North Star Port

14 | NORTH STAR PORT | SPRING 2025 EARLY 80 VOLUNTEERS gathered April 22 under the Blatnik Bridge at Duluth's DNR Boat Launch for the 5th Annual Rice's Point Business Group Earth Day Cleanup. Event sponsors included Altec, Waste Management and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Participants represented a variety of businesses located on Rice's Point, the city's key waterfront industrial corridor. Working together, they cleaned nearly three miles of roadway on both sides and 2,000 feet of public shoreline. The Minnesota DNR provided equipment to assist with the cleanup, while Altec supplied lunch for volunteers. The Duluth Seaway Port Authority also played a role in coordinating the event. "It's a fun tradition and one of the many ways that these Rice's Point businesses dedicate resources to environmental stewardship," said Kate Ferguson, the Port Authority's director of trade and business development. "Our volunteers enjoy being outside for a day and collaborating on a community-minded project that is very different from their everyday tasks and roles. Sometimes the Earth Day weather makes it a challenge, but this year, the sun shined on us—literally—and no matter what, Earth Day is always a good day for our neighborhood." N Earth Day event puts Rice's Point in shipshape condition PORT LOGBOOK Representatives from throughout the Duluth-Superior maritime community gathered April 30 alongside the Duluth Ship Canal for an annual remembrance of tragedy and heroism. On April 30, 1967, three teenaged brothers—Eric, Arthur and Nathan Halverson of Duluth—were swept from the North Pier by massive waves during a spring storm. Responding to a distress call from local police, U.S. Coast Guardsmen Edgar Culbertson, Richard Callahan and Ronald Prei volunteered to work their way to the end of the ship canal in a search-and-rescue effort. "Linked together by a long rope, the trio struggled against huge seas, high winds and driving rain to the lighthouse at the end of the breakwater," according to the Duluth News Tribune. "They found no trace of the boys and had begun their return to shore when Culbertson was swept off the breakwater by a large wave. The other men were unable to pull him to safety because Callahan's wrist was broken (by the wave's force on Culbertson and the tether)." Callahan and Prei survived, but Culbertson did not, perishing in Lake Superior along with the Halverson brothers. In July 1967, a plaque in memory of Culbertson and the three broth- ers was unveiled on the North Pier. Duluth Mayor Ben Boo and City Councilman John Sheedy said it would "serve as a lasting memorial of the service Culbertson gave this city," and also "as a reminder of the Coast Guard's presence in Duluth since 1859." Four months after the plaque unveiling, the U.S. Coast Guard awarded its highest peacetime honor, the Coast Guard Medal, to Culbertson (posthumously), Callahan and Prei. In 2020, the Coast Guard commissioned a Sentinel Class cutter in Culbertson's honor. Locally, a group of maritime representatives led initially by the late Tom Mackay and Kevin Rofidal continue to memorialize the event on its anniversary. Joined by members of the Coast Guard, the group placed four roses near the plaque again this year, pay- ing tribute to those whose lives were changed by the tragedy. Culbertson, Halverson teens remembered Volunteers from the Rice's Point Business Group mustered April 22, 2025, under the Blatnik Bridge for their fifth annual Earth Day Cleanup. Beginning at 10 a.m., they scoured nearly three miles of roadway and 2,000 feet of public shoreline. PHOTOS / Kate Ferguson

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