It's 2100

When we asked people around the Port to tell us what they thought Duluth-Superior and the Great Lakes would look like a hundred years from now, this is what they said.

I have heard it said that the hall of fame for 100-year predictors is a large empty room. Knowing that, it is with great pleasure that I discuss the future:

I see highly efficient ships with two or three crewmembers remotely operating them from shoreside locations. Ray Skelton's nautical terms [see North Star Port, Fall 1999] will mean little to them, since "backing down" by then will mean backing out of their cubicles to go home at the end of the shift.

The ships will basically be huge Lego-type creations. Cargo will arrive in containers, and these containers will be snapped together to form the vessel, allowing the ships to be optimized based on cargo requirements. Once the cargo is bundled into the shipping package, a propulsion module will be attached - and away it will go.

Of course the ships will run 365 days a years and on something other than fossil fuels. I'm thinking a modified flux capacitor drive system. As for ice, the ships will either ride above it or cut through it with bow lasers. It will all be neat and orderly, never an accident or a threat to the environment.

In fact, my job won't exist, but that's okay - as long as the cargo gets there in an hour, no one will complain.

William J. Diehl / Commander, USCG / Captain of the Port

I see nothing but positive growth for our Port, and a steady upswing in commercial traffic and an ever-expanding horizon for showing visitors our growing Port. Tourists will always be interested in ships and sailors from around the world.

Richard Langlee / Manager / Vista Fleet

Through the leadership of the Duluth Seaway Port Authority, hard work, cooperation and the vision of all interested parties, 100 years from now the Port of Duluth-Superior most likely will look like a much more modern, high-volume Port than today.

Capt. Sencer Under
Senior Surveyor / National Cargo Bureau, Inc.

Throughout the next century, the Port of Duluth-Superior will continue to serve as our transportation hub, moving commodities and other products to and from resource-rich Northeastern Minnesota.

What likely will be different, however, is that the Northeastern Minnesota resources - be they mineral, wood and wood fiber or derivatives thereof - will include more value-added products in the mix. To maintain global competitiveness over the next several decades, materials shipped out of our Port will, by necessity, demand a higher price and provide a greater return to the state.

Ann Glumac / President / Iron Mining Association of Minnesota

The Port will still function primarily in the handling of today's four major bulk commodities: coal, iron ore, limestone and grain. Low-sulfur Western coal or a beneficiated (Btu enhanced) derivative will have attained the Port's No. 1 commodity service early in the century. Taconite pellets will have been replaced by a metallic (reduced) iron product.

Fred Shusterich / President / Midwest Energy Resources Company

The first assumption is that 100 years from now cargo will still move by ship and not by some currently unimaginable alternative (slurried ore, coal, limestone, grain by pipeline? Through space? "Beam me up, Toivo!").

This also assumes that steel continues to be produced, that low-sulfur coal is used for energy, that people still have quaint habits such as eating.

This, too, hopes and trusts that the Great Lakes navigation system is enlarged, that year-round shipping is environmentally acceptable (we know it's technologically possible now), that we don't sell our fresh water and that our good citizenry hasn't elected to convert the industrial waterfront into parks, playgrounds and nature preserves.

Accepting those assumptions - a leap of faith in itself - the Port of Duluth-Superior should continue to be essential to our region's economic competitiveness and well-being.

But even this begs another question: If we continue to accelerate productivity as we have in the past 20 years, how many people will be required to crew the ships and work the docks? One maritime prophet says future ships will be operated by a captain and a dog - and the dog will be there to bite the captain if he touches anything.

Davis Helberg / Executive Director / Duluth Seaway Port Authority

New Seaway system will be operational, permitting Panamax size vessels access to the Great Lakes, and Duluth in particular. Grain will be the No. 1 cargo. Western coal will continue to move to eastern markets. International cruise ships will visit Great Lakes ports, which show off the spectacular waters of the Seaway system. The Great Lakes waterway system will operate 12 months a year, providing reliable package and container service from Duluth. The advent of cheaper energy will result in the production of enhanced iron ore across the Iron Range. Minimills will be built and steel coils will be shipped out of the Port to lower lake manufacturing markets. Recreational development will dominate much of the existing commercial Port.

