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109-539: The Peavey–Haglin Experimental Concrete Grain Elevator is the world's first known cylindrical concrete grain elevator . It was built from 1899 to 1900 in St. Louis Park, Minnesota , United States, as an experiment to prove the design was viable. It was an improvement on wooden elevators that were continually at risk of catching fire or even exploding. Its cylindrical concrete design became

218-592: A National Historic Landmark in 1981, and a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1983. Frank Peavey (1850–1901) was a native of Maine who moved to the Midwest as a young man and became a grain merchant . His business was buying grain from farmers and storing it in elevators before delivering it to flour mills. Basing himself in Minneapolis in 1881, he became known as the "Elevator King", owning elevators across Minnesota and Iowa and expanding into

327-592: A National Historic Sites of Canada . The Warner elevator row is, as of 2019, not designated a historic site, and is still in use as commercial grain elevators. All companies operating elevators in Canada are licensed by the Canadian Grain Commission . This is a list of grain elevators that are either in the process of becoming heritage sites or museums , or have been preserved for future generations. The Manchester Ship Canal grain elevator

436-580: A land rush , and led to the development of iron ore mining in the area. The 1854 Ojibwe Land Cession Treaty would force the Ojibwe onto what are now known as the Fond du Lac and Grand Portage Reservations, though some land rights such as hunting and fishing were retained. Around the same time, newly constructed channels and locks in the East permitted large ships to access the area. A road connecting Duluth to

545-796: A Dakota woman, on Schoolcraft's writings. Natives signed two Treaties of Fond du Lac with the United States in the present neighborhood of Fond du Lac in 1826 and 1847, in which the Ojibwe ceded land to the American government. As part of the Treaty of Washington (1854) with the Lake Superior Band of Chippewa , the United States set aside the Fond du Lac Indian Reservation upstream from Duluth near Cloquet, Minnesota . As European Americans continued to settle and encroach on Ojibwe lands,

654-637: A Fourth of July picnic in 1868. During the 20th century, the Port of Duluth was, for a time, the busiest port in the United States, surpassing even New York City in gross tonnage. Lake freighters carried iron ore through the Great Lakes to processing plants in Illinois and Ohio. Ten newspapers, six banks and an 11-story skyscraper, the Torrey Building, were founded and built. As of 1905, Duluth

763-444: A blow to the city's economy whose effects included the closure of the cement company, which had depended on the steel plant for raw materials (slag). More closures followed in other industries, including shipbuilding and heavy machinery . By decade's end, unemployment rates hit 15 percent. The economic downturn was particularly hard on Duluth's West Side, where ethnic Eastern and Southern European workers had lived for decades. During

872-520: A chain reaction that would destroy the entire structure. (This dispersed-fuel explosion is the mechanism behind fuel-air bombs .) To prevent this, elevators have very rigorous rules against smoking or any other open flame. Many elevators also have various devices installed to maximize ventilation, safeguards against overheating in belt conveyors, legs, bearings, and explosion-proof electrical devices such as electric motors , switches, and lighting . Grain elevators in small Canadian communities often had

981-473: A common sight in the grain-growing areas of the world, such as the North American prairies . Larger terminal elevators are found at distribution centers, such as Chicago and Thunder Bay , Ontario, where grain is sent for processing, or loaded aboard trains or ships to go further afield. Buffalo, New York, the world's largest grain port from the 1850s until the first half of the 20th century, once had

1090-654: A destructive fire that gutted much of the nearby milling district. (The Washburn "A" mill was later rebuilt and continued to be used until 1965.) Another example occurred in 1998, when the DeBruce grain elevator in Wichita, Kansas , exploded and killed seven people. An explosion on October 29, 2011, at the Bartlett Grain Company in Atchison, Kansas , killed six people. Two more men received severe burns, but

1199-406: A distributor or consignor, from which it falls through spouts and/or conveyors and into one or more bins, silos, or tanks in a facility. When desired, silos, bins, and tanks are emptied by gravity flow, sweep augers , and conveyors. As grain is emptied from bins, tanks, and silos, it is conveyed, blended, and weighted into trucks, railroad cars , or barges for shipment. In Australian English ,

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1308-655: A few decades later it became the Fitger Brewing Company . The opening of the canal at Sault Ste. Marie in 1855 and the contemporaneous announcement of the railroads' approach had made Duluth the only port with access to both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Soon the lumber industry, railroads and mining were all growing so quickly that the influx of workers could hardly keep up with demand, and storefronts popped up almost overnight. By 1868, business in Duluth

1417-448: A local civil engineer , to work on the problem with him. They quickly recognized the promise of reinforced concrete , a recent innovation popularized in the 1880s. Even though other engineers argued that their design would explode when filled or crack when emptied, Peavey and Haglin proceeded with their plan for a cylindrical concrete structure. Construction began in the summer of 1899. Skeptics dubbed it "Peavey's Folly". Haglin built

1526-457: A network of streetcars and an inclined railroad , the 7th Avenue West Incline Railway , that, like San Francisco's cable cars, climbed a steep hill. The change in elevation is illustrated by Duluth's two airports. The weather station at the lakeside Sky Harbor Airport on Minnesota Point has an elevation of 607 feet (185 m), while Duluth International Airport, atop the hill, is 820 feet (250 m) higher at 1,427 feet (435 m). Even as

