North Star Port

Superior sayonara Ship movements did halt briefly in Duluth- Superior after the Leon Fraser sailed with iron ore on Jan. 27, 1975 —18 days later than the previous end-of- season record—however, the ore docks in Two Harbors, Minnesota, remained active, fed by the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railway. Despite a "near normal" allotment of freezing-degree days, ice had only just begun solidifying on Lake Superior's open waters, so it wasn't yet a serious impediment to shipping. Emboldened by the favorable conditions and a record- late closure in 1974, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers agreed to keep the Soo Locks open and U.S. Steel announced that it would continue shipping as long as the weather permitted. Cutting a steady procession to and from Two Harbors, the U.S. Steel sextet took advantage of Mother Nature's per- missive streak through February, even- tually shifting to the MacArthur Lock when the Poe Lock shuttered for repairs on Feb. 22, 1975. Short slumber On Feb. 26, 1975, the Duluth News Tribune carried a front-page banner photo of a rel- atively ice-free harbor. The headline: "Ear- liest interlake navigation season looms." Legendary reporter Dick "Scoop" Pome- roy, who moonlighted on the docks as a linehander, deemed it the lightest cover- ing of lake ice in years. He predicted, cor- rectly, that Duluth-Superior would open to shipping in about a week, which would be the port's earliest opening ever. "Marine circles in the Twin Ports began buzzing over those prospects Tuesday, with hopes heightened by a virtually ice-free Lake Superior and the open water in the harbor steadily grow- ing," wrote Pomeroy. Aided by an icebreaking blitz from U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Mariposa and bub- bler systems near the Blatnik Bridge and at Fraser Shipyards, the season opened March 6 with the Leon Fraser arriving for maintenance after her working winter. Eleven days later, the Thomas W. Lamont sailed from Duluth-Superior as its first departure of the new campaign. "Still operating are six vessels of the U.S. Steel fleet, which have proved that a 12-month season is possible on the Great Lakes," reported the Duluth News Tribune. And now, the weather Lake Superior ice coverage peaked at 60-70 percent in the winter of 1975, according to data from the NOAA Great Lakes Environ- mental Research Laboratory (GLERL). "Undoubtedly, the relatively mild ice season facilitated the year-round ship- ping effort," wrote GLERL researcher George Leshkevich, who documented a second consecutive winter of low ice cov- erage and year-round ship movements on Lake Superior in 1976 before a string of three straight heavy-ice winters battered ship hulls and terminated the trend. Despite the setback, mid-decade suc- cesses helped prove what shipping inter- ests had been saying for years: Seasonal closure of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway System could be challenged, avoided even, with the right attitude, equip- ment and a little help from Mother Nature. Support from Great Lakes governors also helped the cause. Minnesota's Wen- dell Anderson called winter navigation "vital" to an expanding world market; Pennsylvania Governor Milton Shapp deemed it "a logical step toward the greater utilization of this vital waterway." Studies indicated that even a one- month extension to Jan. 31 would yield a 5.3 benefit-to-cost ratio. A shift to year- round shipping projected a whopping 7.1 ratio. The U.S. Department of Commerce estimated that year-round shipping on the Great Lakes would add almost $1 bil- lion in labor earnings by 2020 across an 11-state study area. DULUTHPORT.COM | 11 2000 2010 2020 2000s: 255.6 days 2010s: 253.6 days 2020s so far: 258 days 2014 was plagued by extremely heavy ice coverage, leading to one of the latest first saltie arrivals ever. 1990s: 252.7 days HIS WINTER marks the 50th anniversary of the Great Lakes' first-ever year-round navigation season. Encouraged by comparatively mild ice conditions early in 1975, the Soo Locks never completely closed and commercial shipping never completely stopped, even as the Minnesota Vikings lost a second consecutive Super Bowl in January, Benny Parsons won the Daytona 500 in February and the world cham- pion Oakland Athletics opened spring training in March. Making the feat even more surprising, it was set against a crushing economic downturn in the United States that pummeled manufacturing and the automotive sector. American GDP plummeted in the latter half of 1974, unem- ployment spiked and inflation rates reached double digits. Despite those stagflation headwinds, the Great Lakes Fleet of U.S. Steel continued undaunted, hauling iron ore across Lake Superior with six vessels throughout a full 365 days of continuous service. 2023 ranked as the longest oceangoing season in history: 277 days.

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