Duluth, MN: and Superior, WI: Twin Ports Anthracite Coal Docks Unloaders

Pittsburgh #7: (Satellite, the dock is now Miw West Aggregate and Ceres+Riverland)

Clarkson: (Satellite, the dock is now Northland Bituminous)

North Western Fuel: (Satellite, now Azcon Metals)

Pittsburgh #5: (Satellite, the BNSF ore dock #5 now uses this peninsula)

These coal docks used to unload anthracite coal. [ZenithCity] They are now long gone.

Rice's Point had three coal docks. Please access THIS PHOTO for a 1942 aerial view via WVhistoryOnview. Pittsburgh Dock #7 was the coal dock in the foreground. Cleveland Cliffs/Clarkson is the second coal dock. And North Western Fuel is the third coal dock. General Mills A is the grain elevator in the foreground. The grain elevator between the two coal docks is the east side of the new elevator built by Cargill. The remaining grain elevators are the Capital version of Duluth Lake Port Storage and the now lost Occident and Peavey elevators.

Mike Delaney posted
Dock #7 Pittsburgh Coal Co. Duluth. Photos from 1919 Brownhoist Equipment Catalog I recently acquired. Bridge unloaders Installation by Brownhoist.

Mike Delaney posted
Dock #7 Duluth Harbor showing the Brownhoist coal screener installation machinery. Photo from 1919 Brownhoist catalog. A lot going on in this photo.

Clarkson Coal became Cleveland Cliffs. The coal dock on the right side of this photo was North Western Fuel Co. Coal Docks #4 'Consolidated Coal Co.'. [WVhistoryOnview]

ZenithCity
Duluth’s Clarkson Coal Dock along the east side of Rice’s Point, ca. 1915. (Image: Zenith City Press)

Mike Delaney posted
Dock #5 Pittsburgh Coal Co. Brownhoist unloading bridge Superior, Wisconsin harbor. From 1919 brownhoist Catalog recently acquired.

Mike Delaney posted
Dock #5 Superior, Wisconsin. Brown hoist bridge cranes. Bins in the foreground are enclosed bins with hatches for Anthracite coal storage. 1919 Brownhoist catalog.
David Schauer: Very interesting. Didn't know about enclosed storage bins. Must be the GN docks on the left.

 

James Torgeson posted
All four Great Northern Railway ore docks are shown in this circa-1954 view. The Str. George M. Humphrey is loading at Ore Dock #1, and is likely destined for Zug Island near Detroit or Hanna Furnace in Buffalo. Dock #1 is where the Edmund Fitzgerald loaded her final cargo on November 9, 1975. Today, Dock #3 is gone and the other three are long abandoned. On the bright side, BNSF Ore Dock #5 now occupies the site of the coal dock in the background and is active.

And I don't know where this scene was, but it is an interesting study in colorization of postcards.

Duluth-Superior Harbor Minnesota Harbor Coal Docks Linen Postcard - Unposted

Duluth Superior Harbor Postcard Coal Docks t3c

These clamshell unloaders look similar to the ones that were used in Cincinnati before the Hulett unloaders were developed.

Association for Great Lakes Maritime History posted

An image from a dry plate negative of the newly-built freighter Augustus B. Wolving unloading a cargo of coal at Duluth, Minn. circa 1904 (Image Source: Library of Congress – Detroit Publishing Co. Collection). 

At the time of its launch, the Wolvin was the longest vessel on the Great Lakes. It was also the first bulk freighter built using arch cargo hold construction and steel telescoping hatch covers. Prior to then, wooden hatch covers were used on most Great Lakes ships. 

In the 1880s, when Duluth became one of North America’s largest grain shipping ports, coal from the eastern United States became the major back-haul cargo for grain vessels. Coal would continue to dominate even when iron ore supplanted grain in the 1890s. 

Information Source:

Pride of the Inland Seas - An Illustrated History of the Port of Duluth-Superior by Bill Beck and C. Patrick Labadie, Published by Afton Historical Press in 2004 – Pages 57-69.  

[The description continues with the history of the freighter.]