IMMEDIATE RELEASE              April 3, 2002

Duluth, Minn., U.S.A.-The Port of Duluth-Superior's 2002 St. Lawrence Seaway/Great Lakes navigation season officially opened Tuesday, April 2, with the 7:54 p.m. arrival of the Norwegian-flagged general cargo vessel Menominee.
The Menominee, which entered the Seaway system March 26, carried about 4,700 metric tons of German lumber for discharge at Duluth's Clure Public Marine Terminal.

The winner of the annual "First Ship Contest" sponsored by the Duluth Seaway Port Authority, Duluth Convention and Visitors Bureau and 92 KQRS, Minneapolis, was Michael Sietsema of South St. Paul, Minnesota, who guessed an arrival time of 8:19 p.m. He received a weekend getaway to Duluth, including hotel accommodations, meals and passes to local attractions.

The Menominee, one of two vessels that delivered Duluth-Superior's first European lumber imports late last season, was unloaded at the public terminal by Lake Superior Warehousing Co., Inc. The cargo was distributed to Upper Midwest outlets by Lake States Lumber, Aitkin, Minn.

Lake States is affiliated with Innovative Pine Technologies, a Minnesota company which recently leased land from the Port Authority for development of a remanufacturing and distribution center at the public terminal.

A general cargo vessel built in 1967 at Lindholmens Varv Shipyard, Goteborg, Sweden, the Menominee is commanded by Captain Svein H. Solheim of Bergen, Norway. Great Lakes-European Shipping, Bergen, owns the vessel, and the local agent is Guthrie-Hubner, Inc.

The Port's earliest oceangoing vessel arrival since the 1959 opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway was April 1, 1995, with the arrival of the Indian vessel LT Argosy. Last year's April 4 arrival of the English-owned vessel Millenium Raptor at Superior's Cenex Harvest States grain marked the first full Seaway transit.

Intra-lake shipping activity in the Twin Ports began in 2002 with the March 21 departure of Interlake Steamship Company's Paul R. Tregurtha from Superior's Midwest Energy Resources Co. (MERC) with about 54,400 metric tons of coal for Marquette, Mich.

Interlake's Mesabi Miner opened the Port's 2002 Great Lakes commercial navigation season, arriving March 26 at MERC for about 51,000 metric tons of coal for St. Clair, Mich.

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CONTACT: Lisa Marciniak, Port Promotion Manager, phone 218-727-8525

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