Just a pinch of salt? By Julie Zenner If you have done any winter driving, you know the white-knuckled terror of approaching an icy curve or intersection while praying that your steel-belted radials find something to grip. In moments like that, there are few sights as welcome as the flashing lights of a highway department truck spreading reassurance — and a healthy dose of road salt.
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Low-profile supplier
of salt and lime products |
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| It is hard to grasp the sheer volume, but state, county, and municipal crews in the Lake Superior region use hundreds of thousands of tons of salt each winter to de-ice roads and highways.
Much of this tonnage passes through Cutler-Magner Company’s Duluth water-front facility. Before, during and after a substantial winter storm, it is typical to find 40 to 50 trucks lined up on Railroad Street, waiting to transport loads of salt to communities across Minnesota, Wisconsin and North Dakota. Cutler-Magner is among the oldest locally owned businesses in the Duluth-Superior Port, yet few people recognize and appreciate its importance. This low-profile supplier of salt and lime products dates back to the early 1880s, when founders recognized the Twin Ports harbor and its developing transportation net-work as an ideal location for a company handling these essential products.
Since the early days, Cutler-Magner has utilized cargo space on inbound bulk carriers to transport raw materials from Great Lakes mines to its Duluth salt processing plant and lime production facility in Superior (CLM Corporation). Finished products leave the Twin Ports by truck or rail, often providing return loads for over-land haulers who have delivered grain or other commodities for shipping on Lake Superior. This efficiency helps Cutler-Magner keep transportation costs low and prices competitive in a business climate where the low bidder usually wins. Stockpiling the right amount of de-icing salt to last through an unpredictable Northland winter requires planning and luck. Self-unloading Great Lakes freighters deposit huge piles of de-icing salt at Cutler-Magner’s Duluth property beginning in mid-summer after most govern-mental units have completed their bidding and ordering processes. The company has extensive indoor and outdoor salt storage capabilities and can stockpile up to 100,000 short tons of de-icing salt at its site. The salt is stored outdoors under enormous tarps, which protect it from the elements. Cutler-Magner draws from this supply during the winter months when demand for road salt is high and the Port is closed. This 1998-1999 season, Cutler-Magner will move additional quantities of road salt through its facility because the Mississippi River system has been unable to respond to demands in the Twin Cities metro area. The excess inventory is being stored on property leased from the Duluth Economic Development Authority. After a nearly snow-free November and December, company officials were hoping winter would materialize enough to deplete supplies. (They got what they were hoping for, at least in southern and central Minnesota: Minneapolis recorded its third-snowiest January ever.) Although highway de-icing salt is the bulk of Cutler-Magner’s business by tonnage, in terms of jobs, salt processing and packaging are more important. Inside the plant, evaporated and rock salt is dried, pressed into blocks or pellets, packaged, and loaded onto trucks for water softening and agricultural uses. Between Duluth salt operations, company headquarters, and the Superior lime plant, Cutler-Magner and CLM employ 75 people in the Twin Ports. Salt and lime may not be glamorous commodities, but they are critical to the region’s health and economic vitality. Cutler-Magner and CLM products are used in paper production, power plant pollution control, municipal and industrial water and sewage treatment, industrial and residential water softening, road stabilization, steel production, and ore processing. At least two Iron Range taconite companies are making a value-added pellet that contains finely ground limestone processed by CLM in Superior. CLM built its fine-grind facility three years ago to meet changing market demands. The company also produces calcium oxide, commonly known as quicklime, and high calcium hydrated lime, which is used in water, waste water, environmental, industrial and construction applications. Like its Duluth-based parent company, CLM has impressive storage capacity and can stockpile 500,000 short tons of limestone over 10 acres. It requires specialized equipment to handle this volume of raw material, including a massive man-trolley bridge crane that picks up limestone from anywhere within the storage area and transports it to conveyors feeding the rotary kilns. Large silos on the Superior site hold 6,000 short tons of finished lime. This inventory helps CLM meet fluctuations in customer demand. Both Cutler-Magner and CLM face issues common to other industries today — increased competition, consolidations and mergers gripping their markets. But perhaps their most imminent challenge is the squeeze of an expanding Twin Ports’ tourist trade. Duluth’s newly rebuilt Railroad Street has made Cutler-Magner’s facility more accessible to customers and suppliers, yet it serves as a constant reminder that tourist developments are closing in on a traditionally industrial waterfront area. Only one business, Lafarge Corporation, now stands between Cutler-Magner and property earmarked by the City of Duluth for recreational and retail development. Superior’s waterfront development plans are also heavily dependent on tourism. Company officials believe that Port industries and tourism must learn to co-exist. Waterfront industries like Cutler-Magner built Duluth-Superior into Minnesota’s world Port. And, ultimately, that’s what tourists come to see. Julie Zenner is a writer and account representative for Carlson and Kirwan Advertising, Duluth. All photos by Jeff Frey & Associates, Duluth.
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