IMMEDIATE RELEASE             April 11, 2003

Duluth, Minn., U.S.A.—The Port of Duluth-Superior's 2003 St. Lawrence Seaway/Great Lakes navigation season officially opened at 11:30 a.m. Friday, April 11, with the arrival of the Norwegian-flagged Menominee.

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 Jim Herder of Crystal, Minn., who guessed an arrival time of 11:11 a.m. He received a weekend getaway to Duluth, including hotel accommodations, meals and passes to local attractions.

The Menominee carried about 1,800 metric tons of German lumber for discharge at Innovative Pine Technologies/Lake States Lumber’s newly completed lumber remanufacturing and distribution facility located at Duluth’s Clure Public Marine Terminal. Terminal operator Lake Superior Warehousing Co., Inc., discharged the lumber at its Berth No. 4. The Menominee was then scheduled to travel light to Three Rivers, Quebec, to load wood pulp destined for Northern Europe.

Lakes States entered a long-term lease agreement with the Port Authority in 2002 for a nine-plus acre waterfront parcel for construction of the facility and for land to be used for outdoor storage and material staging for the lumber, which Lake States distributes to numerous Upper Midwest outlets.

A general cargo vessel built in 1967 at Lindholmens Varv Shipyard, Goteborg, Sweden, the Menominee was commanded by Captain Kai Oestensvik. Great Lakes-European Shipping, Bergen, owns the vessel, and the local agent was Guthrie-Hubner, Inc.

The Menominee, one of two vessels that delivered Duluth-Superior's first European lumber imports in late 2001, also marked last year’s first oceangoing vessel arrival with an April 2 visit to the Clure Terminal with lumber.

U.S. and Canadian Seaway officials delayed the 2003 opening of the Welland Canal and Montreal-Lake Ontario sections of the system from March 25 until March 31 due to harsh ice conditions in several Great Lakes locations. The Menominee, which entered the Seaway system April 5, discharged about 3,500 metric tons of lumber in Toledo, Ohio, before traveling to Duluth.

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.

Great Lakes ships were on the move in the Twin Ports by March 23 this year with the departure of three Great Lakes Fleet vessels—the Edgar B. Speer, Roger Blough and Edwin H. Gott—each of which had wintered here and were traveling to Two Harbors to load iron ore pellets destined for Gary, Ind. The Fleet’s Presque Isle departed March 24, also for Two Harbors to load iron ore for the same destination. The four vessels were the first downbound passages through the locks at Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., which opened to vessel traffic March 25.

Canada Steamship Lines’ Frontenac opened the Port’s 2003 Great Lakes commercial navigation season on March 29 as the first inbound ship from the Soo Locks. The Frontenac fueled at Murphy Oil USA, Inc.’s, Duluth Marine Terminal, shifted to Duluth’s Hallett Dock No. 5 to discharge about 3,500 metric tons of salt, shifted again to Duluth’s C. Reiss Terminal to unload an additional 15,500 tons of salt, and then traveled to Superior’s Burlington Northern Santa Fe taconite facility for about 24,390 metric tons of iron ore pellets for Hamilton, Ont.
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CONTACT: Lisa Marciniak, Port Promotion Manager, phone 218-727-8525

More Press Releases, 2003