Duluth

Duluth (/d ə ˈ l uː θ / ( listen ) də-LOOTH ) is a port city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of St. Louis County. Duluth is about 65 miles south of the Superior National Forest and the Sawtooth Mountains. It is a hub for tourism and cargo shipping. Commodities shipped from the Port of Duluth include coal, iron ore, grain, limestone, cement, salt, wood pulp, steel coil, and wind turbine components.

Duluth has a population of 86,697, making it Minnesota's fifth-largest city[4] and the center of Minnesota's second largest metropolitan area, with a population of 278,799. Duluth forms a metropolitan area with neighboring Superior, Wisconsin; together, they are called the Twin Ports. The city is named for Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut, the area's first known European explorer.

Situated on the north shore of Lake Superior at the westernmost point of the Great Lakes, Duluth is the largest metropolitan area, the second-largest city and the largest U.S. city on the lake, and is accessible to the Atlantic Ocean 2,300 miles (3,700 km) away via the Great Lakes Waterway and St. Lawrence Seaway.[5] The Port of Duluth is the world's farthest inland port accessible to oceangoing ships,[6] and by far the largest and busiest port on the Great Lakes.[7] The port is ranked among the top 20 ports in the United States by tonnage.

A tourist destination for the Midwest, Duluth features the United States' only all-freshwater aquarium, the Great Lakes Aquarium; the Aerial Lift Bridge, which is adjacent to Canal Park and spans the Duluth Ship Canal into the Duluth–Superior harbor; and Minnesota Point (known locally as Park Point), the world's longest freshwater baymouth bar, spanning 6 miles (10 km).[8] The city is also the starting point for vehicle trips touring the North Shore of Lake Superior toward Thunder Bay in Ontario, Canada.

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.[9] For both the Ojibwe and the Dakota, interaction with Europeans during the contact period revolved around the fur trade and related activities.[10]

According to Ojibwe oral history, Spirit Island, near 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.[11]

Several factors brought fur traders to 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 had led to the depletion of the animals in that 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 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 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, the post became the headquarters for North West's new Fond du Lac Department. It had stockaded 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 at this point.

In 1808, German-born John Jacob Astor organized the American Fur Company. The company began trading at 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 the fur trade in the 1840s. European fashions had 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, a Dakota woman, on Schoolcraft's writings.[12]

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, 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.[10] 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 a land rush, and led to the development of iron ore mining in the area.[13] 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.[14]

Around the same time, newly constructed channels and locks in the East permitted large ships to access the area. A road connecting Duluth to 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 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."[15] 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", a few decades later it became the Fitger Brewing Company.[16]

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 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.[17] When Jay Cooke, a wealthy Philadelphia land speculator, convinced the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad to create an extension from St. Paul to Duluth, 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.[citation needed ]

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 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."[18]

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 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 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.[19] The nearby city of Proctor, Minnesota, is named for Knott.

Duluth's unofficial sister city, Duluth, Georgia, was named by Evan P. Howell in humorous reference to Knott's speech. Originally called Howell's Crossroads in honor of his grandfather, Evan Howell, the town had just had a railroad completed in 1871 and the "Delights of Duluth" speech was still popular.

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 a Fourth of July picnic in 1868.[20]

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.[21] 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.[22] As of 1905, Duluth was said to be home to the most millionaires per capita in the United States.[23]

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 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 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 the largest Finnish communities in the world outside Finland.[24] For decades, a Finnish-language daily newspaper, Päivälehti, was published in the city; it was named after the former Grand Duchy of Finland's pro-independence leftist 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 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.[21] At one time, Duluth was home to several historic immigrant neighborhoods, including Little Italy.[25] Today, people of Scandinavian descent constitute 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 was found two weeks later hanging in a tree in Duluth's Lester Park.[26]

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 allegedly 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 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 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.[27][28]

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 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 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."[29] 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 the enormity of the fire.

