Photographer Paul Benjamin Gaylord took the earliest images of Duluth including this view showing trees cut and rudimentary housing and dock construction.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
Image of people lined up on dock and outside deck of Ossifrage. Large dock owned by the Weiland Family, a prosperous family that owned and operated a lumber company out of Beaver Bay (1860-1883). Steam ships would tie up to the Weiland dock, bringing passengers and supplies to the town.
Ice harvesting at Agate Bay. Bays in Lake Superior regularly froze in the cold winter months. Jacob Rafin Senior is seated on the sled. Town of Two Harbors in the background.
Image taken from bluff above bay showing passenger steamer "Ossifrage" at dock. Large dock owned by the Weiland Family, a prosperous family that owned and operated a lumber company out of Beaver Bay (1860-1883). Note the group of men and women of the village standing next to a tipi in the image foreground. Weiland homestead on hill above the dock.
Duluth Missabe and Iron Range owned Edna G. Tugboat at dock (1896-1986) with Carlo passenger vessel. Note the eagle on top of the pilot house of the Edna G. Taken before the Tug was in service on the East Coast in World War One.
Group of men pose for a photograph with shovels. They stand on the clay bottom of the bay, water held back by a berm. The first wooden ore docks were built at Agate Bay in 1884. The docks were upgraded to steel beginning in 1907.
Image shows the Ella G. Stone, predecessor to the Edna G. tugboat pulling a whaleback vessel into the ore docks at Agate Bay. Note the hatches are open on the whaleback.
Image showing a network of railroad tracks and barges used to construct the second docks in Agate Bay. Footings have already been set, completed wooden ore dock can be seen in the background. Ore dock six was the first steel iron ore dock on the great lakes. Built by the Duluth Missabe and Iron Range Railroad.
Image of workers posing for a photograph on the loading docks at Agate Bay. Steam powered on dock with ore cars. Note the numbered loading docks and electric lights. The Two Harbors Lighthouse is in the background.
Isle Royale, a part of the state of Michigan, is located just off the Minnesota North Shore of Lake Superior with a historical population of Minnesota residents.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
Image shows a series of boats moored in Agate Bay. This shows the backup of boat traffic during the 1907 Mesabi Range strike, the first widespread organized strike on the Iron Range called July 20th, 1907. Strike was broken August 2nd, 1907.
The "North West" with passengers aboard deck was built in Cleveland, Ohio in 1894 by the Globe Shipbuilding Company but operated by the Northern Steamship Company of Buffalo, New York until 1911 when she burned.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections
Image of new steel bridge over Beaver River near Beaver Bay, Minnesota. Completed during the Trunk Highway 1 project, now known as Scenic Highway 61. A second, older bridge appears beneath the new bridge. Grand opening of the highway was celebrated in 1925, construction north of Two Harbors began 1922.
Image of wooden sign spanning road that reads "Silver Creek Cliff." on Trunk Highway 1, currently Scenic Highway 61. Dirt road runs underneath the sign which frames the road. A wooden storefront appears beyond the sign.