The last 'saltie' – an oceangoing vessel – on Lake Superior this year departed from Duluth on Thursday evening. The Orsula, a 656-foot Marshall Islands-flagged ship, was bound for Italy with 22,000 metric tons of durum wheat. It'll be the last vessel to fully transit the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway system this year.
The Great Lakes shipping season will continue until Jan. 15, when the Soo Locks close. Lakers will make intra-lake runs as long as the ice cover allows; last season’s final ship on Lake Superior, the John G. Munson, didn’t head into winter layup at Fraser Shipyards until Jan. 25.
+ The Big Lake got some national exposure this week with a CBS News report on this season’s early ice.
Lighting contest winners announced
The winners of the Duluth Holiday Lighting Contest, sponsored in part by Lake Superior Magazine, were announced Thursday.
+ Video of the light show at the first-place home.
Coalitions call for a mining study and more time to digest PolyMet's environmental impact statement
John Myers, Duluth News Tribune:
A coalition of environmental, business, faith, American Indian and conservation groups today called on the federal Environmental Protection Agency to conduct a broad, region-wide study of the cumulative effects of mining expansion in the Lake Superior basin.
+ Another coalition of groups has asked for an additional 90 days to review PolyMet’s 2,169-page draft environmental impact statement for its proposed copper-nickel mine in northeastern Minnesota. As it stands, the review and public comment period ends March 13.
+ Kurt Hauglie reports from Calumet, Michigan, for the Mining Gazette: “100 years later: Remembering the Italian Hall tragedy.”
+ A Duluth curling squad will represent the United States at the 2014 Winter Olympics, reports Northland’s NewsCenter.
+ LSM contributors Bryan Hansel and Chris Gibbs were featured in a National Geographic Adventure article on cold-weather photography.
+ Paul Sundberg’s wintry Photos of the Week.
+ The historic Copper Peak ski jump near Ironwood, Michigan, is back, reports the Mining Journal.
+ The Chronicle-Journal: Thunder Bay police service dog Thunder retired this week after more than eight years on the job.