1 of 3
Phil Bencomo / Lake Superior Magazine
USS Duluth Anchor
The 12-ton anchor from the decommissioned USS Duluth was set in place on Duluth's Lakewalk this week. Former crewmembers celebrated the ship during a dedication ceremony on Friday.
2 of 3
Phil Bencomo / Lake Superior Magazine
USS Duluth Anchor
3 of 3
Phil Bencomo / Lake Superior Magazine
USS Duluth Anchor
Anchor from decommissioned USS Duluth finds a home in … Duluth
The city of Duluth unveiled its newest Lakewalk memorial at a ceremony on Friday: the anchor from the decommissioned USS Duluth, an amphibious transport dock in service from 1965 to 2005.
Nearly two dozen former crewmembers attended the dedication ceremony.
During its 40 years at sea, the 569-foot ship sailed around the world on military and humanitarian missions to Vietnam, Kuwait, the Philippines, Somalia and other destinations, for which its crews earned numerous medals and commendations.
The USS Duluth Crewmembers Association, after learning in 2013 that the ship had been sold for scrap to a Texas company, hoped to save the Duluth, or at least parts of it. The original plan, to bring the vessel to its namesake city as a museum ship, was scuttled because the 108-foot-wide ship wouldn’t fit through the St. Lawrence Seaway locks.
The association managed to save a few key artifacts, though, including the 12-ton anchor, which now resides on Duluth’s Lakewalk between the memorials to veterans of the Vietnam and Korean wars.
Other components from the ship will eventually be included in a museum being developed with the St. Louis County Historical Society.
The ship was the second Navy vessel named for Duluth; the first was a light cruiser in service from 1944 to 1949.
Shipping recovers from season’s slow start
Mike Simonson, Wisconsin Public Radio:
July was the best month for U.S. freighters on the Great Lakes in two years, and St. Lawrence Seaway cargo tonnage has almost made up for the season’s crippling start when ships had to navigate miles of ice cover well into May.
Historic Duluth building damaged in fire
We were sorry to hear this week of the fire that severely damaged the historic Redstone building and the offices of HTK Marketing Communications. The folks at HTK are our longtime friends and have long been partners with Lake Superior Magazine on many projects. They’re great folks and do the funniest Christmas cards. HTK already was in the process of moving its office from the historic site into the Dewitt-Seitz building in Canal Park, a move that should be completed by November. We send them our support and thoughts in their efforts.From a 1988 issue of the magazine, read about the renovation of the Redstone building and conversion to an office space. Hopes are the building will be revived again.
+ Matt Chingo and Mark Phillips of Bayfield’s Old Rittenhouse Inn appeared on a KBJR cooking segment to promote the Inn’s new cookbook (which we published this summer).
+ Dan Giroux, WLUC: “Adding a new flavor to the upper Michigan brewing game.”
+ Leith Dunick, TBNewsWatch: "Nature Conservancy Canada has purchased a 163-acre patch of land on the south side of Caribou Island ... one of the last wilderness coastal areas left on the Great Lakes."