Shana Aue, Archival Processing Specialist at the University of Minnesota Duluth, chose to highlight this photograph of the Duluth Skyride from their collection in MDL:

Last Day to Ride the Duluth Skyride, 1939

This photograph shows Duluth’s Seventh Avenue West Incline Railway Station on or around Labor Day 1939. The Incline Railway, also known as the Duluth Skyride, was dismantled in the fall of 1940, and this image shows signs advertising the last chance to ride the Incline.

The Duluth Street Railway Company opened the Seventh Avenue West Incline in 1891, as part of a larger streetcar transportation system in the city. The Incline's first trip was on October 2, 1891. The grade on Seventh Avenue West ranges between 15 – 25%, too steep for regular streetcars. Instead, a two-way, ten-foot gauge railway ran a pair of cars over 500 feet up the hill, from a ticket house on Superior Street (pictured here) to the top of the hill where a stationary steam engine powered the system. The original cars were each designed to hold up to four teams and wagons, or 250 standing passengers.

The Incline Railway went through many changes throughout its life. On July 4, 1892, the Incline gained new popularity when the Duluth Street Railway Company opened the Beacon Hill Pavilion at the top of the hill. The pavilion included a restaurant and theater, and was a popular spot for picnics and events. In May of 1901, a fire that started in the Incline powerhouse spread to the nearby pavilion, destroying both. The fire also melted one of the railway cables, sending a flaming railcar racing down the hill and destroying the ticket house at the bottom. While no one was injured, the Incline was out of service until January 1902.

When it reopened, the Incline consisted of a single car with a counterbalance on the other track. It was powered by new electric motors. However, the Incline was so heavily used that one car proved inadequate, and in 1911 it was redesigned again. Once again it consisted of two cars, this time raised and lowered by an electric hoist at the top of the hill. There were also five intermediate stations for stops along the hillside. In 1925, an average of 2,170 weekday passengers rode the Incline, mostly during the morning and evening commute. The Seventh Avenue West Incline’s last day of service was September 4, 1939. Along with the Highland streetcar line, it was one of the last pieces of Duluth’s streetcar system to be replaced with buses.

Sources:

Duluth-Superior Transit Company records, S3020, Archives and Special Collections, Martin Library, University of Minnesota Duluth.

This image represents how Duluth’s transportation system has changed over time, from streetcars to buses, from dirt roads to bricks and asphalt, from a focus on public transportation to private vehicles and I-35 through downtown. We’ve explored so many ways to get people around our city, with its steep hills and cliffs overlooking Lake Superior. And our transit systems are still changing today!

Last year the Duluth Transit Authority, the successor to Duluth Street Railway Company, rolled out the Better Bus Blueprint to improve public transportation in the city; multiple groups are working to rethink I-35 through downtown; and more charging stations for electric vehicles are going up around town. I love that one of the signs in this photograph cites “Duluth’s Transit Modernization Plan,” when we’re still working to find the best modern solutions to our transportation needs in Duluth’s unique geography.

When I first moved to Duluth, I didn't have a car and relied on public transportation for about five years. In addition to taking the bus, I did a lot of walking. The path that once ran alongside the Incline Railway is still here, a series of sidewalks and stairs running between Sixth and Eighth Avenue West. I walked it many times without knowing what it was. Years later, when I started working at the UMD Archives & Special Collections, I found this photograph and others of the Seventh Avenue West Incline and discovered that I had been following an old public transportation route. Today, the Duluth Preservation Alliance is working to add signs to this historic path.

The University of Minnesota Duluth Archives in the Kathryn A. Martin Library includes publications, photographs, memorabilia and university records from its early days as the Duluth Normal School (later becoming the Duluth State Teachers College). The University of Minnesota Duluth Archives contributed to the Minnesota Digital Library images of the Duluth Normal School from about 1904 of women students in a carpentry workshop and a science classroom, pictures from the music room and a kindergarten classroom and more; Normal School and DSTC catalogues and bulletin to 1948; and three Normal School scrapbooks spanning 1901-1921.

Browse the University Archives collection in MDL.

The University of Minnesota Duluth Kathryn A. Martin Library Archives and Special Collections also include the Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections that document regional history. The collections are on permanent loan from the St. Louis County Historical Society. They include photographs, maps, manuscripts, business records, and other documents that tell the story of the development of the city of Duluth and Minnesota's four northeast counties - St. Louis, Lake, Cook, and Carlton.

Browse the Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections in MDL.

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