along with the iron ore.  Today the shipments include iron ore, coal and something called petroleum coke.  There are three harbors in the area and each harbor has 3-4 ships come in each day.  They average 1000 feet in length, 100+ ft wide and 30 ft. deep.

The early 1900 housing still exists in Duluth.  We were told that many of the early housing was built on very hard granite type surfaces so they are very solid.  Some have been taken care of through the years – others have not.  I was surprised to see how close together they were built 120 years ago. 

As in many cities the canal area has grown into tourism.  There are a large number of breweries/pubs and shopping boutiques.  There are also shops to rent equipment for play on the lake.  During this time of the year there is no charge for parking but I am assuming in the summer the area is like a zoo.

The temperature was between 20 and 25 all day.  When we were down next to Lake Superior the wind chill was probably 15.  We wear our masks not only for protection from COVID but for protection from the wind chill as well. 

Little things make me smile.  Not ever having thought about this before today I saw a fire hydrant with a snow measuring stick attached to it.

I have seen pictures of people in this part of the country during the winter but figured it was not that bad.  What is one day of cold weather?  The upper part of the state deals with 3-4 months of temperatures below 32 degrees.  When it gets cold enough to build an ice bridge to some of islands, that is cold.

We made it a short day today.  We have been traveling for 1.5 weeks and we do get tired.  Spent 2 days here in Duluth.  Tomorrow we are going to take a drive up the north shore of the lake, which we understand we really pretty.  And it is supposed to be warmer tomorrow.  There is also an antique store up that way.

From there we will head south to Wisconsin.  Since the Canadian boarder is closed, we cannot get across to Michigan from Minnesota.

So, we will travel across the most upper part of WI into the upper part of Michigan.  We have been told there is not much there, but that will be for us to find out.

Good Night for now.  I will write more tomorrow.

Fire Hydrant with Snow Measurement