From: Eric Holst
Location: MN
Email: hols0057atumn.edu
Remote Name: 134.84.125.38
Date: 04/30/03
Time: 11:46:09 AM
A few starters: Much of the steel that built our nation's bridges, buildings, cars, appliances, warships, tanks, etc. came from ore shipped through Duluth/Superior, especially in the first half of the twentieth century. In the latter part of the nineteenth century, Duluth was a disembarking port for thousands of European immigrants. Until the 1950s, Duluth/Superior shipped millions of tons of wheat to flour mills in the Northeast (like in Buffalo, NY), which in turn fed millions of people from Maine to Virginia. After the 1950s, the importance of the domestic wheat trade has dwindled (this year there will only be two ships handling the Duluth-Buffalo run part time), but much more grain of all types (wheat, corn, soybeans, barley, flax, rye, oats, canola, peas, beans, sunflower seeds, sugar beet pulp pellets, etc.) is now shipped from Duluth/Superior to feed millions of people and animals around the world - especially in Northwestern Europe, North Africa, and around the Mediterranean. Duluth also imports barley from Canada that's used to make beer for Anheiser Busch in St. Louis, MO, and last year began importing oats from Scandinavia to meet increasing demand in the U.S. (probably for oatmeal and cereals like Cheerios). From the mid 19th century to the mid 20th century, Duluth/Superior imported millions of tons of Appalachian coal that was burned to provide heat and electricity for thousands of homes and businesses across northern Minnesota (and perhaps much more of the Northern Great plains, you could research how far the coal was shipped west from Duluth). That trade has now sort of reversed, as huge volumes of coal mined in Wyoming and Montana are now shipped from Duluth/Superior to fire electrical generating plants (power plants) in Silver Bay, MN, Taconite Harbor, MN, Ashland, WI, Marquette, MI, Burns Harbor, IN, Muskegon, MI, Bay City, MI, Harbor Beach, MI, St. Clair, MI (electricity for Detroit), Monroe, MI (also electricity for Detroit?), Ashtabula, OH, and Nanticoke, ON (electricity for Toronto?). These plants provide electricity to millions of people and hundreds of major industrial facilites all around the Great Lakes region. Duluth/Superior imports limestone from Michigan and Ontario that is used in construction projects (especially roads), used in the process of refining sugar from sugar beets in the MN/ND Red River Valley, used in the process of making taconite pellets on Minnesota's Iron Range, and is turned into Lime at a plant in Superior (Cutler-Magner) which is used to purify water, to clean smokestack exhaust, as a fertilizer, and in the making of glass. Duluth/Superior imports cement powder from Michigan and Ontario that's used for construction projects throughout the Upper Midwest and Central Canada. Duluth/Superior imports salt from Ohio and Ontario that is used to de-ice roadways across the Upper Midwest in the wintertime, and is also used in the chemical and agricultural industries. At the beginning of the 20th Century, Duluth/Superior was the center of the largest lumber market in the world. During WWI and WWII, Duluth/Superior built hundreds of ships that served on the world's oceans in the war, including cargo/supply ships, patrol ships, antisubmarine ships (?) and minesweepers and minelayers. Some of the ships still serve today - dozens of the 180' cutters built during WWII served in the U.S. Coast Guard as bouy tenders and patrol ships until very recently. They began to be retired in the past decade, and the ones on the Great Lakes, including the Sundew in Duluth, will be retired in the next 2-3 years. After retirement from the coast guard, many of these ships have been sold to governments and other organizations in foreign countries, and continue to serve them all around the world. One cargo ship built in Duluth during WWII, the Pembina, now serves as a humanitarian aid ship in the Pacific, I believe (I don't recall offhand her current name or the organization that runs her, but some google searching or further questioning on this board should provide that info.) Duluth/Superior's shipping industry indirectly affects the jobs of millions of people around the Great Lakes, Upper Midwest, and even the world who rely on or work to process and transport the cargos and related industries listed above for raw materials, energy, and food. The port's activities directly affect thousands of people and their families in Duluth and Superior who work at the port's dozens of docks and terminals, at the shipyards, tugboat, and piloting companies that service the ships, and at the port authority, which sort of oversees the port. Their website, www.duluthport.com, should have some excellent statistics concerning the port, including cargo tonnages for almost the port's entire history, rankings among other U.S. and North American ports, and the job/economic impact of the ports activities. If you can't find all that on the website, I know the port authority has it, so just email them through the addresses they provide and they should gladly help you out.
[_private/search_aftr.htm]