Retired Duluth News Tribune columnist and journalist Jim Heffernan[30] 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 is now Piedmont Heights, and, of course, a widespread area of Northeastern Minnesota."[31] 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.[32]

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 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 was ever constructed in the country.[33] 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 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 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, 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 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 the highway to run through tunnels, which allowed preservation of Fitger's Brewery, Sir Ben's Tavern, Leif Erickson 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.[34]

With the decline of the city's industrial core, the local economic focus gradually shifted to tourism. The downtown area 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 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 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.[35][36] Due to the neighborhood's revitalization, many developers are also investing in housing projects in anticipation of further growth.[37]

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 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.[38]

Other efforts to reclaim waterfront space in Duluth have been led by the Duluth Waterfront Collective.[39] 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.[40]

While the acreage of land utilizing the waterway for port-related purposes has shifted in recent years, 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[41] and multimodal shipping containers.[42]

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 87.43 square miles (226.44 km2); 67.79 square miles (175.58 km2) is land and 19.64 square miles (50.87 km2) is water.[43] 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").[44] Minnesota Point is about 7 miles (11 km) long, and when included with adjacent Wisconsin Point, which extends 3 miles (4.8 km) from the city of Superior, Wisconsin, is the largest freshwater baymouth bar in the world at a total of 10 miles (16 km).[45]

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 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).[46]

Even as 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 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 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 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. An intrusion of the Duluth Complex can be seen at Enger Tower, which is built on a knob of exposed gabbro.[47]

The lava flows formed the conditions for the creation of Lake Superior agates. As the lava solidified, gas trapped within the flows formed an amygdaloidal texture (literally, rock filled with small vesicles). Later, groundwater transported dissolved minerals through the vesicles depositing concentric bands of fine-grained quartz called chalcedony. The color scheme is caused by the concentration of iron present in the groundwater at the time that each new layer was being deposited. The process went on until the cavity had been completely filled. Over time erosion freed the agates from the solidified lava, which is not as hard as quartz. Lake Superior agates are the Minnesota gemstone.

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 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.[47] The sandstone that buried 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.[47]

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 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.[48] 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 is 90.2 in. The lake steams in the winter when moist, lake-warmed air at the surface rises and cools, losing some of its moisture-carrying capacity.[49]

Duluth has been called "The Air-Conditioned City" because of the summertime cooling effect of Lake Superior. Using data on the minimum monthly temperature between 1981 and 2010, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration developed a Comparative Climatic Data report. With a minimum average monthly low temperature of 1.5 °F (−16.9 °C) and a maximum average monthly low temperature of 55.4 °F (13.0 °C), Duluth was found to be the fifth-coldest city in the United States.[50]

Summers are warm, though nights are generally cool, with daytime temperatures averaging 78 °F (26 °C) in July, with that figure being a few degrees warmer inland. Temperatures reach or exceed 90 °F (32 °C) on average, only two days per year, while the city has officially only seen 100 °F (38 °C) temperatures on three days, all during the July 1936 heat wave, part of the Dust Bowl years.[48] The phrase "cooler by the lake" can be heard often in weather forecasts during the summer, especially on days when an easterly wind is expected. Great local variations are also common because of the rapid change in elevation between the nearly 900-foot (270 m) hilltop and shoreside. Often this variation manifests itself as snow in higher elevations while rain falls near Lake Superior.[49]

The record low temperature in Duluth is −41 °F (−41 °C), set on January 2, 1885, and the record high temperature is 106 °F (41 °C), set on July 13, 1936. On average, the first freezing temperature occurs on September 30, and the last on May 14, though a freezing temperature has occurred in August; the average window for measurable (≥0.1 in or 0.25 cm) snowfall is October 22 through April 26.[48]

From June 19–20, 2012, Duluth suffered the worst flood in its history, caused by nine inches (230 mm) of rain throughout the course of thirty hours.[53] Combined with its rocky sediments, hard soil and 43 streams and creeks, the city could not handle the massive rainfall.[54] Mayor Don Ness declared a state of emergency, asking for national assistance.[55] Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton declared a state of emergency, sending the National Guard and the Red Cross to assist in the relief efforts.[56] Several sinkholes opened throughout the city, causing massive property damage.[57] Several feet of standing water accumulated in many city alleys and parking lots.[58] Streets were turned into rapids and many roads split apart due to the heavy flow of water.[59][60] A portion of West Skyline Parkway tumbled down the hill, isolating a neighborhood.[61] The Saint Louis River, in Duluth's Fond du Lac neighborhood, flooded Highway 23, isolating that neighborhood as well, and damaging roadways and bridges.[62]

The Lake Superior Zoo flooded in the early hours of June 20; 11 barnyard animals drowned, as did a turkey vulture, a raven and a snowy owl.[63] The rising waters enabled a polar bear to escape her exhibit, though she was quickly found on zoo grounds, tranquilized and moved to safety. Two harbor seals escaped the zoo grounds but were later found on Grand Avenue. All three animals were moved to Como Park Zoo in Saint Paul for a temporary, but indeterminate, amount of time.[64][65][66] The polar bear was transferred to the Kansas City Zoo in late 2012 as part of the American Zoological Association's (AZA) Species Survival Program breeding recommendation.

