DULUTH

city, seat of St. Louis county, northeastern Minnesota, U.S., and a major inland port on Lake Superior at the mouth of the St. Louis River opposite Superior, Wis. Elevation is abrupt, rising 600 to 800 ft (180 to 240 m) above the level of the lake in high rock bluffs, once the shoreline of glacial Lake Duluth. Along the crest a 30-mi (48-km) skyline boulevard commands an excellent view of both city and harbour. The combined DuluthSuperior harbour results from a natural breakwater formed by deposits left where river and lake meet. This resulting 9-mi strip, Minnesota Point, or Park Point, extends toward Wisconsin Point, separating St. Louis Bay from Lake Superior. The narrow channel between the two points forms the Superior harbour entrance, and a dredged 300-ft ship canal across the Minnesota Point, spanned by an aerial lift bridge, forms the Duluth harbour entrance. The combined harbour is the western terminus of the St. Lawrence Seaway and, although icebound during the winter months, it ranks second only to New York, among U.S. ports, in tonnage handled. Through it are shipped: iron ore from the Mesabi, Cuyuna, and Vermilion ranges; coal from Lake Erie ports; grain from the Red River Valley, Manitoba, and the Dakotas; and crude oil from Canada refined at Wrenshall, Minn., and at Superior. Harbour facilities include coal docks, grain elevators, and iron-ore docks (which receive ore and taconite from processing plants in northeastern Minnesota). Industry is highly diversified. Tourism, merchandising, conventions, and a military air-defense installation at Duluth International Airport are economic assets. It is the site of a branch of the University of Minnesota, established in 1947; the College of St. Scholastica, founded in 1912; Chisholm Museum (natural history); and Tweed Museum of Art. It also supports a symphony orchestra and playhouse. Duluth is the headquarters of Superior National Forest. The area, occupied originally by the Sioux and then by the Ojibwa Indians, was visited in the 17th century by French voyageurs including Daniel Greysolon, sieur DuLhut (or Du Luth), for whom Duluth was named. The fur-trading post of Fond du Lac, on the St. Louis River, was controlled by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1692, the North West Company in 1793, and by John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company from 1817 until 1854. Another post on Minnesota Point was established in 1852 by George R. Stuntz, surveyor of the MinnesotaWisconsin boundary. The following year brought many settlers in search of copper deposits. Duluth was laid out in 1856 and incorporated as a city in 1870, with a population of 3,131; was relegated to a village in 1877; and was reincorporated in 1887. Railway extension into the northwestern wheat region, increased lake commerce following the cutting of the Duluth Ship Canal in 1871, and development of the iron ranges brought increasing prosperity. Pop. (1990) city, 85,493; Duluth MSA, 239,971.