1635-581: A place where the grain is moved into rail cars or ocean-going ships for transport. Specifically, several types of grain elevators are defined under Canadian law, in the Canadian Grain Act , section 2. Both necessity and the prospect of making money gave birth to the steam-powered grain elevator in Buffalo, New York , in 1843. Due to the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825, Buffalo enjoyed

1744-609: A popular Midwest tourist destination. The city is home to the Great Lakes Aquarium , a freshwater aquarium. The Aerial Lift Bridge , next to Canal Park , crosses the Duluth Ship Canal into the Duluth–Superior harbor. Minnesota Point , known locally as Park Point, is the world's longest freshwater baymouth bar , stretching 6 miles (10 km). The city is also the starting point for road trips along

1853-441: A row along the railway tracks. If a town were lucky enough to have two railways, it was to be known as the next Montreal . Many elevator rows had two or more elevators of the same company. Small towns bragged of their large elevator rows in promotional pamphlets to attract settlers. With so much competition in the 1920s, consolidation began almost immediately, and many small companies were merged or absorbed into larger companies. In

1962-421: A section of round formwork braced with steel hoops. Concrete was poured in and given time to harden, at which point the framework was removed and reassembled above to produce the next section. In this manner the elevator was built up to a height of 68 feet (21 m). The interior diameter was 20 feet (6.1 m), while the walls tapered from 12 inches (30 cm) thick at the base to 8 inches (20 cm) at

2071-564: A single grain-laden boat. Grain shipments were going down the Mississippi River, not over the Great Lakes/Erie Canal system. A merchant named Joseph Dart Jr., is generally credited as being the one who adapted Oliver Evans ' grain elevator (originally a manufacturing device) for use in a commercial framework (the trans-shipment of grain in bulk from lakers to canal boats), but the actual design and construction of

2180-439: A small place, and hotel and boarding room accommodation is extremely limited. However, lumber is cheap and shanties can be built. Everyone should bring blankets and come prepared to rough it at first. In 1873, Cooke's empire crumbled and the stock market crashed , and Duluth almost disappeared from the map. But by the late 1870s, with the continued boom in lumber and mining and with the railroads completed, Duluth bloomed again. By

2289-513: A strong plurality of Duluth's population, accounting for more than one third of the residents identifying European ancestry. In September 1918, a group calling itself the Knights of Liberty dragged Finnish immigrant Olli Kinkkonen from his boarding house, tarred and feathered him, and lynched him. Kinkkonen did not want to fight in World War I and had planned to return to Finland. His body

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2398-541: A unique position in American geography. It stood at the intersection of two great all-water routes; one extended from New York Harbor , up the Hudson River to Albany , and beyond it, the Port of Buffalo; the other comprised the Great Lakes , which could theoretically take boaters in any direction they wished to go (north to Canada , west to Michigan or Wisconsin , south to Toledo and Cleveland , or east to

2507-517: Is a port city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of St. Louis County . Located on Lake Superior in Minnesota's Arrowhead Region , the city is a hub for cargo shipping. The population was 86,697 at the 2020 census , making it Minnesota's fifth-largest city . Duluth forms a metropolitan area with neighboring Superior, Wisconsin , called the Twin Ports . It is south of

2616-509: Is credited with the European discovery of Lake Superior before 1620. Pierre-Esprit Radisson and Médard des Groseilliers explored the Duluth area, Fond du Lac (Bottom of the Lake) in 1654 and again in 1660. The French soon established fur posts near Duluth and in the far north where Grand Portage became a major trading center. The French explorer Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut , whose name

2725-680: Is land and 8.510 square miles (22.04 km ) is water. It is Minnesota's second-largest city by land area, surpassed only by Hibbing . Duluth's canal connects Lake Superior to the Duluth–Superior harbor and the Saint Louis River . It is spanned by the Aerial Lift Bridge, which connects Canal Park with Minnesota Point (or "Park Point"). Minnesota Point is about 7 miles (11 km) long, and when included with adjacent Wisconsin Point , which extends 3 miles (4.8 km) from

2834-496: Is milled or ground to remove stones, which could strike sparks from the millstones, and the use of magnets to remove metallic debris able to strike sparks. The earliest recorded flour explosion took place in an Italian mill in 1785, but many have occurred since. These two references give numbers of recorded flour and dust explosions in the United States in 1994: and 1997 In the ten-year period up to and including 1997, there were 129 explosions. Canadian Prairie grain elevators were

2943-404: Is now Piedmont Heights, and, of course, a widespread area of Northeastern Minnesota." In the fire's aftermath, tens of thousands of people were left injured or homeless; many of the refugees fled into the city for aid and shelter. For the first half of the 20th century, Duluth was an industrial port boom town dominated by its several grain elevators , a cement plant, a nail mill, wire mills, and

3052-481: Is now a city neighborhood within Duluth. The Diamond Calk Horseshoe Company was founded in 1908 and later became a major manufacturer and exporter of wrenches and automotive tools. Duluth's huge wholesale Marshall Wells Hardware Company expanded in 1901 by opening branches in Portland, Oregon , and Winnipeg , Manitoba ; the company catalog totaled 2,390 pages by 1913. The Duluth Showcase Company, which later became

