The lumber industry of Duluth is no small factor in the prosperity of the city. The cut of the Duluth district for the past season amounts to 160,000,000 feet of lumber, 43,000,000 shingles, and 22,600,000 lath, of which the city mills have manufactured one-third. Much of this lumber has been shipped to Chicago and the East, and a new district, the Tower mining region, has lately been opened for shipment.
We have alluded to the harbor of Duluth as one of the best on the lake. It consists of what is known as the Bay of Superior, a body of water about seven miles long by one mile in width, almost entirely shut off from the lake by a narrow strip of land known as Minnesota Point. The original entrance to this bay was through a channel on the southeast of the Point, separating it from Wisconsin Point, a similar tongue of land in the same line of direction. As this entrance was inconvenient and difficult, a canal was cut across the point near the mainland, sufficiently large to admit all vessels that pass through Ste. Marie's canal. Since the construction of the canal through Minnesota Point, the old landing in front of the city has been abandoned, and elevators have been built on the shores of the bay. These elevators are the best of their class, and have a total capacity of 20,000,000 bushels. They were ten in number, exclusive of several warehouses; two, however, have been destroyed by fire. The walls of the canal have been extended in the form of piers 1,000 feet into the lake. One of these piers is supplied with a lighthouse and a fog horn. The canal is 700 feet long and 250 feet in width. The arrivals and clearances for the port of Duluth in 1886 were 2,180.
The fish trade is no inconsiderable part of the industries of Duluth. Two large firms have their headquarters here and the amount of capital invested in the business amounts to $165,000. During 1886 1,200,000 pounds of fish were shipped to Duluth for reshipment to other places, from the various fisheries of these companies. The United States fish commissioners, realizing the value of Lake Superior as a reservoir for food fish, have projected the largest fish hatchery on the lakes, to be located at Lester's Park. It is to be under government and state control and will supply the lakes of Superior and Michigan with about 500,000,000 eggs yearly.
Duluth was organized and laid out as a village under the town site law of 1844; Richard Ralf, surveyor; Geo. E. Nettleton, J. B. Culver, O. W. Rice, Wm. Nettleton, and Robt. E. Jefferson, proprietors. The date of this organization is not known. We have a statement from Hon. W. G. Le Duc, of Hastings, to the effect, that in the winter of 1852-53, A. Ramsey, H. M. Rice, Maj. Watrous and himself, with two others whose names he can not recall, organized as a company and projected a town site at the west end of the lake, on the present site of Duluth. Maj. Watrous, the Indian agent, was instructed to take necessary measures to secure the land. Watrous failed to secure the property and the scheme failed. Mr. Le Duc projected and introduced a charter in the territorial legislature, which was passed, for a railroad to Duluth.
In 1870 the city of Duluth was first incorporated, and five years later a portion of the same territory was incorporated as the village of Duluth, and the two municipal corporations were still in existence Feb. 25, 1887, when the act imposing certain political obligations upon the then existing city of Duluth became a law. The second day of March another law went into effect incorporating both the city and village of Duluth as the present city.
FOND DU LAC,
Located at the head of navigation on St. Louis river, and at the foot of the rapids, is a point of considerable historical interest, it having long been in use as a trading post. It has been a place of outfit and departure for trading expeditions for two hundred years. The old stone trading house of the Astor Fur Company still remains. It is surrounded by about twenty buildings of more recent date. It is now better known as a station on the Northern Pacific railroad. It was surveyed in 1856 by Richard Ralf and platted into village lots. The plats were signed by James A. Markland, attorney for the proprietors. Fond du Lac is now a village of some magnitude.
ONEOTA
Was settled some time in the '40s, by Edmund F. Ely and others, and became a village of some note, containing a post office, church and other evidences of prosperity. It was platted as a village in 1856; H. W. Wheeler, surveyor; Marcus W. McCracken, Bion W. Bacon, Edmund F. Ely, proprietors. The first recorded deed in St. Louis county is a quitclaim deed from B. H. Baer to E. F. Ely, of the town site of Ely; consideration, $1,500. The deed bears date of April 20, 1856. Oneota is now included in the plat of Duluth.