Tornadoes are uncommon in Duluth, considering its latitude and location next to the climate-moderating Lake Superior. However, on August 9, 2012, at around 11 AM, a tornado touched down on Minnesota Point. It had originally started as a waterspout in Superior Bay, two miles (3.2 km) from Sky Harbor Airport, but briefly found its way onto the sandbar's shoreline, making it a true tornado. It quickly dissipated, but soon touched down again on Superior's Barker's Island, where it again quickly dissipated. It caused no serious damage; the tornado was categorized as an EF0 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. At the time the National Weather Service reported that it was Duluth's first tornado. Further investigation showed that more than 60 years ago, on May 26, 1958, Duluth had a "miniature tornado" that collapsed a garage and damaged two area lake cabins. It lasted only five minutes. The News-Tribune reported a possible twister on July 11, 1935: "Swirling into the city on the wings of a torrential rain, a miniature tornado struck in the heart of the Gary-New Duluth district shortly before 8 a.m. yesterday, flattening a row of coal sheds (and) a frame garage and causing general damage to trees in the vicinity. The United States weather bureau had no means of officially recording the twister, the high wind having limited itself to the Gary-New Duluth district."[67][68]

As of the 2010 census, there were 86,265 people, 35,705 households, and 18,680 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,272.5 inhabitants per square mile (491.3/km2). There were 38,208 housing units at an average density of 563.6 per square mile (217.6/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 90.4% White, 2.3% African American, 2.5% Native American, 1.5% Asian, 0.3% from other races, 0.1% Russian and 3.0% from two or more races and ethnicities. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.5% of the population.

There were 35,705 households, of which 24.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.2% were married couples living together, 11.2% had a female householder with no husband present, 4.0% had a male householder with no wife present, and 47.7% were non-families. 35.1% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.23 and the average family size was 2.84.

The median age in the city was 33.6 years. 18.5% of residents were under the age of 18; 19.6% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 23.4% were from 25 to 44; 24.8% were from 45 to 64; and 13.8% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 49.0% male and 51.0% female.

As of the 2000 census, there were 35,500 households and 19,918 families in the city. The population density was 1,278.1/sq mi (493.5/km2). There were 36,994 housing units at an average density of 544.0/sq mi (210.0/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 92.7% White, 1.6% Black or African American, 2.4% Native American, 1.1% Asian, 0.0% Pacific Islander, 0.3% from other races, and 1.8% from two or more races. 1.1% of the population was Hispanic or Latino of any race.

Among Duluth's households, 26.6% had children under 18, 41.4% were married couples living together, 11.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 43.9% were non-families. 34.5% of all households were one-person households, and 13.3% had someone 65 or older living alone. The average household size was 2.26 and the average family size was 2.90.

In the city, the age distribution of the population shows 21.3% under the age of 18, 16.2% from 18 to 24, 26.1% from 25 to 44, 21.3% from 45 to 64, and 15.1% 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females, there were 93.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over there were 89.7 males.

Duluth's median household income was $33,766; median family income was $46,394. Males had a median income of $35,182, females $24,965. The per capita income was $18,969. About 8.6% of families and 15.5% of all residents were below the poverty line, including 15.4% of those under 18 and 9.5% of those 65 or over.

Duluth is the major regional center for health care, higher education, retail, and business services not only of its own immediate area but also of a larger area encompassing northeastern Minnesota, northwestern Wisconsin, and the western Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It is also a major transportation center for the transshipment of coal, taconite, agricultural products, steel, limestone, and cement. In recent years it has seen strong growth in the transshipment of wind turbine components coming and going from manufacturers in both Europe and North Dakota and of oversized industrial machinery manufactured all around the world and destined for the tar sands oil extraction projects in northern Alberta. The Port of Duluth handles an average of 35 million short tons of cargo and nearly 900 vessel visits each year.[7] 90% of the port's vessels are "Lakers," ships that ship goods exclusively among the upper four Great Lakes and are too large to transit the Welland Canal. 10% are "Salties", ships that can traverse the seaway all the way from the Atlantic Ocean.[7]

Duluth has attracted several new engineering firms including TKDA, Barr Engineering, LHB, Enbridge and Lake Superior Consulting, as well as new start-ups in various fields, including Loll Designs, an eco-friendly furniture company, and microbrewery Bent Paddle.[70] Women's clothing retail chain Maurices is also headquartered in Duluth, as are luggage manufacturers and suppliers Duluth Pack and Frost River. In 1989, the workwear and accessories brand Duluth Trading Company was founded on a barge in the city's shipping district. The company moved its headquarters to southern Wisconsin in 2000.