3161-532: Is sometimes anglicized as "DuLuth", explored the St. Louis River in 1679. After 1792 and the independence of the United States, the North West Company established several posts on Minnesota rivers and lakes, and in areas to the west and northwest, for trading with the Ojibwe, the Dakota , and other native tribes. The first post was where Superior, Wisconsin , later developed. Known as Fort St. Louis,

3270-402: Is the need to provide separate storage for ordinary and genetically modified grain to reduce the risk of accidental mixing of the two. In the past, grain elevators sometimes experienced silo explosions . Fine powder from the millions of grains passing through the facility would accumulate and mix with the oxygen in the air. A spark could spread from one floating particle to the other, creating

3379-627: The Atlantic Ocean ). All through the 1830s, Buffalo benefited tremendously from its position. In particular, it was the recipient of most of the increasing quantities of grain (mostly wheat) that was being grown on farms in Ohio and Indiana , and shipped on Lake Erie for trans-shipment to the Erie Canal. If Buffalo had not been there, or when things got backed up there, that grain would have been loaded onto boats at Cincinnati and shipped down

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3488-751: The Civil War , with the coming of the railroads . The world's second and third grain elevators were built in Toledo, Ohio, and Brooklyn , New York, in 1847. These fledgling American cities were connected through an emerging international grain trade of unprecedented proportions. Grain shipments from farms in Ohio were loaded onto ships by elevators at Toledo; these ships were unloaded by elevators at Buffalo that shipped their grain to canal boats (and, later, rail cars), which were unloaded by elevators in Brooklyn, where

3597-541: The Duluth Works plant. Handling and export of iron ore, brought in from the Mesabi Range, was integral to the city's economy, as well as to the steel industry in the Midwest, including in manufacturing cities in Ohio. The Aerial Lift Bridge (earlier known as the "Aerial Bridge" or "Aerial Ferry Bridge") was built in 1905 and at that time was known as the United States' first transporter bridge —only one other

3706-588: The Earth's crust thinned, magma rose toward the surface. These intrusions formed a 16 km (9.9 mi)-thick sill , primarily of gabbro , which is known as the Duluth Complex . The creation of the Lake Superior basin reflects the erosive power of continental glaciers that advanced and retreated over Minnesota several times in the past 2 million years. The mile-thick ice sheets easily eroded

3815-470: The Great Lakes Waterway and St. Lawrence Seaway . The Port of Duluth is the world's farthest inland port accessible to oceangoing ships and is the largest and busiest port on the Great Lakes. It is also among the top 20 U.S. ports by tonnage. Common items shipped from Duluth include coal, iron ore, grain, limestone, cement, salt, wood pulp, steel coil, and wind turbine parts. Duluth is

3924-654: The Iron Range and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness . It is named after Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut , the area's first known European explorer. Duluth is on the north shore of Lake Superior at the westernmost point of the Great Lakes . It is the largest metropolitan area, the second-largest city, and the largest U.S. city on the lake. Duluth is accessible to the Atlantic Ocean, 2,300 miles (3,700 km) away, via

4033-479: The Iron Range north of Duluth; ore shipments from the Duluth harbor had been critical to the city's economy. Low-grade ore ( taconite ) shipments continued, boosted by new taconite pellet technology, but ore shipments were lower overall. In the 1970s the United States experienced a steel crisis , a recession in the global steel market, and like many American cities Duluth entered a period of industrial restructuring. In 1981, US Steel closed its Duluth Works plant,

4142-556: The Mississippi River to New Orleans . By 1842, Buffalo's port facilities clearly had become antiquated. They still relied upon techniques that had been in use since the European Middle Ages ; work teams of stevedores use block and tackles and their own backs to unload or load each sack of grain that had been stored ashore or in the boat's hull. Several days, sometimes even a week, were needed to serve

4251-586: The North Shore of Lake Superior to Thunder Bay , Ontario . The Ojibwe occupied a historic settlement at Onigamiinsing ("at the little portage"), the portage across Minnesota Point between Lake Superior and western St. Louis Bay, which forms Duluth's harbor. For both the Ojibwe and the Dakota, interaction with Europeans during the contact period revolved around the fur trade and related activities. According to Ojibwe oral history , Spirit Island, near

4360-527: The Second World War , as Duluth's large harbor and the area's vast natural resources were put to work for the war effort. Tankers and submarine chasers (usually called "sub-chasers") were built at the Riverside shipyard. The population of Duluth continued to grow in the postwar decade and a half, peaking at 107,884 in 1960. Economic decline began in the 1950s, when high-grade iron ore ran out on

4469-672: The Spirit Valley neighborhood, was the "Sixth Stopping Place", where the northern and southern branches of the Ojibwe Nation came together and proceeded to their "Seventh Stopping Place", near the present city of La Pointe, Wisconsin . The "Stopping Places" were the places the Native Americans occupied during their westward migration as the Europeans overran their territory. Several factors brought fur traders to

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4578-511: The Twin Cities was also constructed. Eleven small towns on both sides of the St. Louis River were formed, establishing Duluth's roots as a city. By 1857, copper resources were scarce and the area's economic focus shifted to timber harvesting. A nationwide financial crisis, the Panic of 1857 , caused most of the city's early pioneers to leave. A history of Duluth written in 1910 relates, "Of

