DULUTH — Lake Superior Railroad Museum Director Ken Buehler likes to say that "if you work it hard enough, it all comes back to the railroad." A new book called "Twin Ports Trains" demonstrates that when it comes to the history of Duluth and Superior, you don't need to work it very hard at all. In fact, throughout the critical decades of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it would be impossible to explain the development of Duluth and Superior without pointing to the role of rail.
In 1869, railroad baron Jay Cooke personally chose Duluth as the northern terminus of the Lake Superior & Mississippi Railroad. People on the Wisconsin side of the harbor would have preferred a terminus allowing Cooke to omit the word "Lake" from the railroad's name. That 15-year head start, some 150 years ago, is a key factor explaining why Duluth remains the largest Twin Port.
Once that train access was secured, Duluthians started furiously digging to create harbor access through Minnesota Point. Thus emerged the Duluth Ship Canal, with the city's most iconic landmark built to cross it. Carriers, including the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway, tied the Range's rich mineral deposits to the Twin Ports (and North Shore) ore docks.
"Farewell to dog trains and United States mails on one-horse sleds," the News Tribune wrote triumphantly when the DM&IR reached the city in 1886. ADVERTISEMENT While the interstate highway system finally deflated the railroads' dominant influence on Twin Ports tr.