Duluth is a center for aquatic biology and aquatic science. The city is home to the EPA's Mid-Continent Ecology Division Laboratory and the University of Minnesota–Duluth. These institutions have spawned many economically and scientifically important businesses that support Duluth's economy. A short list of these businesses include ERA Laboratories, LimnoLogic, the ASci Corporation, Environmental Consulting and Testing, and Ecolab.

The city is popular for tourism. Duluth is a convenient base for trips to the scenic North Shore via Highway 61 and to fishing and wilderness destinations in Minnesota's far north, including the Superior National Forest, Lake Vermilion and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. Tourists also may drive on the North Shore Scenic Drive to Gooseberry Falls State Park, Baptism Falls (Minnesota's largest waterfall), the vertical cliff of Palisade Head, Isle Royale National Park (reached via ferry), Grand Portage National Monument in Grand Portage, and High Falls of the Pigeon River (on the Canada–US border). Thunder Bay, Ontario, can be reached by following the highway into Canada along Lake Superior.

In 2006, a volunteer task force was formed to manage the spiraling retiree health care benefit obligations that were threatening to bankrupt the city. Mayor Don Ness called it "the single most important volunteer effort in our city's history." After reforming and restructuring the benefits and a court case that went all the way to the Minnesota Supreme Court, in 2013 the liability stood at an estimated $191 million.[71] In 2014, the mayor announced "a full solution for the retiree health care issue that once threatened to bankrupt our city."[72]

In the summer of 1913, the world's first heavier-than-air airline service opened in the form of a biplane flying boat named Lark of Duluth, offering joyrides over the Duluth harbor. Not a commercial success, the flights ended later that summer when the designer of the aircraft's engine crashed it. After being purchased and used for scheduled flights in Florida, the plane returned to Duluth and other locations for passenger flights in 1914, until it was ultimately damaged in a hard landing later that year in California and pronounced unsalvageable. A replica of the 1913 Lark of Duluth was constructed and flown by the Duluth Aviation Institute in 2013, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of commercial aviation.[73]

Several multinational aviation corporations operate near Duluth. Since 1994, the city has been home to the headquarters and main manufacturing facility of Cirrus Aircraft,[74] whose 1,500-plus employees build the world's best-selling general aviation aircraft, the SR22, and the world's first single-engine personal jet, the Vision SF50.[75][76] James Fallows, national correspondent for The Atlantic, said that Cirrus' rapid growth in Duluth over the years "was a major, major factor in the town's modern emergence".[70] The company is Duluth's largest manufacturer.[77] In 2012, another aircraft manufacturer, Kestrel Aircraft, maker of the K-350 turboprop plane and now known as ONE Aviation, moved to the Twin Ports.[78] Later that year, AAR Corp opened an aircraft repair and maintenance facility at the Duluth airport.[79]

In January 2013, the Duluth International Airport opened a new terminal, now named the "U.S. Representative James L. Oberstar Terminal" after the late Jim Oberstar.[80]

The Air National Guard's 148th Fighter Wing is based in Duluth, and was in 2016 the city's seventh-largest employer. It is one of a handful of National Guard units with an active association, which in the 148th's case means having the capability to provide training for Air Force pilots.[81] The 179th Fighter Squadron is a unit of the 148th.

The Historic Old Central High School, built in 1892 of locally quarried sandstone at a cost of $460,000, now houses an 1890s classroom museum. It features a 230-foot (70 m) clock tower with chimes patterned after Big Ben in London; the clock faces are each 10+ 1 ⁄2 feet (3.2 m) in diameter, overlooking the Duluth harbor. It is listed with the National Register of Historic Places; they begin the listing writing, "Old Central is a very fine example of that traditionally rich architectural style known as Romanesque and is certainly the most outstanding structure of its kind to be found in northern Minnesota."[82]

Other museums include the Duluth Children's Museum in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. Founded in 1930, it is the fifth-oldest of its kind in the nation. It features interactive exhibits, educational programs, and opportunities for creative play designed for children, their families and caregivers, and school field trips. The museum also curates an artifact collection of over 25,000 objects drawn from the lives and cultures of people who have resided in the region, particularly American Indians and immigrants. Other museums include the Tweed Museum of Art at the University of Minnesota Duluth and the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum.