4687-571: The U.S. Highway 53 corridor from Trinity Road to Maple Grove Road. The highway project reconstructed connector roads, intersections, and adjacent roadways. A new international airport terminal was completed in 2013 as part of the federal government's Stimulus Reconstruction Program. The geology of Duluth demonstrates the Midcontinent Rift , formed as the North American continent began to split apart about 1.1 billion years ago. As

4796-506: The sandstone that filled the axis of the rift valley but encountered more resistance from the igneous rocks forming the flanks of the rift, now the margins of the lake basin. As the last glacier retreated, meltwaters filled the lake to as high as 500 feet (150 m) above the current level; the Skyline Parkway roughly follows one of the highest levels of the ancient Lake Superior, Glacial Lake Duluth . The sandstone that buried

4905-459: The 1950s the property was owned by Lumber Stores, Inc. and the elevator was painted with their name. Nordic Ware , a cookware company best known for introducing the Bundt cake pan, was founded nearby in 1946 and ultimately purchased the land with the elevator as they expanded their business. In 1969 Nordic Ware discovered that the elevator was deteriorating and in danger of collapsing. Cognizant of

5014-541: The 1980s, plans were underway to extend Interstate 35 through Duluth and up the North Shore , bringing new access to the city. The original plan called for the interstate to run along the shore on an elevated concrete structure, blocking the city's access to Lake Superior. Kent Worley, a local landscape architect, wrote an impassioned letter to then mayor Ben Boo asking that the route be reconsidered. The Minnesota Department of Transportation agreed to take another look, with Worley consulting. The new plan called for parts of

5123-507: The Dakotas. However the wooden elevators of the day were quite vulnerable to fire, as they were built of flammable material, filled with volatile grain dust, and usually stood next to railroad tracks with their spark-spewing locomotives. Numerous elevator fires were causing insurance rates to skyrocket. Peavey was convinced that new construction methods could produce a large, fireproof grain elevator. He hired Charles F. Haglin (1849–1921),

5232-549: The Duluth Refrigerator Company and then the Coolerator Company, was established in 1908. The Universal Atlas Cement Company, which made cement from the slag byproduct of the steel plant, began operations in 1917. Because of its numerous jobs in mining and industry, the city was a destination for large waves of immigrants from Europe during the early 20th century. It became the center of one of

5341-599: The Duluth Waterfront Collective. One notable example includes the Highway 61 Revisited concept, which seeks to reimagine the I-35 corridor as it runs through the city's downtown. The group's efforts have been met with interest, with the city council voting to explore options for the corridor in 2021. While the acreage of land utilizing the waterway for port-related purposes has shifted in recent years,

5450-407: The Duluth area. The fire was the worst natural disaster in Minnesota history in terms of the number of lives lost in a single day. Many people died on the rural roads surrounding the Duluth area, and historical accounts tell of victims dying while trying to outrun the fire. The News Tribune reported, "It is estimated that 100 families were rendered homeless by Saturday's fire in the territory known as

5559-519: The Great Lakes in the early 17th century. The fashion for beaver hats in Europe generated demand for pelts. French trade for beaver in the lower St. Lawrence River led to the depletion of the animals in the region by the late 1630s, so the French searched farther west for new resources and new routes, making alliances with the Native Americans along the way to trap and deliver their furs. Étienne Brûlé

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5668-552: The Head of the Lakes in 1809. In 1817, it erected a new headquarters at present-day Fond du Lac on the St. Louis River. There, portages connected Lake Superior with Lake Vermilion to the north and with the Mississippi River to the south. After creating a powerful monopoly , Astor got out of the business about 1830, as the trade was declining. But active trade carried on until the failure of

5777-562: The IWW operated Work People's College , an educational institution that taught classes from a working-class, socialist perspective. Immigrants from Sweden , Norway , Denmark , Germany , Austria , Czechoslovakia , Ireland , England , Italy , Poland , Hungary , Bulgaria , Croatia , Serbia , Ukraine , Romania , and Russia also settled in Duluth. At one time, Duluth was home to several historic immigrant neighborhoods, including Little Italy. Today, people of Scandinavian descent constitute

5886-569: The U.S. House of Representatives on January 27, 1871. His speech opposing the St. Croix and Superior Land Grant lampooned Western boosterism , portraying Duluth as an Eden in fantastically florid terms. The speech has been reprinted in collections of folklore and humorous speeches and is regarded as a classic. The nearby city of Proctor, Minnesota , is named for Knott. Duluth's unofficial sister city, Duluth, Georgia , got its name in 1871, shortly after Knott's speech gained national attention. Prominent Georgia newspaperman and politician Evan P. Howell

5995-491: The U.S. government made a series of treaties, executed between 1837 and 1889, that expropriated vast areas of tribal lands for their use and relegated the Native American peoples to a number of small reservations. Interest in the area was piqued in the 1850s by rumors of copper mining . A government land survey in 1852, followed by a treaty with local tribes in 1854, secured wilderness for gold-seeking explorers, sparked

