Duluth: An Urban Biography

Duluth, the beautiful city at the head of the world's largest freshwater lake, has gone from boom to bust to boom and back again.

In this richly textured urban biography, author Tony Dierckins highlights fascinating stories of the city: Its significance as the final stop in the Ojibwe's legendary westward migration. The failed copper rush along Lake Superior's North Shore that started it all. The natural port on the St. Louis River that made shipping its first and most important business. The legend of the digging of the ship canal. The unique aerial transfer bridge and its successor, the lift bridge. The city's remarkable park system. The 1920 lynching of three African American circus workers. The Glensheen murders. How Duluth has been dissed in popular culture. The evolution of the city's east-west divide. And throughout the years, the big lake and river have sustained Duluth's economy, shaped its residents' recreation, and attracted the tourists who marvel at the city's beauty and cultural life.

Cities, like people, are always changing, and the history of that change is the city's biography. This book illuminates the unique character of Duluth, weaving in the hidden stories of place, politics, and identity that continue to shape its residents' lives.