The premiere community art center is the Duluth Art Institute, with galleries, a fiber studio and darkroom in the Depot downtown and ceramic and multi-purpose studios in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. A number of local art galleries are also located downtown and in Canal Park. The Duluth Public Library has three locations. Duluth is also home to a professional ballet company, the Minnesota Ballet. Duluth shares a symphony orchestra—the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra—with Superior, Wisconsin. In summer free concerts are often held in Chester Park, where local musicians play for crowds. The Bayfront Blues Festival is held in early August.

Duluth is home to several local theater companies, including The Duluth Playhouse, one of the oldest operating community theaters in the United States. Founded in 1914, the Playhouse's main offices and two of its theaters are housed in the historic Depot Building on Michigan Street. The Playhouse has a comprehensive theatrical season across multiple stages, including Duluth's Nor Shor Theater as of April 2018. It also has a renowned education program.[83]

The NorShor Theatre is a historic movie palace on Superior Street that was restored for use as a performance venue. The century-old venue is generally considered a local landmark. After 19 months of construction and renovations, the Norshor opened in 2018 with a 600-seat, stadium-style, balconied, live-performance auditorium, a bar, and a lounge.[84][85]

Since 2004, Duluth has celebrated Gay Pride with a parade on Labor Day weekend. Since 1998, the city has held the Homegrown Music Festival the first week in May. The festival features over 170 local musical acts performing across the city. The Junior Achievement High School ROCKS – Battle of the Bands showcases middle school and high school bands from central Minnesota to the Canada–US border and northern Wisconsin and takes place at the DECC in mid-April. Duluth also hosts the Northeastern Minnesota Book Awards, honoring books about the region.

Canal Park is a district with recreation activities, restaurants, cafés, hotels, and shops, especially those dealing in antiques. Formerly a warehouse district, the area converted to a recreation-oriented district following the decline in manufacturing in the 1980s. A 2.6-mile (4.2 km) walking path offers views of Park Point's sand dunes and swimming beaches and the lighthouse pier. The path passes under the Aerial Lift Bridge, a vertical lift bridge spanning the Duluth Ship Canal into Duluth's harbor. It was originally an exceedingly rare aerial transfer bridge—a bridge that slides a basketlike "gondola" back and forth to transfer people and vehicles from one side to the other. The wreck of the Thomas Wilson, a classic early-20th-century whaleback ore boat, lies underwater less than 1 mile (1.6 km) outside the Duluth harbor ship canal.

The Duluth Lakewalk, expanded and improved beginning in the 1980s, is a seven-mile walking/biking path that begins in Canal Park and follows the lakeshore, crossing through Leif Erickson Park and the Duluth Rose Garden, and ending at the Bayfront Festival Park, an area with a covered pavilion where festivals, concerts, and other events are held.

Duluth is the starting point for the North Shore of Lake Superior scenic route that runs from Duluth, at the southwestern end of the lake, to Thunder Bay and Nipigon in the north and Sault Ste. Marie in the east. The route was already a popular tourist destination after 1855 when the Great Lakes lock system first allowed steamboats onto the lake and eastern tourists began to travel onto Lake Superior for recreational purposes. By the mid-1870s, many excursion boats, coastal steamers, and ferries ran along the North Shore, primarily out of Duluth and Thunder Bay. After docking in Duluth they canoed or were ferried up the North Shore, staying in hunting and fishing camps, and later hotels and small cabins.[86]

The Great Lakes Aquarium is in the Duluth Waterfront Park. A freshwater aquarium, it features animals and habitats found in the Great Lakes Basin and other freshwater ecosystems such as the Amazon River. The aquarium houses 205 different species of fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians and mammals. It is one of the few aquariums in the United States to focus on freshwater exhibits.

The Great Lakes Maritime Museum and Visitor Center contains historical exhibits, maritime artifacts, and a recreation of a ship's pilot house, cabins, and staterooms with life-size mannequins that speak to the visitors. In the pilot house children can pretend to command the ship using a ship's steering wheel and other instruments. The exhibits contain artifacts from the many sunken ships in the Duluth harbor. One exhibit tells the story of the Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank in a November gale after departing from the Duluth Superior port. There is a small movie theater and a viewing room where visitors can watch the ships arriving in the harbor and find arrival times of the ships that will arrive throughout the day.[87]

After transporting coal and iron in the Great Lakes for more than 40 years, the S.S. William A. Irvin was docked in Duluth and serves as a preserved example of the shipping history of the Great Lakes. As the flagship of U.S. Steel's Great Lakes Fleet, she provided what has been called the "comfort and elegance to dignitaries and guests who traveled the Lakes with her" while hauling materials from Two Harbors and Duluth to U.S. Steel's mills of Lakes Michigan and Erie in Ohio and Indiana.[88]