6104-482: The United States had 0.88 cubic kilometres (25 billion US bushels) of storage capacity, a growth of 25% over the previous decade. The city of Buffalo is not only the birthplace of the modern grain elevator, but also has the world's largest number of extant examples. A number of the city's historic elevators are clustered along "Elevator Alley", a narrow stretch of the Buffalo River immediately adjacent to

6213-423: The United States' largest capacity for the storage of grain in over 30 concrete grain elevators located along the inner and outer harbors. While several are still in productive use, many of those that remain are presently idle. In a nascent trend, some of the city's inactive capacity has recently come back online, with an ethanol plant started in 2007 using one of the previously mothballed elevators to store corn. In

6322-400: The United States. In farming communities, each town had one or more small grain elevators that served the local growers. The classic grain elevator was constructed with wooden cribbing and had nine or more larger square or rectangular bins arranged in 3 × 3 or 3 × 4 or 4 × 4 or more patterns. Wooden-cribbed elevators usually had a driveway with truck scale and office on one side, a rail line on

6431-468: The Woodland District... In most cases, families which lost their homes also lost most or all of their furniture and personal belongings, the limited time and transportation facilities affording little opportunity for saving anything but human life." The National Guard unit based in Duluth was mobilized in a heroic effort to battle the fire and assist victims, but the troops were overwhelmed by

6540-412: The beginning of the 21st century, Duluth has become a regional center for banking, retail shopping, and medical care for northern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin, and northwestern Michigan. It is estimated that more than 8,000 jobs in Duluth are directly related to its two hospitals. Arts and entertainment offerings, as well as year-round recreation and the natural environment, have contributed to expansion of

6649-490: The city has grown, its populace has tended to hug Lake Superior's shoreline, so Duluth is primarily a southwest–northeast city. The considerable development on the hill has given Duluth many steep streets. Some neighborhoods, such as Piedmont Heights and Bayview Heights , are atop the hill with scenic views of the city. Skyline Parkway is a scenic roadway that extends from Becks Road above the Gary – New Duluth neighborhood near

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6758-500: The city of Superior , Wisconsin , is the largest freshwater baymouth bar in the world at a total of 10 miles (16 km). Duluth's topography is dominated by a steep hillside that climbs from Lake Superior to high inland elevations. Duluth has been called "the San Francisco of the Midwest," alluding to San Francisco 's similar water-to-hilltop topography. This similarity was most evident before World War II, when Duluth had

6867-486: The contiguous US behind International Falls ), falling to or below 0 °F (−18 °C) on 38 nights and bringing consistent snow cover from late November to early April. Winter storms that pass south or east of Duluth can often set up easterly or northeasterly flow, which leads to occasional upslope lake-effect snow events that bring 1 foot (30 cm) or more of snow to the city while areas 50 miles (80 km) inland receive considerably less. The average annual snowfall

6976-566: The early 20th century, Buffalo's grain elevators inspired modernist architects such as Le Corbusier , who exclaimed, "The first fruits of the new age!" when he first saw them. Buffalo's grain elevators have been documented for the Historic American Engineering Record and added to the National Register of Historic Places . Currently, Enid, Oklahoma , holds the title of most grain storage capacity in

7085-451: The edge of the city's western neighborhoods. Many of these sites, filled with legacy pollutants due to previous industrial use, have been or are in the process of being restored by the EPA, with several developments, such as Pier B Resort and Hotel, demonstrating the revitalization opportunity of these former industrial spaces. Other efforts to reclaim waterfront space in Duluth have been led by

7194-407: The enormity of the fire. Retired Duluth News Tribune columnist and journalist Jim Heffernan writes that his mother "recalled an overnight vigil watching out the window of their small home on lower Piedmont Avenue with her father, her younger sisters having gone to sleep, ready to be evacuated to the waterfront should the need arise. The fire never made it that far down the hill, but devastated what

7303-498: The event with a memorial. The Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial, which includes a corner wall and plaza, was dedicated in 2003. It includes three 7-foot (2.1 m)-tall bronze statues of the three men. The CJMM Committee continues to work for racial justice through educational outreach, community forums, and scholarships for youth. In 1918, the Cloquet Fire (named for the nearby city of Cloquet ) burned across Carlton and southern St. Louis counties, destroying dozens of communities in

7412-405: The event. Community members from many different groups began to come together for reflection and education. The men's unmarked graves were located and in 1991, gravestones were erected with funding from a local church. Vigils were held at the intersection where the men were lynched. In 2000, a grassroots committee was formed, and began to offer speakers to groups and schools. It decided to commemorate

7521-432: The fur trade in the 1840s. European fashions changed, and many American areas were getting over-trapped, with game declining. In 1832, Henry Schoolcraft visited the Fond du Lac area and wrote of his experiences with the Ojibwe Indians there. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow based the Song of Hiawatha , his epic poem relating the fictional adventures of an Ojibwe warrior named Hiawatha and the tragedy of his love for Minnehaha,

7630-438: The goods being shipped through the Duluth-Superior port have shifted to reflect a changing economy. In recent decades, declines in the shipment of coal and iron ore have been met by increases in the shipment of wind turbine components and multimodal shipping containers. According to the United States Census Bureau , the city has a total area of 80.168 square miles (207.63 km ), of which 71.658 square miles (185.59 km )

