Connor's Point and the Superior Harborfront 1905
I did the best that I could with this very small segment of a much larger negative in order to show what the Superior side of St. Louis Bay looked like circa 1905. This shot was taken from the bluffs above Duluth on a remarkably clear day so that we can see the newest concrete elevator at Superior East end (all the way to the left) to the coal docks adjacent to Great Northern Elevators S and X and the Great Northern's Merchandise Dock (all the way to the right). Click on the image to enlarge it slightly. Then pan left and right to see how much work is going on in this view. Connor's Point is barely larger than it was to begin with. Only a pair of early coal docks front the Point at this time.
At left, if you look closely you'll spot Superior's Gasometer that sits slightly inland and roughly mid-point between the two coal docks while much work is being done to create more land and many more docks in between them.
Towards the center of the picture are the Great Northern's Interstate Draw Bridge and the Northern Pacific's St. Louis River Drawbridge. The former was used mostly by the Soo Line after this time because GN began using the NP's bridges to access Duluth. While the latter was actually made up of two (2) draw bridges; the Minnesota Draw and the Wisconsin Draw. If you follow the timber trestle work across the bay left to right you'll find the Wisconsin Draw in the open position with a train bound for Duluth waiting just behind it. These are the NP's original wooden draw bridges that were replaced with much larger steel versions in just a few year's time. Read more about that here: zenithcity.com/northern-pacific-pt2/
Just above the Minnesota Draw are the original flour mills once located in West Superior. Nearer to the Wisconsin Draw are the anthracite coal wig wams and the Globe Elevator complex. A large package freighter is unloading at the GN merchandise dock adjacent to Elevators S and X.
Coal was king during this era. Virtually every railroad locomotive and every steam ship was powered by coal. Most businesses had coal fired boilers that provided steam for powering machinery of every kind. Homes were rapidly converting from burning wood to burning coal in order to take advantage of this ready fuel source. The harbor front docks of Duluth and Superior were the primary storage facilities for millions of tons of anthracite and bituminous coals brought into the Twin Ports from Ohio and Pennsylvania via the Great Lakes.
While the limitations of photography allow me only so much wiggle room to squeeze extra resolution to show these kinds of details that are hiding within old negatives and photographic prints, I believe we are fortunate to be able to see as much as we do in this picture, especially given the fact that virtually every mechanized industrial contraption put in place here, and every ship, every locomotive, every business entity both large and small, and every home in the vicinity is actively burning coal. But the day this picture was taken the skies were relatively clear of the smoke that must have made the skies black with soot on many occasions. While millions of tons of coal were burned in the Twin Ports over the decades to fuel livelihoods and to provide comfort, many hundreds of millions more of those tons were trans-shipped west to the northern plains States and to Canada, to help grow those settlements and economies too. At the Head of the Lakes area, no commodity had a bigger impact than coal, on people's lives and the rapid growth of business throughout the northern States.
Connor's Point and the Superior Harborfront 1905
I did the best that I could with this very small segment of a much larger negative in order to show what the Superior side of St. Louis Bay looked like circa 1905. This shot was taken from the bluffs above Duluth on a remarkably clear day so that we can see the newest concrete elevator at Superior East end (all the way to the left) to the coal docks adjacent to Great Northern Elevators S and X and the Great Northern's Merchandise Dock (all the way to the right). Click on the image to enlarge it slightly. Then pan left and right to see how much work is going on in this view. Connor's Point is barely larger than it was to begin with. Only a pair of early coal docks front the Point at this time.
At left, if you look closely you'll spot Superior's Gasometer that sits slightly inland and roughly mid-point between the two coal docks while much work is being done to create more land and many more docks in between them.
Towards the center of the picture are the Great Northern's Interstate Draw Bridge and the Northern Pacific's St. Louis River Drawbridge. The former was used mostly by the Soo Line after this time because GN began using the NP's bridges to access Duluth. While the latter was actually made up of two (2) draw bridges; the Minnesota Draw and the Wisconsin Draw. If you follow the timber trestle work across the bay left to right you'll find the Wisconsin Draw in the open position with a train bound for Duluth waiting just behind it. These are the NP's original wooden draw bridges that were replaced with much larger steel versions in just a few year's time. Read more about that here: zenithcity.com/northern-pacific-pt2/
Just above the Minnesota Draw are the original flour mills once located in West Superior. Nearer to the Wisconsin Draw are the anthracite coal wig wams and the Globe Elevator complex. A large package freighter is unloading at the GN merchandise dock adjacent to Elevators S and X.
Coal was king during this era. Virtually every railroad locomotive and every steam ship was powered by coal. Most businesses had coal fired boilers that provided steam for powering machinery of every kind. Homes were rapidly converting from burning wood to burning coal in order to take advantage of this ready fuel source. The harbor front docks of Duluth and Superior were the primary storage facilities for millions of tons of anthracite and bituminous coals brought into the Twin Ports from Ohio and Pennsylvania via the Great Lakes.
While the limitations of photography allow me only so much wiggle room to squeeze extra resolution to show these kinds of details that are hiding within old negatives and photographic prints, I believe we are fortunate to be able to see as much as we do in this picture, especially given the fact that virtually every mechanized industrial contraption put in place here, and every ship, every locomotive, every business entity both large and small, and every home in the vicinity is actively burning coal. But the day this picture was taken the skies were relatively clear of the smoke that must have made the skies black with soot on many occasions. While millions of tons of coal were burned in the Twin Ports over the decades to fuel livelihoods and to provide comfort, many hundreds of millions more of those tons were trans-shipped west to the northern plains States and to Canada, to help grow those settlements and economies too. At the Head of the Lakes area, no commodity had a bigger impact than coal, on people's lives and the rapid growth of business throughout the northern States.