Around the Circle This Week: June 15, 2018

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Lighthouse in Need of Keepers: The U.S. Coast Guard this week listed Duluth's red-roofed South Pier Lighthouse as "available property" and is looking for a group to take on its care. "This light station is being made available at no cost to eligible entities defined as federal agencies, state and local agencies, non-profit corporations, educational agencies, or community development organizations, for education, park, recreation, cultural, or historic preservation purposes," the listing states. The brick structure with a 44-foot tower first lit on June 2, 1874, according to Terry Pepper's Seeing the Light, parallels the taller, black-capped light on the north pier, which is not listed as available. The U.S. Coast Guard would still maintain the light as an aid to navigation. The South Pier Rear Range Light, on the mainland near the Duluth Aerial Lift Bridge, as reported by Steve Kuchera of the Duluth News Tribune, was sold to a private party for $31,000 in 2008 after no non-profit or government agency sought to take it over.

Presidential Pop Ins: President Donald Trump will rally supporters in Duluth on Wednesday (June 20) at the DECC, reports Tom Olsen of the Duluth News Tribune. The event begins at 6:30 p.m., but the doors open at 3:30 p.m. for those attending. Water travel near the DECC, a main maritime traffic lane, will be restricted while the president is in the area. The president is expected to talk about the economy as well as his recent summit with the North Korean leader. During the 2016 campaign, Donald Trump visited Superior, Wisconsin, on a campaign tour. The last sitting president to visit Duluth was George W. Bush in 2004 during his re-election campaign; he drew 8,000 supporters to the DECC. Other visiting presidents included Bill Clinton (1994), Jimmy Carter (1978) and John F. Kennedy (1963). During his 1963 trip, JFK also visited Ashland, Wisconsin, at the behest of U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson to endorse the idea of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, as recalled in a story by Julie Buckles for Lake Superior Magazine.

Another presidential draw in the Lake Superior neighborhood was Wisconsin’s Bois Brule River (called the Brule), which earned the nickname “The River of Presidents” after five of them –

Ulysses S. Grant, Grover Cleveland, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover and Dwight Eisenhower – all reportedly came to fish the popular trout stream. Calvin Coolidge (top photo) hung around so much in 1928 (from June 15 to September 10) that the Cedar Island Lodge where his family stayed on the Brule became the “Summer White House” and Central High School in Superior was designated the official White House Offices. The Douglas County Historical Society in Superior has a recreation of Calvin’s summer office, including the original desk and bust of Abraham Lincoln (side photo) as well as an historic marker removed when Central High School was demolished. The Twin Ports also have hosted soon-to-be presidents on campaign tours before their elections, including Teddy Roosevelt and Warren G. Harding, who is said to have nearly chosen a Superior native and personal friend, U.S. Rep. Irvine Lenroot, as his vice president but picked Coolidge instead. Since Harding died in office, Irvine would have become president instead of Calvin. According to Tony Tracy, executive director of the Douglas County Historical Society in Superior, Franklin Delano Roosevelt nearly drown in Lake Superior when he was 10 during a visit with his dad to Superior to see the launching of a whaleback. In his enthusiasm, the young FDR got too close to the edge of the slip and was swept into the Lake by waves. A Superior firefighter grabbed the lad before he reached deep water.

Thriller at the Tiller: “Most sailors on Lake Superior have known fear.” Thus begins Kim Ode’s story in the Star Tribune about daring sailors on Lake Superior, what draws them and what perils they encounter. She finds that unlike the domesticated experience of the yacht clubs chasing wind and waves on the inland lakes of southern Minnesota, Lake Superior sailors crave the wilderness experience and the pride of mastering their sailboats on a mighty water “where a coffee mug knocked overboard can tumble more than a thousand feet, through water colder than your beer.” One of the sailors featured is Katya Gordon, who wrote about hiking Minnesota gorges in winter for the October/November issue of Lake Superior Magazine. Kim links through, too, to photo compilation videos done by David Wiencke from Big Lake journeys on his boat Neverland. 