7739-742: The grain elevator at Ellerslie, Alberta , remained marked with its old community name until it was demolished, which took place more than 20 years after the village had been annexed by Edmonton . One of the major historical trends in the grain trade has been the closure of many smaller elevators and the consolidation of the grain trade to fewer places and among fewer companies. For example, in 1961, 1,642 "country elevators" (the smallest type) were in Alberta, holding 3,452,240 tonnes (3,805,440 short tons) of grain. By 2010, only 79 "primary elevators" (as they are now known) remained, holding 1,613,960 tonnes (1,779,090 short tons). Despite this consolidation, overall storage capacity has increased in many places. In 2017,

7848-897: The grain was either distributed to East Coast flour mills or loaded for further shipment to England , the Netherlands , or Germany . This eastern flow of grain, though, was matched by an equally important flow of people and capital in the opposite direction, that is, from east to west. Because of the money to be made in grain production, and of course, because of the existence of an all-water route to get there, increasing numbers of immigrants in Brooklyn came to Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois to become farmers. More farmers meant more prairies turned into farmlands, which in turn meant increased grain production, which of course meant that more grain elevators would have to be built in places such as Toledo, Buffalo, and Brooklyn (and Cleveland, Chicago , and Duluth ). Through this loop of productivity set in motion by

7957-409: The handful remaining in 1859 four men were unemployed and one of those was a brewer. Capital idea; build a brewery. The absence of malt and hops and barley did not at all embarrass those stout-hearted settlers." The water for brewing was obtained from a stream that emptied into Lake Superior that came to be called Brewery Creek, as it is still known today. While the brewery "was not a pecuniary success",

8066-505: The harbor. The alley runs under Ohio Street and along Childs Street in the city's First Ward neighborhood. In Canada, the term "elevator row" refers to a row of four or more wood-crib prairie grain elevators. In the early pioneer days of Western Canada 's prairie towns, when a good farming spot was settled, many people wanted to make money by building their own grain elevators. This brought in droves of private grain companies. Towns boasted dozens of elevator companies, which all stood in

8175-604: The height of the elevator to 125 feet (38 m) for a few further experiments. After those proved successful as well, the elevator prototype never held grain again. Peavey immediately commissioned Haglin to build a grain elevator complex in Duluth . Widely publicized, Peavey and Haglin's cylindrical concrete design was quickly adopted throughout the American Midwest. While traditional wooden elevators, usually clad with metal siding, remained common for storage near farms,

8284-416: The highway to run through tunnels, which allowed preservation of Fitger's Brewery, Sir Ben's Tavern, Leif Erikson Park, and Duluth's Rose Garden. Rock used from the interstate project was used to create an extensive new beach along Lake Superior, along which the city's Lakewalk was built. With the decline of the city's industrial core, the local economic focus gradually shifted to tourism . The downtown area

8393-662: The igneous rocks of the rift is exposed near Fond du Lac . At one time a large number of quarries produced the stone, sold as Fond du Lac or Lake Superior brownstone . It was widely used in Duluth buildings and also shipped to Minneapolis, Chicago, and Milwaukee, where it was also used extensively. The weathered sandstone forms the sandy lake bottom and shores of Park Point. Duluth has a humid continental climate ( Köppen Dfb ), slightly moderated by its proximity to Lake Superior. Winters are long, snowy, and very cold, normally seeing maximum temperatures remaining at or below 32 °F (0 °C) on 100 days (the second-most of any city in

8502-596: The industry standard in the United States, revolutionizing grain storage practices. After its initial experiments, the Peavey–Haglin Elevator was never again used to store grain. Since the late 1960s it has been maintained on the grounds of the Nordic Ware company and is painted with their name and logo. The Peavey–Haglin Elevator was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, proclaimed

8611-558: The invention of the grain elevator, the United States became a major international producer of wheat, corn, and oats. In the early 20th century, concern arose about monopolistic practices in the grain elevator industry, leading to testimony before the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1906. This led to several grain elevators being burned down in Nebraska, allegedly in protest. Today, grain elevators are

8720-418: The issue than Americans. In spring 1900 it was time to empty the experimental elevator. A crowd gathered, but kept their distance, still expecting some kind of catastrophe. Haglin had faith in his structure, however, and stood right at its foot to pull the lever and allow the grain to pour out into an adjacent pit. The elevator stayed perfectly intact and the crowd began cheering. Haglin went on to increase

8829-570: The largest Finnish communities in the world outside Finland. For decades, a Finnish-language daily newspaper, Päivälehti, was published in the city, named after the former Grand Duchy of Finland 's pro-independence liberal paper . The Finnish community of Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) members published a widely read labor newspaper Industrialisti . From 1907 to 1941, the Finnish Socialist Federation and then

8938-605: The mid-1990s, with the cost of grain so low, many private elevator companies once again had to merge, this time causing thousands of "prairie sentinels" to be torn down. Because so many grain elevators have been torn down, Canada has only two surviving elevator rows; one located in Inglis, Manitoba , and the other in Warner, Alberta . The Inglis Grain Elevators National Historic Site has been protected as