The Lake Superior Railroad Museum is in the Duluth Union Depot. It has seven steam, 14 diesel, and two electric locomotives, and over 40 other pieces of rolling stock. The collection includes the William Crooks, the first locomotive to operate in the state of Minnesota, and the Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway Number 227, a "Yellowstone" locomotive that was among the largest steam engines ever. Only 18 Yellowstones were ever built, and Duluth exhibits one of the three that remain.[89]

The North Shore Scenic Railroad is a heritage railroad that operates between Duluth and Two Harbors, Minnesota. It is owned by the Lake Superior Railroad Museum and offers several different types of passenger excursion trains between May 28 and October 15 each year. The railroad was started in 1990, using the Lakefront Line once owned by the Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway.

The original brewery was built in 1857 on a stream that came to be known as Brewery Creek; it was purchased by Michael Fink in 1881 and moved downstream to its present location on Superior Street. Fink's Lake Superior Brewery hired a new brewmaster, August Fitger, a graduate of one of Germany's premier brewing schools, and the brewery was renamed A. Fitger & Co. / Lake Superior Brewery. The brewery was successful and stayed in operation even through prohibition but finally closed in 1972 after 115 years of continual operation, making it the oldest business in Duluth. The complex was reopened in 1984 and contains a craft brewery, several restaurants, hotels, shops, and a museum. Fitger's Brewery Complex is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.[90]

The Glensheen Historic Estate, on the shore of Lake Superior, was built as the family home for wealthy businessman Chester Adgate Congdon. Glensheen sits on 7.6 acres (3.1 ha) of lakefront property, has 38 rooms and is built in the Jacobean architectural tradition, inspired by the Beaux-Arts styles of the era. The building was designed by Minnesota architect Clarence H. Johnston Sr., with interiors designed by William French. The formal terraced garden and English-style landscape was designed by the Charles Wellford Leavitt firm of New York. Construction began in 1905 at a cost of $854,000 (about $21 million in today's dollars), and was completed in 1908. Aside from its architectural significance, Glensheen is noteworthy for the murders of Elisabeth Congdon and her nurse on June 27, 1977. The mansion is open to tours year-round.

The 16-acre Lake Superior Zoo offers year-round recreational activities and features animals from around the world, including Amur tigers, snow leopards, African lions, brown bears, kangaroos, gray wolves, and a variety of birds, reptiles, primates and barnyard animals. The zoo offers learning programs and regularly features special events.[91]

Duluth is in the path of many avian flyways and migratory birds, which pass over the area in great numbers. Hawk Ridge, on Skyline Parkway, is ideal for viewing migratory raptors. According to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Hawk Ridge has attracted visitors from all 50 states and 40 countries, from Labor Day through October. Volunteers and licensed bird banders capture raptors in nets and band them while large crowds gather to observe the capture and release.[92][93]

Just off the Lakewalk, Lake Place Park became Gichi-Ode' Akiing, Ojibwe for "a grand heart place."[94] The Duluth City Council approved the name change in 2018.[95] A memorial to Kechewaishke, also known as Chief Buffalo, honors his symbolic petition carried to president Millard Fillmore in 1849.[96] Kechewaishke signed the 1854 Treaty of La Pointe a year before his death, with the provision that one square mile (2.6 km2) of land at the corner of Lake Superior be given to his adopted son Benjamin G. Armstrong.[97] Known as the Buffalo Tract, Armstrong's land comprised part of today's downtown Duluth.[98]

Enger Tower is an 80-foot (24 m), five-story blue stone observation tower atop Enger Hill in Duluth. The tower provides panoramic views of the Twin Ports from lookouts accessible by stairs. A green beacon mounted atop the tower can be seen for many miles.

Each year in November, the Christmas City of the North Parade takes place in Duluth. The parade dates to 1957, when the holiday shopping season ran particularly short. Wanting to extend Christmas shopping days, Bob Rich, who at the time owned the former WDSM-TV, now KBJR-TV, came up with the idea. Since then, the parade has marched through downtown Duluth annually on the Friday night before Thanksgiving. The event has survived pouring rain, snow and frigid cold. Even in years when instruments were too cold to produce music, the bands became choirs, using their voices to entertain the crowd. Recorded by Merv Griffin in 1962, the "Christmas City" song is the parade's signature sound. According to Rich's grandson, the song was written by a local resident and his grandfather asked his friend Griffin, at that time not the well-known TV personality he later became, if he would sing the song and put it to music.[99][100]

Duluth fielded a National Football League team called the Kelleys (officially the Kelley Duluths after the Kelley-Duluth Hardware Store) from 1923 to 1925 and the Eskimos (officially[101] Ernie Nevers' Eskimos after the early NFL great, their star player) from 1926 to 1927. The Eskimos were then sold and became the Orange Tornadoes (Orange, New Jersey). This bit of history became the basis for the 2008 George Clooney/Renée Zellweger movie, Leatherheads.

