History of Canal Park: 1910–1914
According to this graph from Perfect Duluth Day, the 1910s in Duluth was a time of exponential growth for the city. The rising population meant growth for the city and for Canal Park. Duluth was starting to establish itself as a city, with a population of 78,466 in 1910. The beauty of Duluth brought in newcomers. A large majority of the population being immigrants. According to Zenith City Press, many were from Finland. With the rise in population, Canal Park became more popular.
With the expansion of Duluth, the use of its canal surged. Duluth’s North Pier Lighthouse was put to use for the first time on April 7th, 1910. This is the iconic lighthouse at the front of the canal that leads you to the Canal Park Lift Bridge
Since the canal is relatively small (only 300 feet wide) it was deemed that the South Breakwater Light was not enough light for the sailors to see the canal on a foggy or stormy night. A story on Zenith City Press explains the decision to build North Pier Lighthouse was pushed by the fact that in 1909, The Lighthouse Board deemed the canal to be “one of the worst and most dangerous on the whole chain of [Great] Lakes.”
In 1910 many things happened to Canal Park and Duluth Harbor area. The iconic light house burning for the first time, and the creation of the nickname for Superior and Duluth that has stuck for more than century came about: Twin Ports. Zenith City Press explains that the nickname came from a contest hosted by The Duluth News Tribune and both Duluth and Superior’s Commercial Clubs. Both sides of the St. Louis harbor basically worked as one, thus was born the nickname The Twin Ports.
An article in the Zenith City Press tells about in 1911 there was an idea proposed to fill in the Duluth Ship Canal and move it. The plan was to move the canal to Minnesota Point midway between the current canal and the Superior Entry. The idea was by doing this, waters would be calmer for boats coming into the harbor because they were rather rough in the Duluth Ship Canal. Both of the canals had just been reinforced a decade before, paid for by the federal government. The idea was ridiculed by experienced Lake Superior maritimers, saying it would not make a difference. The idea was ultimately scraped, as were a couple of other ideas for the canal. One of them was an idea to build a tunnel underneath the canal to connect the Duluth-Superior communities.
Let’s explore Duluth’s little-known underbelly. On June 13, 1913 property owners on St. Croix Avenue (now Canal Park Drive) proposed to change the streets name to stray away from its past “associations”. It used to be a prominent red-light district or “Tenderloin,” called Up Town by local Duluthians. FB or Female Boarding House was code for what the brothels were called on insurance maps, and St. Croix Ave was riddled with them.
According to the Zenith City Press, woman to blame would be Madame Gain. She took Duluth by storm, as she was notorious for running most of the brothels in the St. Croix Ave district. It was her “doings“ ”that caused the Duluth police to crack down on the “immoral resorts”. Madame Gain was prosecuted and found guilty in 1914, for running an immoral house.
Right after his attempt to get rid of the St. Croix Ave red-light district, Public Safety Commissioner John Hicken started a new task in his attempt to “clean up” Duluth. The Zenith City Press explains, in 1914, Hicken refused to renew liquor licenses for saloons, particularly drink establishments in problem areas in Duluth: The Bowery, Garfield Ave District, West Duluth, and West End. One saloon that was targeted was The Last Chance saloon.
The Last Chance was a rowdy place, that is why it was targeted by Hicken in particular. It started with the constant fights, and the fighters getting arrested. It ended with patrons from the saloon getting robbed on their way home. Both this, and the location of the establishment was enough reason to revoke the saloon’s liquor license on February 17th, 1914.