9047-466: The modern grain elevator. The first Peavey-Haglin Experimental Concrete Grain Elevator still stands today in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. The Peavey invented elevator was the first cylindrical concrete grain elevator in the world and is now widely used across Canada and the US. Grain elevator bins, tanks, and silos are now usually made of steel or reinforced concrete. Bucket elevators are used to lift grain to

9156-417: The name of the community painted on two sides of the elevator in large block letters, with the name of the elevator operator emblazoned on the other two sides. This made identification of the community easier for rail operators (and incidentally, for lost drivers and pilots). The old community name often remained on an elevator long after the town had either disappeared or been amalgamated into another community;

9265-412: The neighborhood's revitalization, many developers are also investing in housing projects in anticipation of further growth. Duluth's prominence as a port city gave it an economic advantage in its early years, but as various industries began to wane, new efforts to reclaim areas of the waterfront for public use emerged. Notable among them is the reclamation of the St. Louis River corridor, which runs along

9374-444: The new design sprang up at shipping centers, revolutionizing the grain storage industry. Grain elevators, usually the tallest structure on the flat Midwestern landscape, became a symbol of productive agriculture. Frank Peavey didn't live to see his project revolutionize the industry; he died unexpectedly of pneumonia on December 30, 1901. The experimental grain elevator stood unused as various industries came and went around it. In

9483-579: The other side, and additional grain-storage annex bins on either side. In more recent times with improved transportation, centralized and much larger elevators serve many farms. Some of them are quite large. Two elevators in Kansas (one in Hutchinson and one in Wichita ) are half a mile long. The loss of the grain elevators from small towns is often considered a great change in their identity, and efforts to preserve them as heritage structures are made. At

9592-485: The post became the headquarters for North West's new Fond du Lac Department. It had stockade walls, two houses of 40 feet (12 m) each, a shed of 60 feet (18 m), a large warehouse, and a canoe yard. Over time, Indian peoples and European Americans settled nearby, and a town gradually developed. In 1808, German-born John Jacob Astor organized the American Fur Company . The company began trading at

9701-455: The railroad opened areas due north and west of Lake Superior to iron ore mining. Duluth's population on New Year's Day of 1869 consisted of 14 families; by the Fourth of July , 3,500 people were present to celebrate. In the first Duluth Minnesotian printed on August 24, 1869, the editor placed the following notice on the editorial page: Newcomers should comprehend that Duluth is at present

9810-406: The remaining four were not hurt. Almost any finely divided organic substance becomes an explosive material when dispersed as an air suspension; hence, a very fine flour is dangerously explosive in air suspension. This poses a significant risk when milling grain to produce flour, so mills go to great lengths to remove sources of sparks. These measures include carefully sifting the grain before it

9919-439: The same time, many larger grain farms have their own grain-handling facilities for storage and loading onto trucks. Elevator operators buy grain from farmers, either for cash or at a contracted price, and then sell futures contracts for the same quantity of grain, usually each day. They profit through the narrowing "basis", that is, the difference between the local cash price, and the futures price, that occurs at certain times of

10028-555: The structure's history, the company invested $ 40,000 in a restoration project. Around this time the elevator was painted with the Nordic Ware advertisement it still bears. The Peavey–Haglin Experimental Concrete Grain Elevator now stands near the busy interchange of State Highways 7 and 100 . It overlooks the Nordic Ware factory complex, the Cedar Lake Trail , and Lilac Park. Grain elevator In most cases,

10137-726: The subjects of the National Film Board of Canada documentaries Grain Elevator and Death of a Skyline . During the sixth season of the History Channel series Ax Men , one of the featured crews takes on the job of dismantling the Globe Elevator in Wisconsin. This structure was the largest grain-storage facility in the world when it was built in the 1880s. Duluth, Minnesota Duluth ( / d ə ˈ l uː θ / də- LOOTH )

10246-471: The term "grain elevator" also describes the entire elevator complex, including receiving and testing offices, weighbridges , and storage facilities. It may also mean organizations that operate or control several individual elevators, in different locations. In Australia, the term describes only the lifting mechanism. Before the advent of the grain elevator, grain was usually handled in bags rather than in bulk (large quantities of loose grain). The Dart elevator

10355-495: The term "grain elevator" is reserved for elevator towers, while a receival and storage building or complex is distinguished by the formal term "receival point" or as a "wheat bin" or "silo". Large-scale grain receival, storage, and logistics operations are known in Australia as bulk handling. In Canada, the term "grain elevator" is used to refer to a place where farmers sell grain into the global grain distribution system, and/or

10464-893: The top. By fall the elevator was ready, and Peavey had it filled with grain. The form held and the grain was left to see how it would fare over the winter. While they waited, Peavey dispatched Haglin to Europe to investigate reports of reinforced concrete elevators there. Haglin was accompanied by his young son Eddie and Peavey's son-in-law Frank Heffelfinger. From January to March 1900 they toured grain facilities and met with experts in London , Hamburg , Braunschweig , Copenhagen , Budapest , Brăila , Galați , Bucharest , Vienna , and Paris . They found some elevators of concrete, but all were rectangular or hexagonal, and most were atop steel or wood bins. Others were built of brick or mortared stone. Upon his return to Minneapolis, Haglin reported that their European counterparts were no more advanced on