Research & Restore: Dr. Michael Rennie of Lakehead University in Thunder Bay will combine two grants to further research into restoring lake ecosystems after they are disrupted

by neighboring industries. Michael, an assistant biology professor and the Canada Research Chair in Freshwater Ecology and Fisheries, received a $100,000 grant through the Ontario Ministry of Research, Innovation and Science, which will be added to a $50,000, five-year grant from Lakehead. “This award gives our research group a lot of exciting opportunities for student-led investigations into ecosystem restoration projects both at the IISD-Experimental Lakes Area (a freshwater research facility) and on Lake Superior,” Michael says. One reason recovery from industrial impacts has been slow on some lakes, according to Michael in a release announcing the grants, is that little is known about the ecosystems and their keystone species before the impacts changed them. He and his team of eight graduate and undergraduate students intend to develop methods to determine those keystone species, aided in part by Lakehead Univerity’s Paleo-DNA lab, and then to use that knowledge to improve ecosystem recovery through reintroduction of native biological species. They will work at the Experimental Lakes Area, which covers 58 small lakes in Northwestern Ontario. In this photo, Michael demonstrates to his Experimental Liminology and Aquatic Ecology students the proper use of a Van Dorn bottle to collect water samples at known depths.

Waves of Change: A wooden staircase leading from the side of M-28 down to the beach near Marquette has been removed and  will not be replaced this year. Shawn Malone of Lake Superior Photo posted a video of the removal. "The stairs and the Lake have been fighting, and the Lake has been winning," says Dan Weingarten, communications representative for MDOT's Superior Region. "It's not so much a particular storm as the lake levels are higher. … We’re taking a wait and see approach. We’re going to be monitoring the lake levels and waiting to see what we can do in the future." The high water levels and concurrent erosion have made increasingly steep, dangerous slopes to the water on both public and private properties, Dan points out. Three roadside parks along M-28 have had the wooden staircases removed, fences put in place and access restricted. A fourth park, the farthest east before the Alger County line, did have the partially damaged staircase repaired and the park remains open. A map shows all MDOT roadside parks and scenic turnouts.

Bridging a Gap: The Ontario Court of Appeals upheld a 102-year-old agreement between the Grand Truck Pacific Railway (now Canadian National Railway Co.) and the town of Fort William (part of today’s Thunder Bay), ruling that CN Railway must maintain a vehicle traffic access to the James Street Swing Bridge across the Kaministiquia River to the Fort William First Nation, according to a story by Colin Perkel in The Globe and Mail. “Completed in 1909, the 150-metre bridge was used for rail, vehicle and pedestrian traffic for more than 100 years until 2013, when CN closed it for three days because of a fire,” Colin reports. “However, CN reopened the span only for rail and pedestrian traffic, not for cars and trucks. The company said motor vehicles could leave the road and end up in the river – something that had never happened in the century of operation.” The 1909 deal was for CN to maintain the bridge to rail, vehicle and foot traffic “in perpetuity,” with the city contributing $50,000 to its cost. CN argued, and a lower court agreed, that it would cost too much to make the structural changes to make the bridge safe for vehicles and also that its contract came at a time when traffic meant streetcars, horses and horse carts, not automobiles and trucks. In ordering CN to open the bridge to vehicles, the Court of Appeals also ordered the company to pay $290,000 in legal costs. The bridge is a critical alternative link to his community Fort William First Nation Chief Peter Collins told James Murray at NetNewsLedger.com.

Up the Creek: Can a creek have a makeover? At Chester Bowl in Duluth, the creek for which it’s named now wanders on a prescribed course lined beautifully with boulders. Two dams have been removed, and the creek was rerouted according to plan, Jack Nissen reports for the Duluth News Tribune. “It’s one of the most popular parks in the city so it’s a way to show people the importance of protecting the stream for the trout. Getting the dams out of here was critical,” the story quotes Kate Kubiak, the project manager with the South St. Louis County Soil and Water Conservation District. Chester Creek is one of 14 trout streams that traverse Duluth. The new arrangement should reduce flooding erosion, too. “Every rock matters in this creek,” according to Kate. “Everything we’ve put in here has a purpose.”

Book Marks: Here are a trio of fun notes for book lovers.