The Duluth–Superior Dukes of the Northern League Independent Professional Baseball played in West Duluth's Wade Stadium from the league's inception in 1993 until 2002 when the team moved to Kansas City, Kansas, and became the Kansas City T-Bones. The Dukes were Northern League champions in 1997. An earlier Northern League, based in the Midwest, was also in operation off and on from 1902 to 1971, the longest stint being 1932–1971. The Dukes were a farm team for the Detroit Tigers from 1960 to 1964 and several other teams in later years before the Northern League folded in 1971. The Dukes produced notable players such as Denny McLain, Bill Freehan, Gates Brown, Ray Oyler, Jim Northrup, Mickey Stanley, John Hiller, and Willie Horton, all of whom were members of the 1968 world champion Detroit Tigers.

Duluth is also home to Horton's Gym, the home gym of professional boxers Zach "Jungle Boy" Walters and Andy Kolle, as well as a number of other professional prizefighters. Horton's Gym was run by Chuck Horton from 1994 to 2011. During that time, Horton trained some of the most recognized professional and amateur boxers in Minnesota such as Walters, Kolle, RJ Lasse, Gary Eyer and Wayne Putnam. In 2011, Horton turned the gym over to Zach Walters so that Horton could concentrate solely on training professional boxers; Walters changed the gym's name to Jungle Boy Boxing Gym. Horton is currently the trainer of Al Sands; Sands won the North American Boxing Association's U.S. Cruiserweight title in April 2014.[102]

The University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldog hockey games are televised nationally, and attended by thousands in person at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center (DECC). A new hockey arena, Amsoil Arena, opened December 30, 2010, adjacent to the DECC. Several Bulldogs, including hockey great Brett Hull and Matt Niskanen have gone on to success in the National Hockey League.[103] On April 9, 2011, the Bulldog men's team defeated Michigan to win their first national championship in school history. They won the championship again in 2018 and 2019.[104]

The UMD women's ice hockey team has won five NCAA Division I national championships (2001–03, 2008, 2010).[105] The 2010 title game against Cornell University lasted through nearly three full overtimes and was the longest women's ice hockey championship game in NCAA history. The 2003 women's Frozen Four tournament was played at the DECC with the Bulldogs claiming their third consecutive national title by defeating Harvard University via a dramatic double-overtime goal by Nora Tallus in front of a sellout home crowd. The 2008 Frozen Four tournament was also held at the DECC and saw the Bulldogs claim their fourth national title with a 4–0 shutout of the Wisconsin Badgers. The Women's Frozen Four was held in Amsoil Arena in 2012.[106]

The Duluth Dukes were an amateur baseball team that played its home games at Bulldog Park on the campus of the University of Minnesota Duluth and at Wade Stadium. The Dukes were composed of current and former college players and former professional players. The Dukes competed in two leagues: the Arrowhead League of the Minnesota Baseball Association, and the Upper 13 League of the Wisconsin Baseball Association.

The Duluth Xpress are an amateur baseball team that plays its games at the Ordean Middle School baseball field. The team is made up of current and former college players and former professional players. The Xpress compete in the Arrowhead League, a class B league in Minnesota town team baseball.

The Duluth Huskies are a college summer wood bat league baseball team based in Duluth and playing in the Northwoods League. The team plays its home games at Wade Stadium. The roster includes some of the top college baseball players in the country. The Huskies play 34 home games each summer between June and August.

The Twin Ports North Stars are an amateur baseball team that plays its games at Ordean Field at Duluth East High School. The North Stars are composed of current and former college and professional baseball players who reside in the Twin Ports area. As of 2013, the North Stars compete out of the Arrowhead League, a Class B league in the Minnesota Baseball Association.

High school teams in the Duluth area include Denfeld High School, Duluth East High School, and Duluth Marshall School.

The National Premier Soccer League team Duluth FC plays its home games at Denfeld High School's Public Schools Stadium.

Bandy is a team sport similar to ice hockey. All American Bandy League matches are played at Guidant John Rose Minnesota Oval in Roseville.[107] In 2012, the Duluth team Dynamo Duluth finished 2nd in the league.[108] and in 2013 they became champions for the first time.[109] In 2009 they won North American Cup, which is rink bandy.[110]

Roller derby is a contact sport played by two teams of five members roller skating in the same direction (counter-clockwise) around a track. The Harbor City Roller Derby, an 18+ league,[111] was founded in 2007 and is Duluth–Superior's first women's flat-track roller derby league.

