substreet has a history of the grain elevators in Duluth, MN. Of note, the ship canal was built in 1871.
I'm moving elevator specific information to their own notes. So far I have, from north to south.
- Riverland Ag #2/General Mills A/Consolidated
- (Ceres Global+Riverland Ag)/Cargill Grain Elevators
- Duluth Lake Port Storage/Capital
- Lost Occident and Peavy Grain Elevators
Rice's Point is in the upper-left corner of this map. I think the facilities highlighted in yellow are grain elevators. Docks in other parts of Duluth+Superior are in a more general purpose post.
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| Dan Mackey posted With Jerry’s post from Superior, WI the other day it reminded me of an old map of the Twin Ports Principal Docks. This is from Greenwood’s Great Lakes 1966 edition. Sorry for the low quality of the image but I’ll do my best to explain the elevators and locations. In 1966 there were 5 grain Elevators on the Duluth Side of the harbor, of those 3 are still around in 2020. 14. General Mills- still there 17. Cargill-still there. Greatly expanded [Now called Riverland Ag] 19. Capital-wood portion burned down in 1978. Concrete portion-Was AGP, new owner recently [Duluth Lake Port Storage]. They plant to tear it down. 21. Occidental-torn down 1998 22. Peavey-torn down 1998 |
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on Dan's post To help orient myself: |
Grain loading was (and is) done at Rice's Point and several other places in the harbor area.
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| Howard Pletcher posted Here's a history of the lake-front elevators in Duluth, MN. Photo is from the 1930s. [Note that there were some big wood elevators. It looks like some of them have been replaced by concrete silos or the dock has been converted to handle other materials.] |
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| Bob Wundrock posted Some interesting things can be spotted in old photos. This is a segment of a 1901 panorama print of Duluth. I've posted another part of the panorama several weeks ago featuring some railroad equipment. This segment is facing west, showing the NP freight house in the background. Near the front is the steamship "India." [The comments continue with a lot of info about India.] Kent Rengo shared Look west from the approximate location of the current Bayfront Park. |
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| David Schauer posted Our daily older post from the Basgen Collection shows a nice sampling of salties at the Duluth Port Terminal on October 14, 1976. Also note the Capital 4 elevator is still standing in the distance (large black structure), before its massive fire in January 1978. |
David Schauer posted two photos with the comment: "A bit of a different theme today. I've included a 1962 image for our daily Basgen flashback and one made today at a similar angle (I can't replicate the altitude of the airplane due to drone height restrictions). What really stands out over 60 years is the removal of grain elevators and the size of the Paul R. Tregurtha relative to the salties. Enjoy. 9/13/62 & 2/8/22"
Steve Nelson: What I remember about them were all the rail cars being moved around down there back in the 60’s.
Us kids would watch the boats/ships come in under the bridge and move around the harbor and tug boats assisting as needed.
They had a telescope and a few pairs of binoculars (prisms messed up so you one eyed them) to watch with.
We’d watch the rail cars moved to dump taconite into the holds of the boats.
My great grandparents had a house they built in the little Italy area (house is still there) around 1900 and us kids would be sent to hang out in the enclosed back porch while the moms were in the kitchen cooking/preparing Sunday lunch and the dads were out in the front enclosed porch listening to the Bears or Vikings games on the radio smoking cigars.
The whole area is so different from back then.
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Kathy Black posted two images with the comment: "Thought this might be of interest. From my collection"
I presume that was Rice's Point.
I found a small article on substreet.org/duluth-grain-elevators. It appears this may have been a late 1890s-early 1900s postcard.
Bob Summers: Pictured is a mix of wooden and concrete grain elevators. Slip form started around 1900 so my guess would be 1910 to 1915. Not sure how large the world’s largest grain elevator was at that time, but there are now some with the capacity mentioned for Duluth at that time.
These are even older views. Note only are the elevators still made of wood, some of the ships have three sailing masts.
