First light on Wednesday, October 3, 2007 found the Beluga Formation at the Port Terminal discharging wind turbine pieces loaded at the Spanish port of Bilbao. The parts will soon be taken by truck to the Tatanka wind farm in McPherson County in North Dakota.

Above: The National Farm Bureau, a large collective (American Farm Bureau Federation) of smaller organizations (state 'Farm Bureaus' around the country) visited Duluth in July to learn about Port operations.  The Bureau was designed to "implement policies that are developed by members and provide programs that will improve the financial well-being and quality of life for farmers and ranchers" (Mission Statement found at www.fb.com). In other words, it's a way for the farmers and their supporters to get together and decide what they think would be best for them to maintain their livelihoods. Members come from all fifty states and Puerto Rico.

Above: The Great Lakes Maritime Transportation Teacher Institute, a program set up through Michigan Tech are shown here onboard the retired ore carrier William A. Irvin participating in their annual summer program designed to expose teachers to the systems, modes and impacts of all types of transportation. The Port Authority's goal was to show teachers the importance of waterborne commerce and to stimulate interest in the maritime industry.

After crossing the Atlantic and spending some promotional time in Duluth, Travis the Traveling Container departed the Twin Ports 9/14/06 on the deck of the Quebecois (above). He’ll be in Thunder Bay before continuing on to visit other Highway H20 ports in the Great Lakes/Seaway system. Check out www.hwyh2o.com
For more about Travis, click here.

The BBC India arrived in Duluth on Wednesday morning, August 2nd, around 8:15. Aboard, she had wind turbine parts loaded on her deck for delivery to a wind turbine farm in Waltham, Minnesota. Travis the Traveling Container was also on board. See below and here for more information.

The Ostkap brought in a shipment of 18 nacelles and 18 hubs on June 20, 2005. They will be used in the construction of wind turbines. A nacelle is an enclosure for much of the machinery needed to operate the wind turbine. They were carefully discharged (above) by stevedore Lake Superior Warehousing Co, Inc. The Ostkap then loaded spring wheat and departed the port for Portugal on June 22, 2005. (for more, go to Lake Superior Warehousing Company Web site and click on 2005 on menu at left)

The Daniella brought 14 crates and one 193.4 metric ton high pressure container vessel (above) to the Port Terminal on December 1, 2004. The cargo was discharged at Lake Superior Warehousing Co., Inc. The large piece was lowered onto a special rail car that will carry it to Fort McMurray, north of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. There it will be used in a massive oil sands extraction project.

On Wednesday, October 20, 2004, the Birchglen loaded 25,000 gross tons of UTAC pellets for Laiwu, China. She is the first saltie to load at the DM&IR Dock in West Duluth since the mid-eighties. Later in the day, the Ukrainian crewed ship departed Duluth for China by way of the Panama Canal. (More)

Altec HiLine, LLC. is transporting 16 brand new Digger-Derrick aerial platform trucks to the hurricane ravaged Southeast. The trucks will be used to restore utilities and communications in the Southeast damaged by Hurricanes Charlie, Gaston and now Frances. More.

The Grande Mariner, a 183-foot, 100-passenger U.S. cruise vessel, made her third visit to the Port of Duluth-Superior on Thursday, July 22.

Upon arrival, she completed one cruise that started in Chicago. A new cruise, with new passengers boarding in Duluth, originated here on July 25th and will complete in Chicago. Each trip included stops in Manistee, Mackinac Island, Sault Ste. Marie, Munising, Marquette, Houghton, Grande Marais, the Apostle Islands and Bayfield.

TIM SLATTERY 1951-2003

The Port Authority’s magazine won’t look quite the same again.

But then, neither will the Duluth-Superior Harbor.

No one could capture the harbor and the ships, the sunrises and the sunsets quite like photographer Tim Slattery.

For more than 25 years, Tim’s passion for this place was directly reflected in thousands of photos he took from every conceivable angle of every possible thing above, on and in the waters of western Lake Superior.

Until his tragic death Oct. 23, Tim seemed to be an almost constant presence on the waterfront---even though his day-to-day agenda was actually filled with doing portraits or memorializing weddings and other special events for Grandmaison Photographic Studios.

The Duluth Seaway Port Authority relied heavily on Tim’s superb work. The covers of 16 of the past 24 issues of North Star Port had credit lines that read “Photo by Tim Slattery.”Most of the photos inside the magazine were also his.

In the past dozen years, his art graced no less than six of the Port’s award-winning wall calendars.

He sometimes described himself as the “Official Unofficial USCG Photographer”because he had chronicled virtually every local U.S. Coast Guard activity since the 1970s while also serving in the Coast Guard Auxiliary.

Every staff member at the Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center knew him because of his daily monitoring of ship traffic at the adjacent Duluth Ship Canal. He also was a former president and longtime member of the Lake Superior Marine Museum Association.

Tim and Sue, his wife of 31 years, lived on Park Point, the long peninsula that separates Lake Superior from Superior Bay. They raised two children, Paul (Krystyn) and Jennifer (Jason) Gray and also had two grandchildren plus a third expected in December.