Duluth has numerous parks,[112] including six parks on Lake Superior: Leif Erikson Park, which includes a lakeside rose garden; Brighton Beach Park; Canal Park, on Park Point; the Lakewalk (connecting Canal Park and Leif Erickson Park via the lakeshore); and Lafayette Park, on Park Point. The Park Point Recreation Area near the end of Park Point has a community center, numerous pavilions, a swimming beach, sand volleyball court, picnic tables and grills, and a boat launch. Park Point Pine Forest, at the tip of Park Point, is popular for bird-watching in the spring and fall when shorebirds use the area as a resting point during their migration.[113] A shipping schedule of ships entering the harbor is available as well as five live cams including a cam of the canal, the lift bridge, and the beach.[114]

Other parks include historic Lester Park, one of Duluth's most popular parks. Just upstream from where Amity Creek joins the Lester River, a large, deep pool has formed that attracts cliff diving.[115] Amity Creek is the site of The Seven Bridges Road, a four-mile section of Skyline Parkway where it follows Amity Creek from the top of the bluffs down to Lake Superior. The 400-foot drop has resulted in a long cascade of waterfalls.[116]

Duluth's other parks include Congdon Park, Hartley Park, Chester Park, Bayfront Festival Park, Cascade Park, Enger Park, Lincoln Park, Brewer Park, Fairmount Park, Indian Point Park, Magney–Snively Park, and Fond du Lac Park, as well as some small neighborhood parks and athletic fields. Lester Park, Congdon Park, Hartley Park, and Chester Park have trail systems, and three of these parks—all but Hartley—also have waterfalls, as does Lincoln Park. Hartley Park also has a nature center. Lester Park and Enger Park have public golf courses. Fairmount Park has the Lake Superior Zoo. Jay Cooke State Park is a Minnesota state park about ten miles (16 km) southwest of Duluth. The park is along the Saint Louis River and is one of Minnesota's ten most visited state parks.

For many years the Leif Erikson, a Viking ship that was built in Norway by local boat builders to replicate the type of ship sailed by Leif Erikson who arrived in North America around 997 A.D. was on display in the Leif Erickson park.[117] The vessel is 42 feet (13 m) long, has a 12-foot-9-inch (4 m) beam and draws 4 feet (1.2 m) of water. The Dragon's Head and Tail are considered by architects to be masterpieces. The ship was invited to Duluth by Norwegian-American immigrant and businessman H.H. Borgen. When the crew landed in Duluth on June 23, 1927,[3] they had traveled a distance of 6,700 miles (10,800 km), the greatest distance for a ship of its size in modern history. Hundreds of people lined the dock to greet the ship as it sailed into the Duluth harbor.

Duluthian Emil Olson purchased the ship soon after the voyage, and donated the Leif Erikson to the City of Duluth. The ship was placed on display in Duluth's Lake Park, which was later named Leif Erikson Park.[118][119]

The Leif Erikson steadily deteriorated after years of neglect and vandalism, and by 1980 was in such poor condition that it was even considered that the ship be burned in the traditional Viking manner of putting a ship to rest. This suggestion inspired Emil Olson's grandson, Will Borg, to bring volunteers together and begin fundraising efforts to restore the ship. Through donations, festivals and other endeavors, the group raised $100,000. Boatbuilders began the restoration in 1991.[120] Restoration went slowly with starts and stops due to lack of funding. In 2015 it was announced that restoration had been completed and plans were in place to build a glass structure to house the ship, however as of 2022 the ship remains in storage.[121]

Located within Leif Erikson Park and overlooking Lake Superior, the Duluth Rose Garden is a formal English style garden with more than 3,000 rose bushes and 12,000 non-rose plantings, including day lilies, evergreen shrubs, mixed perennials and an herb garden. The rose varieties are labeled and there are signs that give information on the rose's history and culture. The six acre garden grows in soil resting over a highway tunnel that encloses the termination point of the freeway entering Duluth. Brick walkways connect all of the beds and there are many benches in the garden that resemble stone sofas. There is an antique horse fountain and a marble gazebo. The garden is a popular place for summer outdoor weddings.[122]

Duluth offers numerous outdoor activities including fishing, hiking, skiing, sailing, canoeing, kayaking, surfing[123] and mountain biking. In addition to the two public golf cours