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| David Schauer posted A 1962 view of the Cargill elevators in Duluth. In the mid-1970s Cargill built a larger grain terminal here with a portion of this complex used and referred to as B2 (Berth 2). It is also amazing how many coal docks populated the Duluth-Superior waterfront for inbound eastern coal. When MERC's SMET facility was built about the same time as Cargill's new elevators it soon surpassed the yearly tonnage record of all the eastern coal docks combined, in this case moving lower sulphur western coal to power plants. Andy Caldwell: Not sure which Liberty ship it is. There were 18 different Liberty ships in Duluth in 1962. This one has been lengthened. Quite a few of them were lengthened before arriving in Duluth in 1962. The Evvia was in Duluth 4 times in 1962. Dave Wagner: Richard D. Bibby. Joe Thompson at coal dock . |
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| Greg Mross posted Col. James M. Schoonmaker, Duluth, July 1964. Built in 1911, she is currently a nice museum in Toledo. Another great John Ingles image from my collection. Dennis DeBruler: I presume the grain elevators in the background are on Rice's Point. I know those elevators have changed so much that I'm not even going to attempt to identify them. |
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| Dave Mikelson posted Elevators on Rice's Point...Duluth Minnesota. Most of the grain products now load in Superior. [But Gus Schauer's photo below shows that at least wheat is still shipped from Rice's Point.] |
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| Cody White posted Here's a shot of Burlington Northern's Rices Point Yard in Duluth August 29, 1978. There's a lot to see in this view taken from what I would guess to be Skyline Parkway. The former NP yard is nowhere near this size anymore with basically everything east of the yard office gone now. One can also see the CNW Ex Omaha yard, then the BN's Birch St Yard and Soo Line's Rices Point Yard near the Port Terminal. Goldfine's By the Bridge was the first store north of the Twin Cities to have an escalator when it opened in 1962 at 700 Garfield Ave. The port terminal is quite small here in this view and the St. Lawrence Cement elevator is missing on the end of the point. That was constructed in 1980. Robert K. Bee Photo. William Brown: Before Grain Shuttles, Powder River Coal and Taconite Pellets dominated the Port. Soo Line, Milwaukee Road, Missabe, DW&P and Chicago Northwestern still were independent Railroads. Chris Mazzella: Can see the JAW Iglehart at the cement dock, where she sits today |
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| David Schauer commented on Chris' comment |
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| Chris commented on his comment Still a full load from the alpena |
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| Stephan Orourke posted Early Duluth |
Steve Vanden Bosch posted four photos with the comment: "Duluth Harbor the Photo is from the Library of Congress"
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Steve Vanden Bosch posted three photos with the comment: "This is a Photo from the Library of Congress Detroit Publishing Collection of the Duluth Harbor taken from the bluffs. This photo I believe was taken in 1898. In this photo you can see the canal before its upgrade and the either the North Land or North West. Also 4 other unknowns."
Ian Ross: You'd get black lung disease working the docks in Duluth.
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| Steve Vanden Bosch commented on Ian's comment Here is a prime example |
It is interesting how much of today's Rice's Point is landfill.
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| 1895 Duluth Quadrangle @ 1:62,500 |
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| Duluth’s original “elevator row” off Rice’s Point, ca. 1887. (Image: Duluth Public Library) via ZenithCity [Another example that black smoke was considered a sign of prosperity in the 1800s.] |
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| Association for Great Lakes Maritime History posted A photograph by Hugh McKenzie (1879-1957) of the bulk freighter B.F. Jones being loaded with grain at Elevator D in Duluth, Minn. in 1922. Image printed from a glass plate negative (Source: University of Wisconsin Digital Collections and a collection donated by Kenneth E. Thro to the University of Wisconsin Superior - Jim Dan Hill Library). [The post contains a longer description that tells the history of the elevator and ship and provides links to sources.] [If you figure out where this elevator was, please leave a comment.] Kent Rengo shared |
Wayne Ciampaglia posted three photos with the comment: "Duluth Rices Point yard Summer, 1980 third picture 8093"
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| Dave Blaze Rail Photography posted The View From Above BNSF's Duluth based remote job 116 is switching in the former Northern Pacific Rices Point Yard in this long telephoto view looking down from Skyline Drive about 3/4ths of a mile away. Historically the NP was the dominant railroad in Duluth and they had massive facilities here, though multiple competing Class 1s also served the city which even today is reached by four of the remaining six mega systems. The crew is gathering up empty hoppers in the yard to take to West Duluth to the C. Reiss terminal on the St. Louis River. BNSF 2607 and 2690 are rebuilt GP39-3s orignally blt. Aug. and Nov. 1965 as GP35s for the Santa Fe numbered1407 and 1442 respectively. For a great article on Duluth's historic railroads with photos of the huge NP yards and roundhouse that were here check out this link: https://zenithcity.com/.../histo.../duluths-major-railroads/ Duluth, Minnesota Thursday October 5, 2023 Mark Hutchinson: With a rebuilt and upgraded Ohio diesel electric crane and new leads piledriver car from IPS in the pic. |
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on Dave's post You were not kidding about a long telephoto lens. It compressed a long railyard into a square one. https://maps.app.goo.gl/Z2EKaEWCx14H5ghw6 |
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| Screenshot from David Schauer post @ 0:08 A short clip of the Neah Bay using its unique bubbler system in ice off Rices Point in Duluth. 3/23/2022 Dorene Campbell Frank: Thanks for sharing this great video!!! I love the Bay Class Coast Guard Ships!!! I watched the Neah Bay (& others) a lot this winter on the Algonac, Marine City & Port Huron, Mi cams. John West: That Bubbler system is amazing. We could be locked in ice moored in the Soo, turn on the Bubbler and it broke up all the ice around us on the Katmai Bay |
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| EarthExplorer: May 2, 1952 @ 17,000; AR1OK0000010091 via Dennis DeBruler |
As a homework problem for me, or a reader, name the elevators in the background of this photo.
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| David Schauer posted Recognize this spot? The silos are a dead give-away as this is Pier B and Huron Cement's facility with an unidentified laker there (any guesses?). Duluth, MN 1956 - Basgen Photography Nathan Leindecker: Crapo Harrimans stack is shorter. Makes it easier. |
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| David Schauer posted A BNSF crew rerails 2571 at Rices Point yesterday. Number 2571 was originally built for Penn Central in 1970 as a GP38, rebuilt to a GP39-3. Duluth, MN - June 28, 2024 Dan Callendar shared Virgil Fitzpatrick: That's a Mantis 150 ton Hi-rail crane originally designed by the BN. For those curious |
Some info about the scrap yard that is still operating on Rice's Point
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