Adolph N. Ojard / General Manager / USS Great Lakes Fleet, Inc., and Duluth Missabe & Iron Range Railway Company

It's really difficult to predict what the Port might look like in a hundred years. Technology is moving so quickly that most of us outside the scientific community can't begin to guess what the future will bring.

Six or eight 1,200-foot, 100,000-ton bulk carriers probably will comprise the whole Upper Lakes fleet. The Seaway locks will probably be limited to 800 feet with 36-foot drafts for grain traffic.

Many people prefer to stick with the system they know.

Ships will be highly efficient, with minimal crews or no crews at all; they will be automated, totally standardized and modular in construction.

Docks also will be completely automated. Cargo handling methods will be revolutionized by technology that hasn't even begun emerging today, but it's safe to say that dozens of small, specialized docks will disappear in favor of two or three very large bulk facilities.

Most of the waterfront will be devoted to public green spaces and multiple-residence dwellings.

C. Patrick Labadie / Director / Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center

By the year 2100, our harbor will be a busy place with large and small vessels year-round. They will range from pleasure boats, hover craft, commuter ferries (with local and long-range service), passenger/cruise ships and specialized cargo ships. Cargo will consist of all types of freight, from traditional bulk products to package freight and all products in between.

Super high-tech navigation as well as other yet-to-be discovered technologies will change the Great Lakes/Seaway maritime industry both for freight and passenger travel. All this will happen with water and air quality not being adversely affected. Harbor and channel traffic will be high but will be managed smoothly by advanced technology.

The citizenry of this area will be much more in tune to maritime transportation, and more people will be employed in the industry and use it on a regular basis.

Ronald L. Johnson / Trade Development Director / Duluth Seaway Port Authority

While still not 12 months, the shipping season will creep ever closer to that goal, with Port tonnage showing a steady increase. There will be an increased reliance on rail transportation of both freight and people. Tourism will dominate the scene.

The area south of the Aerial Bridge will be hot. Elevator Row will still be Elevator Row, however some large steel structures may overpower the scene of the present concrete.

Port officials will still be commenting on the Present Era at the Duluth Seaway Port Authority, which by this time will have yet another new name. The Port and waterfront will still be a fantastic place to work, and Duluth still a wonderful place to live and raise a family.

Thomas E. Grosser / Port Authority Commissioner and Manager / Duluth & Nerstrand Safety Compliance Coordinator / AGP Grain Limited

Looking back from 2100
In hindsight, it was almost impossible to predict the beneficial effects that the accelerated global warming of the 21st century would have on the Duluth-Superior Port. The climate change that began late in the 20th century created year-round navigation on Lake Superior, and the warm summers and ice-free winters resulted in Duluth-Superior's population exceeding the one million mark in the 2070 census.

The rise of Minnesota and North Dakota to No. 1 and No. 2 in corn and soybean production in the North American Federation increased grain shipments through the Twin Ports 20-fold during the century.

Following the Republic of Mexico's purchase of Canada in 2041, Duluth-Superior and Nuevo Puerto Arturo on Lake Superior's North Shore became the two major grain ports in the world. Much of that corn went to the MexCan Republic's tortilla processing complex at Isla Sieta on the Rio Santo Lawrencia.

The MexCan deepening of the Santo Lawrencia to 75 feet and the construction of the twin 2,100-foot locks at Sault Santa Maria in the 2040s, coupled with the blasting of the Mesabi-Mississippi Canal through the Twin Ports, made Duluth-Superior the busiest iron ore port in the world by 2060.

Finally, Duluth-Superior's cruise ship business - with both Europe and the southern ports of the North American Federation - increased exponentially during the century.

The annual Bass Angler Sportsman Society's Lake Superior Tournament in May attracted thousands of anglers from the member states of the Federation, including the Republic of Mexico, the MexCan Republic, Nuevo Mexico and the United States; the 19.6 pound largemouth bass caught off the Arthur M. Clure Port Terminal during the May 2096 tournament is still a world's record.

William O. Beck / Former Port Authority Commissioner and co-owner of Lakeside Writers' Group, Indianapolis, Ind.