In her The Author’s Wife page, Marcia Freeman, wife of international mystery writer Brian Freeman, tells the fun story of how two of the main characters in Brian’s latest Duluth-based novel, Alter Ego, came to be named Lori Fulkerson and Dean Casperson. Those are the names of two high bidders in a live auction to support the Duluth Public Library Foundation. The auction item? Your name in a Brian Freeman mystery. Lori won the bid, but Dean approached Brian afterward and offered a sum to support the library if he could sneak one more local name in there. Brian agreed. But what kind of characters might “Lori” and “Dean” become – victim, villain or …? At another recent fundraising event (see photo above of Lori, Brian and Dean) at Glensheen, Brian revealed the characters. We aren’t about to spoil your reading of the book, but will note that all the fundraising efforts put $6,000 more into the library foundation coffers.

The Marsh King’s Daughter, a psychological thriller set in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, has earned multiple honors and recently was named as a finalist for the Hammett Prize by the

International Association of Crime Writers. The book, written by Karen Dionne, has received international praise and the book already is slated to become a movie starring Oscar-winning Swedish actress Alicia Vikander (in photo). Karen’s website describes the book plot as “the mesmerizing tale of a woman who must risk everything to hunt down the dangerous man who shaped her past and threatens to steal her future: her father.” Karen tapped her own time in the U.P. for local details. She will be at the Lake Superior State University bookstore this afternoon (Friday).

Last but not least, U.P. authors/barflies, Kevin Kluck and the late Randy Kluck, both formerly of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, were the topic of a lengthy feature by John Carlisle of the Detroit Free Press. John detailed the work that went into Yooper Bars, now a cult classic book from Kevin and his father, Randy, that had them spending one summer cruising the U.P. from small bar to small bar, discovering the life of the small towns at the same time. Randy’s lifestyle of drinking and smoking took a toll that contributed to his death at 59 in 2013, but he was definitely proud of the book he and his son created. John and Kevin visited many of the tiny bars and often Kevin received a hero’s welcome. “The book brought people, but more than that, more than the book, was the fact that they (Kevin and Randy) showed interest in our community and our place,” Steve Miller, owner of the Hilltop Bar on Sugar Island told John.

Flooding Alerts: Michigan’s Gogebic County Sheriff’s Office reported flash flooding this morning (Friday) with North Ironwood Township getting the worst. The sheriff’s office urged people not to drive through water over roads and said culverts and shoulders are washing out. Road closures include Vanderhagen Road north of Sunset Road, Sunset Road near Vanderhagen Road, Slade Road at Welch Creek and Powderhorn Road north to Black River Road. The National Weather Service in Marquette posted a flood warning this morning for west central Gogebic County. Local law enforcement continued to report flooding in Ironwood, Bessemer and Wakefield, affecting many roads. One of those roads, Highway 2 in Ironwood, remained closed this morning. The weather service reported 3 to 4 inches of rain since early Friday morning, with much of it falling in two hours. Flooding is expected in areas including Ironwood, Bessemer, Wakefield, Hurley, Thomaston and the Ironwood Airport. Motorists are advised to avoid driving through flood waters and to turn around when they encounter flooded roads. Most flood deaths occur in vehicles.

Hall of Famers: On Thursday, the Sault Ste. Marie (ON) Sports Hall of Fame honored three new inductees: Javelin thrower and coach Folgo Della Vedova, who set a city high school track and field record in 1970 with a 59-metre throw that held until 2003; golfer Richard Envoy, who earned nine Sault Ste. Marie Club Championships and four city championships as well as qualifying for five national golf championships; and 2005 Sault Athlete of the Year track star Sherri Smith, who was the 5000-metre Canadian National Track & Field Champion in 1998, the World ITU Women Overall Triathlon Champion in 2004 in Maeira, Portugal and represented Canada at six world championships.

Road to Know Where: Grandma's Marathon is this weekend, which means lots of fun activities in and around Duluth (including, of course, the run itself from Two Harbors along the North Shore Scenic Drive on Saturday). It also means some traffic challenges. Sasquatch 106.5 posted a tidy listing of traffic advisories connected to the weekend of events. Be in the know as you go!

Photo & graphic credits: Bob Berg; Douglas County Historical Society/UMD’s Kathyrn A. Martin Library Archives/Duluth News Tribune; Bob Berg; Dr. Kerri Finlay, University of Regina; Shawn Malone; Marcia Freeman; commons.wikimedia.org