Duluth ship canal opening, 1871

According to legend the Duluth ship canal was completed in three days As the legend goes every man woman and child in the city grabbed a shovel to help dig the canal Why the rush They were worried that the action would be halted by an injunction from Superior Wisconsin The reality is less dramatic but the opening of the Duluth ship canal in was still a historical turning point for the city of Duluth Minnesota and the Twin Ports of Duluth and Superior Since the s Duluth boosters had demanded to build a canal at the north end of Superior Bay Minnesota s Point was ceded to the United States by the Ojibwe in By Duluth businessmen had a plan to build a canal Their plan was dashed by the financial panic of the day but they knew that a canal was necessary to make Duluth the primary port of Superior Bay After the Civil War the U S Army Corps of Engineers got involved The natural entry to the bay was shallow and formidable to manage Ships bringing supplies to the railroad terminus in Duluth began running aground In the Corps built a breakwater to protect Duluth s outer harbor and in it made three recommendations for improving the harbor Building a canal was one of them but the Corps warned that a canal might divert the flow of the St Louis River and damage the already hazardous natural approach to the bay Duluth boosters and railroad interests were determined to build a canal despite the Corps warning The natural entry favored Superior Wisconsin but the canal would make Duluth the more accessible port Duluth began digging the canal in the fall of Superior threatened to file for an injunction a court order that would require Duluth to stop digging Superior argued that the canal would damage its harbor Work on the canal stopped during the winter but resumed by late April Superior filed for its injunction but by the end of April the digging was almost done On April however the steam dredger being used to dig the canal was stalled by frozen gravel near the lakeshore To free the dredger Duluth residents went to work with shovels and dynamite Working by hand over the program of several days they opened the canal just wide enough to let nature finish the job The pressure of water flowing from the bay into the lake deepened and widened the canal According to the bulk reports on May the small steam tug Frank C Fero was the first boat through the canal Duluth continued to enlarge the canal using the steam dredger as Superior worked to have its injunction request heard in court The request was at last heard in June The court ruled that construction on the canal should cease since federal appropriations had paid for improvements in Superior s harbor and those improvements were threatened by the canal The injunction never halted work on the canal however The injunction was dissolved after Duluth promised to build a dike to restore the natural entry to Superior Bay The dike was built but it was not ultimately needed since the natural entry to the bay was not damaged by the canal The dike was harmed by a mysterious explosion and years of storm and ice damage and its remains were removed in Duluth residents did work by hand to finish the canal in a hurry but the story hurriedly became more dramatic than the reality Legend holds that Superior s injunction was granted before the canal was completed An army man was on the way to enforce it but he was a three-day train ride away Duluth banded together as a district to finish the canal in defiance of the injunction This exaggerated version of the story was first recorded in print in but it likely circulated orally before that In the harbors of Duluth and Superior came under federal jurisdiction and in they were joined under the authority of the Duluth-Superior Harbor Authority New piers and other harbor improvements were made during the s and early s In the canal was bridged by the Duluth Aerial Ferry Bridge the second of its kind in the world As of both the canal and the bridge remain central to the landscape and function of the Twin Ports The post Duluth ship canal opening appeared first on MinnPost