Bob Berg / Lake Superior Magazine
Shipping Season Wraps Up
The Soo Locks closed for the winter this week, marking the end of the 2012 shipping season. The Cason J. Callaway was the last vessel through, on Jan. 15. Tonnage through the locks was up slightly this year, according to MLive.com.
+ Seven lakers will winter in the Twin Ports this year, spending the lay-up season performing maintenance and repairs, reports Northland’s NewsCenter.
Beargrease Bumped Back
Faced with another wimpy winter, organizers of the John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon postponed the race until March 10. With so little snow and the icy conditions, race coordinator Pat Olson told us, “I don’t know that we had any choice but to postpone the race.”
+ The BirkieTour, a prelude to February’s 40th annual American Birkebeiner in Hayward, Wisconsin, has been canceled. The non-competitive event would have been held Saturday, Jan. 19, but organizers say there’s not enough snow on the trails.
New Climate Report
“Lake Superior's average temperature, having risen 4.5 degrees since the 1960s, may go up another 7 degrees by mid-century,” according to a new report from the National Climate Assessment and Development Advisory Committee. MinnPost’s Ron Meador delves into the Midwest section of the latest U.S. National Climate Assessment.
“Hope”: When 12-year-old Capri Ruberto Anderson of Thunder Bay learned that her mother had been diagnosed with breast cancer, she turned to music, reports the Chronicle Journal. Her song now has 11,310 YouTube plays since Jan. 9.
Very cool: University of Minnesota Duluth’s KUMD-FM will be featured on mtvU’s “College Radio Countdown” in March, reports the Duluth News Tribune. For an introductory video, they set up a temporary recording studio – in an ice house on Fish Lake.
In Thunder Bay, Alynne Harel, a student at Confederation College, is a finalist for a $5,000 prize to fund a program that would help people with disabilities. Two winners will be chosen by an online vote.
Independent filmmaker Vincent Gargiulo raised some locals’ hackles when he announced a Kickstarter project for a new film: “Duluth is Horrible.” He narrowly reached his $10,000 goal; the San Francisco-based Gargiulo will shoot the 20-minute drama in Duluth in February. He’s holding auditions at the end of this month.
A Look at the Week Ahead
Friday, Jan. 18: Indie rock group Low, formed in Duluth in 1993, plays the Mitchell Auditorium at the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday, Jan. 23: Energy on Tap! at Ore Dock Brewing Company in Marquette, 5-8 p.m.
Thursday, Jan. 24: Kate Crowley and Mike Link, authors of “Going Full Circle,” will talk about their walk around Lake Superior, 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the Minnesota Zoo.