This month in Duluth history

1. July 1, 1929: The Aerial Transfer Bridge’s gondola car crosses the canal for the last time.

Veteran bridge operator James Murray, who reportedly teared up, was joined on the final trip by fellow operators William Maynard, Urban Nehring, Frank Lampert, and superintendent Leonard Green. Other dignitaries aboard included Mrs. E. H. Borth, the first woman to cross in the ferry bridge in 1905, and Ann Murray, who rode the ferry bridge more times than any other passenger.

2. July 3, 1855: The Merritts arrive at the Head of the Lakes. Lewis Merritt and his son Napolean of Ashtabula, Ohio, arrived in Superior and later made a claim on the Minnesota side of the bay, adjacent to claims of the Ely and Wheeler families. They started calling the area “Oneota,” Ojibwe for “the rock from which the people sprang.” The rest of the Merritts arrived in 1856. Oneota was later observed by West Duluth.

3. July 4, 1868: First use of “Zenith City of the Unsalted Seas.” At an Independence Day picnic on Minnesota Point, Minnesotian publisher Dr. Thomas Foster gave a grand oration, during which he first called Duluth the “Zenith City of the Unsalted Seas” and outlined the future of Duluth as the “Chicago of Lake Superior.” It was a speech filled with optimism. In January 1869, just 14 families lived at the base of Minnesota Point.

4. July 6, 1883: Duluth’s first streetcar begins operation. The Duluth Street Railway Company’s first line ran along Superior Street from Eighth Avenue West to Third Avenue East. The railway operated small trolley cars or “dinkies” pulled by mules. The ride cost a nickel. The company stored its cars and mules in a barn built at 11th Avenue West. By 1889, horses had replaced mules as the streetcar engines, and in 1892, the entire system was electrified.

5. July 8, 1978: Roger Caldwell found guilty of murders at Glensheen. Caldwell, second husband of Marjorie Congdon LeRoy Caldwell, was convicted of the June 1977 killings of his wife’s mother, Elisabeth Congdon, and nurse Velma Pietila. When the jury foreman read the first count on the murder of Elisabeth Congdon, Caldwell leaned forward, looked at the jury box and firmly but quietly said, “You’re wrong.” It was the first time he had spoken during his trial.

6. July 11, 1941: Duluth’s NorShor Theatre opens for the first time. The Art Deco movie house, converted from the 1910 Orpheum vaudeville house, showed Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour in “Caught in the Draft.” The Duluth News Tribune reported “(the Norshor) features an entirely new style of theater architecture, a style so radical from accepted standards that the Norshor has already earned the distinction of being more sensational than New York’s Radio City.”

7. July 22, 1893: First load of Mesabi Range ore arrives in Duluth. A locomotive of the Duluth, Missabe & Northern Railroad pulled 10 cars of iron ore from the Mountain Iron Mine onto the new wooden ore dock — the largest in the world — at about 5:19 p.m at the foot of 33rd Avenue West. The entire Merritt family, who had essentially “opened” the Mesabi Range, watched as the ore was dumped into the dock’s pockets.

8. July 25, 1680: Duluth’s namesake “saves” Hennepin County’s namesake. After reportedly paddling 200 miles in two days, Daniel Greysolon Sieur du Lhut and three companions overtook 1,100 Dakota who had supposedly captured French Jesuit priest Louis Hennepin. But according to du Lhut biographer Milan Kovacovic, Hennepin and his men were “never subjected to confinement and … received excellent treatment in the hands of the Dakotas … (and) seemed reluctant to leave their alleged tormentors.”

9. July 28, 1922: Rower Walter Hoover returns the conquering hero. Earlier in the month, Hoover — a member of the Duluth Boat Club — had become the world-champion rower by taking the Diamond Challenge Sculls at the annual Henley Royal Regatta on the River Thames at Henley-on-Thames, England. Duluth business and factories closed from 8-9 a.m., so workers, backed by the American Legion band, could cheer Hoover when he arrived.

10. July 31, 1884: First ore delivered from Vermilion Iron Range. The Duluth and Iron Range Railway’s first locomotive, the Three Spot, delivered the first load of ore from the Soudan Mine to a new ore dock at Agate Bay (later Two Harbors). The locomotive pulled just ten cars carrying 220 tons of iron ore on the 68-mile trip. On board was Charlemagne Tower, credited as the man who opened the Vermilion Range.

Story and photos courtesy Zenith City Online. Discover more atwww.zenithcity.com.

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/pursuits/3778465-month-duluth-history