10573-606: The tourist industry. Some 3.5 million visitors each year contribute more than $ 400 million to the local economy. More recently a collection of like-minded businesses in Lincoln Park , an old rundown blue-collar neighborhood with high unemployment and poverty rates, was cultivated by a group of entrepreneurs who have begun rebuilding and revitalizing the area. Since 2014, at least 25 commercial real estate transactions have occurred and 17 businesses have opened, including restaurants, breweries, coffee shops and artist studios. Due to

10682-518: The turn of the century, it had almost 100,000 inhabitants, and was again a thriving community with small-business loans, commerce and trade flowing through the city. Mining continued in the Mesabi Range and iron was shipped east to mills in Ohio, a trade continuing into the 20th century. Early doubts about the Duluth area's potential were voiced in "The Untold Delights of Duluth," a speech U.S. Representative J. Proctor Knott of Kentucky gave in

10791-716: The western end of the city to the Lester Park neighborhood on the east side. It crosses nearly Duluth's entire length and affords views of Lake Superior, the Aerial Lift Bridge, Canal Park, and the many industries that inhabit the largest inland port. A developing part of the city is the Miller Hill Mall area and the adjacent big-box retailer shopping strips "over the hill" along the Miller Trunk Highway corridor. The 2009–10 road reconstruction project in Duluth's Miller Hill area improved movement through

10900-426: The world's first steam-powered "grain storage and transfer warehouse" was executed by an engineer named Robert Dunbar. Thanks to the historic Dart's Elevator (operational on 1 June 1843), which worked almost seven times faster than its nonmechanized predecessors, Buffalo was able to keep pace with—and thus further stimulate—the rapid growth of American agricultural production in the 1840s and 1850s, but especially after

11009-577: The year. Before economical truck transportation was available, grain elevator operators sometimes used their purchasing power to control prices. This was especially easy, since farmers often had only one elevator within a reasonable distance of their farms. This led some governments to take over the administration of grain elevators. An example of this is the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool . For the same reason, many elevators were purchased by cooperatives . A recent problem with grain elevators

11118-520: Was a major innovation—it was invented by Joseph Dart , a merchant, and Robert Dunbar , an engineer, in 1842, in Buffalo, New York . Using the steam-powered flour mills of Oliver Evans as their model, they invented the marine leg, which scooped loose grain out of the hulls of ships and elevated it to the top of a marine tower. Early grain elevators and bins were often built of framed or cribbed wood, and were prone to fire. In 1899 Frank H. Peavey "The Elevator King' along with Charles F. Haglin , invented

11227-582: Was booming. In a Fourth of July speech Dr. Thomas Preston Foster, the founder of Duluth's first newspaper, coined the expression "The Zenith City of the Unsalted Seas". In 1869–70, Duluth was the fastest-growing city in the country and was expected to surpass Chicago in only a few years. When Jay Cooke , a wealthy Philadelphia land speculator, convinced the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad to create an extension from St. Paul to Duluth,

11336-428: Was called upon to make remarks at the dedication of a new railroad line into Howell's Crossing, a village named for his grandfather. Howell humorously suggested that the community be called "Duluth" instead, and townspeople agreed. Proctor Knott is sometimes credited with characterizing Duluth as the "zenith city of the unsalted seas," but the honor for that coinage belongs to journalist Thomas Preston Foster, speaking at

11445-464: Was completed in 1898. It had a capacity of 40,000 tons and its automatic conveying and spouting system could distribute grain into 226 bins. Given a large enough suspension of combustible flour or grain dust in the air, a significant explosion can occur. The 1878 explosion of the Washburn "A" Mill in Minneapolis, Minnesota , killed 18, leveled two nearby mills, damaged many others, and caused

11554-511: Was ever constructed in the country. In 1929–30, the span was converted to a vertical-lift bridge (also rather uncommon). The bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. In 1916, after Europe had entered the Great War (World War I), a shipyard was constructed on the St. Louis River. A new workers neighborhood, today known as Riverside, developed around the large operation. Similar industrial expansions took place during

11663-505: Was found two weeks later hanging in a tree in Duluth's Lester Park. Another lynching in Duluth occurred on June 15, 1920, when three innocent black male circus workers: Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson, and Isaac McGhie, were attacked by a white mob and hanged after purportedly raping a teenage white girl. The Duluth lynchings took place on First Street and Second Avenue East. In the late 20th century, journalist Michael Fedo wrote The Lynchings in Duluth (1970), which began to raise awareness of

11772-510: Was renovated to emphasize its pedestrian character: streets were paved with red brick and skywalks and retail shops were added. The city and developers worked with the area's unique architectural character, converting old warehouses along the waterfront into cafés, shops, restaurants, and hotels. Combined with the new rock beach and Lakewalk, these changes developed the new Canal Park as a tourism-oriented district. Duluth's population, which had declined since 1960, stabilized at around 85,000. At

11881-406: Was said to be home to the most millionaires per capita in the United States. In 1907, U.S. Steel announced that it would build a $ 5 million plant in the area. Although steel production did not begin until 1915, predictions held that Duluth's population would rise to 200,000–300,000. Along with the Duluth Works steel plant, US Steel developed Morgan Park , as a company town for steel workers. It

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