Cheerful, upbeat, witty, enthusiastic, Tim had an infectious personality. Some people said he filled their days with sunshine. It was sunny the afternoon he died, falling out of a boat while apparently seeking, as he always was, the right angle, the right light, the right shot. Few were surprised when it rained the next morning.

# # #

The Coast Guard cutter Sundew started to break up the ice in the Duluth harbor today (Wednesday, March 12, 2003).

Our 'spring' in Duluth this year has attracted some attention. Click here for an article from the New York Times, (March 9, 2003- note -does require you to sign up for NYT on line for free before you can read the article) ...

and from the Weather Channel (today).

At right, the Dutch flagged Andromeda paid her second visit to the port, this time discharging wood pulp at the Port Terminal. (December 10, 2001)

Based on records kept since the opening of the Duluth Ship Canal in 1871, the four billionth ton of port cargo was loaded aboard the Walter J. McCarthy Jr. on Friday, November 9, 2001.

At left, Captain Larry Smyth accepts the Fourth Billionth Ton recognition award from Port Authority representative Ray Skelton while Fred Shusterich, president of Superior's Midwest Energy Resources Company and Port Authority representative Ron Johnson hold up a sampling of the coal representing the award-winning ton.. (more)

Two world-traveling sisters, the Greek vessels Ivi and Ira, met today (Tuesday, August 28, 2001) in the Port of Duluth-Superior for the first time in their 22 years of frequent (but separate) stops here.

The Ivi (left) arrived around noon at Superior's Cenex Harvest States grain facility for about 18,000 metric tons of corn destined for Algeria. The Ira (right) arrived shortly after noon at Duluth's Cargill facility for about 12,000 metric tons of spring wheat and 6,000 metric tons of durum wheat destined for Italy.

The James R. Barker started the 2001 shipping season for Duluth Superior when she moved out of the ice of the harbor and into clear water on Saturday afternoon around 5:14. She loaded coal at the Midwest Energy coal dock, where she spent the winter break. She will return to the Twin Ports on Tuesday, March 20.

The Canadian Progress arrives Duluth to load coal at Midwest Energy in Superior.

The second of two ships bringing several enormous pieces of equipment built in Japan and destined for Canada via record-setting rail shipments arrived in the Port of Duluth-Superior Thursday, December 7, aboard the Dutch vessel Fairlift.

The unique Rotterdam-based vessel arrived under the Duluth Aerial Lift Bridge at 11:45 p.m. She proceeded to Duluth's Clure Public Marine Terminal with equipment destined for the Athabasca Oil Sands Project, a $3.5 billion oil sands mine, extraction and upgrading development currently under construction in northern Alberta. (more)

An interesting shipment of two pieces of a stone crusher manufactured in Pennsylvania and destined for Northern Alberta arrived in Port Monday, November 27, onboard a tug/barge. One of the equipment pieces was on a special 12-axle truck which itself was on the barge. The crusher parts, manufactured by McLanahan Fabrication, Holidaysburg, Pa., were transported via truck to Erie, Pa., where one piece was driven directly onto the 107-foot long Dawes Marine BMI 105 barge.

The other piece of equipment was transferred to the barge by crane, then the Tug Sea Chief transported the barge to the Port of Duluth-Superior. Mullen Trucking, Inc., Aldersyde, Alberta, provided both the heavy-load truck that was on the barge and an additional 12-axle truck that met the shipment in Duluth. Lake Superior Warehousing Co., Inc., transferred the second piece of the crusher onto the additional truck, and both of the 86-ton pieces continued on to their final destination of Fort McMurry, Alberta, fur use in an oil sands recovery project.

Click here for slides of the Sabina, (left) a recent visitor to the Twin Ports. Below, the  Vaasaborg  was in Duluth discharging wood pulp at the Port Terminal recently. She then moved over to General Mills to load beet pulp pellets for Spain.

Under a cloudy sky, the Dutch flagged Stellanova entered the Duluth harbor on Friday afternoon, October 13, 2000. (more)

Above, the Columbus is departing Duluth on Thursday evening, September 7. She will be returning to Duluth on Sunday, September 17.

At left, the C. Columbus is moving from the Murphy Oil fuel dock at the Port Terminal to the DECC dock, where she stayed until her departure time of 6 PM.

The M/V Peonia arrived Duluth at 00:45 on Sunday, April 16, 2000. She is the first vessel arriving at Lake Superior Warehousing Co., Inc., in the year 2000.

The M/V Peonia at berth #1, Clure Public Marine Terminal, Duluth, MN, on April 17, 2000. Below, a steel coil weighing approximately 40,000 pounds (18.144 M/T) is shown coming over the side. This steel is a very special product which is not manufactured in the United States. Lower right, longshoremen Brian Pirkola (l) and Don Sazama (r) are shown in the hold of the M/V Peonia hooking steel coils and moving dunnage during the discharge.