Tomorrow, It's Lights Out: Saturday, Jan. 5, will be the last day for Marcia Hales’ Holiday Spirit in the Lights walk-through display on Duluth’s Park Point. She doesn’t plan to do the lights again next year (though we know never to say never!). This year, though, Marcia, on left on photo, tells us,has been spectacular with tons of well wishers and visitors and even a wedding last weekend that the couple moved up just so they could be married among the magical lights at 3739 S. Lake Ave. Julie “Jitterbug” Pearce, a friend of Marcia’s, created a lovely video with music showing the display. Tonight and tomorrow night, the lights will stay on until 10 p.m. In honor of this last year of the wonderful display, we’ve been offering excerpts of the book Spirit of the Lights about Marcia’s many years of greeting the many people who have wandered through her yard. Our final excerpt is “In the Light,” in which Marcia’s explains why she has continued to keep the lights going for two decades. Even if this is the last year, the magic Marcia has generated will go on and on.
That's a Relief: In summer of 2012, the firefighters in the Gary-New Duluth station rescued Eric Waller of Duluth and his friend after they were thrown from Eric’s pickup truck when he struck a power pole and damaged a fire hydrant. On Thursday, Eric, an artist, presented the crew of Station 10 with a carved marble relief depicting the station house by way of thank you, Adelie Bergstrom reports for the Duluth News Tribune. “This is definitely one of the more memorable things that we have gotten from somebody saying thank you,” Duluth Fire Capt. Mike Consie, one of those who responded to the crash that night, told Adelie. “It’s a pretty remarkable piece, and it’s nice that we'll be able to keep it for years and years to come.” The story details the accident and how Eric has changed since that night when he was driving under the influence.
Going Down?: Lake Superior is the only Great Lake with a lower water level than this time last year (by about 3 inches), but it is 11 inches above its long-term average monthly average for January and 16 inches above chart datam of 601.8 feet above sea level, reports the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Lakes Michigan, Huron and Erie are more than 20 inches above their January monthly averages. Water levels on all the Great Lakes are expected to go down by 2 to 3 inches in January, which is typically a month for levels to decline. Minnesota Sea Grant’s graphic shows the usual water-level fluctuation among the Great Lakes.
The Need to Micro Manage: A new study may determine a way to help stem the flow of microfibers into the Great Lakes by putting filters on washing machines. Synthetic fabrics such as fleece shed the tiny particles of plastic (as shown in image) in the wash and those particles slip through water treatment plants and into the Great Lakes, reports Kate McGillivray of CBC News. Researchers will install special filters on washing machines in Parry Sound, Ontario, on Lake Huron, in an effort to cut down the plastic particles at the town’s water treatment plant. “We think that because Parry Sound is small, there might be a noticeable decrease,” explains Lisa Erdle, a Ph.D. student at the University of Toronto, who is leading the project. The presence of microfibers in the Great Lakes is well documented, according to the CBC, but the effects on human health from consuming microfibers is less well known. “What we do see is that it's in fish, it's in drinking water, and we're being exposed to our waste," Lisa says.
Break It Up: The Canadian Coast Guard Ship Samuel Risley is expected in Thunder Bay today and could begin icebreaking operations to help keep the shipping lanes open, TBNewsWatch reports. A statement from Fisheries and Oceans Canada on Thursday says the Risley “may be required to work in the Thunder Bay port on or after Jan. 4 … to assist commercial shipping.” The Risley recently had refit work done to ensure it could carry out icebreaking duties this winter. Thunder Bay Harbourmaster Guy Jarvis says there is ice within the breakwall, but not much outside of it at this point. But with five ships due to arrive and load cargo before the shipping season ends, it’s good to have the Risley available. Before the Soo Locks close, it’s expected that the last ship will leave Thunder Bay about Jan. 11. The locks close Jan. 15 and reopen March 25. Boatnerd.com has a lively video of the "unstoppable" Risely icebreaking on the Detroit River and Lake Erie. The Arctic Class 2 vessel is 228 feet, 8 inches long with a beam of 44 feet, 11 inches.
Angling for a New Country: Some 3,200 people have signed a petition on the We the People section of the White House website asking the U.S. government to give the Northwest Angle of Minnesota to Canada. (The petition would need 100,000 to go forward.) The angle, a little piece of real estate that’s home to about 120 people (and we don’t know if any signed the petition), is surrounded by Lake of the Woods and requires going through customs twice to get from the U.S., through Canada and back to the U.S. on the
angle, explains Sydney Mook of the Forum News Service. “Negotiators of the initial Canada-U.S. border misunderstood the geography of the area,” the petition says. “Make America great by correcting this critical survey error.” The petition site, by the by, links to a Wikipedia explanation of the Northwest Angle. Francis M. Carroll wrote about the manipulations that determined our U.S.-Canada border, including the Northwest Angle, in his story “Drawing a Line in the Water” for Lake Superior Magazine, which featured this 1755 map, as well as the modern map from the Lake of the Woods Tourism and a photo of the border crossing without customs officials.
Photo & graphic credits: Kaitlyn Maslowski; Steve Kuchera/Duluth News Tribune; Minnesota Sea Grant; Lisa Erdle & Sam Athey; Canadian Coast Guard; Francis M. Carroll collection; Lake of the Woods Tourism; Alan J. Jacobs.