Visitor Center is simply a boatwatcher's paradise

Ships don't come to see tourists, but tourists do come to see ships, and for 30 years now sightseers have been pouring into the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center — literally by the millions.

Thom Holden took the helm in 2000.

Perched next to the Duluth Ship Canal, Aerial Lift Bridge and Lake Walk at the Harbor's Canal Park, the Center is a boatwatcher's paradise that offers an up close and personal view of vessels entering and leaving the Port.

The Lake Superior basin's most popular attraction, the admission-free, year-round Center draws more than 400,000 people annually. In June 2002 it celebrated its 12 millionth visitor.

Ralph Knowlton, then a key member of the Duluth Corps staff, laid much of the groundwork for the establishment of the museum in Canal Park. He personally lobbied Minnesota Rep. John Blatnik until he gained the congressional support necessary for federal funding through the Corps of Engineers' budget.

Ralph Knowlton (center) was a key figure in establishing the Center.

Young visitors keep the energy level high, while the crafty mariner in a replica ship’s cabin keeps a cool head.

A portion of funding for the Center came through Ladybird Johnson's national beautification efforts and the Highway Beautification Act of 1965 to enhance blighted industrial areas of the community. Before the Corps decided to add the museum to its existing offices, Canal Park was primarily a waterfront industrial and warehouse district.

Mr. Knowlton headed the Citizens Advisory Committee appointed by the Corps district engineer in St. Paul to scout for candidates for the director's job. C. Patrick Labadie accepted the position in 1973, and he served as director until his retirement in 2000.

"I remember rushing to install exhibits for the opening," said Mr. Labadie.

"My wife, June, and I were assisted for about two weeks by Ralph Knowlton, Bob Brown, then chief operator of the Aerial Lift Bridge, and by a secretary from the Corps Duluth Area Office. We had three or four ship models at the time and a handful of shipwreck artifacts, but we put up a series of photo enlargements from my own collection, covered up empty wall space with big house-flags and opened to the public," he said.

The Center became popular quickly, with more than a million visitors passing through its doors during the first three seasons. It was expanded in 1978-79 to a modern, two-story facility that allowed for new exhibits featuring information on the history of Lake Superior, the shipping activity of the Twin Ports and the work of the Corps throughout the region.

A multiple-use program room was added on the lower level, greatly expanding the ability to handle school and community groups. Programming grew from just a handful to several dozen on topics, all related to the Center's mission of "telling the story of Great Lakes shipping from canoes to super-carriers."

In 1980, a U.S. Army Corps reorganization assigned the Center to the Detroit District. The Center was re-christened the "Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center" on July 1, 1997, the same date marking the arrival of its 10 millionth visitor.

Visitors today can check vessel arrival and departure times displayed on television monitors both inside and outside the Center. The times are also recorded on a Boatwatchers' hotline, which receives an average of 600 calls daily.

While waiting for the main attractions to glide by in the adjacent canal, visitors can step back in time into life-sized rooms depicting the bridge of a lake carrier, cabins aboard an 1870 schooner, a turn-of-the-century lake steamer and a 1905 passenger cabin showing second-class accommodations.

Additional attractions include a massive steam engine, working radar and dozens of the finest scale ship models in the Midwest.

Exhibits and programs now being offered by the Center include the 200th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark expedition and the restoration of a 5th Order Fresnal lens from a lighthouse on the south pier of the Duluth Ship Canal.

The non-profit Association makes possible the numerous activities and public programs offered by the Center, as well as specific acquisitions through the generosity of its membership and tax deductible contributions.

Long-term commitments for the Association, which tries to raise about $30,000 a year for the Center via raffles, membership dues, donations and other fund-raisers, include the funding and support of Gales of November, a forum blending the themes of shipwreck diving and our maritime heritage, continuation of the Evening Program Lecture Series, “Cruise of a Lifetime” fundraisers and the publication of the Nor’Easter, a Lake Superior history journal.

“Through the non-profit Association we have been able to develop outstanding exhibits along with an extensive library of maritime reference materials,” said Thom Holden, who has worked for the Corps at the Center since 1977 and was named its director in 2000, succeeding Mr. Labadie.

“The reference collection contained so many items that it finally had to be transferred to the University of Wisconsin-Superior’s Hill Library for better care and more public accessibility,” said Mr. Holden.

The Corps recently acknowledged the Association’s dedication by awarding it the prestigious Regional Chief of Engineers Excellence in Interpretive Partnership Award. “I wish to recognize the Lake Superior Marine Museum Association for the tremendous support it has provided to our staff at the Visitor Center for these 30 years. This is the oldest continuing cooperating association within the Corps of Engineers,” said Lt. Colonel Thomas Mag-ness, Commander of the Army Corps of Engineers Detroit District, who presided over the award ceremony. “I further congratulate Association President Bruce Von Riedel and the members of the Association and staff at the Visitor Center for this collaborative effort,” he said.

Mr. Von Riedel, a general construction contractor and unabashed boat-lover since the age of two, has served as president of the 500-member Association since January 2001.

“Congratulations are in order for all of our Association members past and present, to Ralph Knowlton for his undaunted efforts to get the visitor center built and opened back in 1973, to current Visitor Center Director Thom Holden and to former Director Patrick Labadie, for whom we all owe a great deal of the success of the Association and the Visitor Center,” said Mr. VonRiedel.