Enthusiastic crowd greets the launch of the Pride

"Set against the backdrop of the key industries that helped build North America: iron and steel, forest products, grain and coal, Pride of the Inland Seas tells the fascinating tale of the development of the Twin Ports during three centuries of economic, technological, political and social change.… Any collaboration between Beck, Labadie and Helberg was certain to produce an excellent result, and this book is just that."

— Skillings Mining Review, October 2004

"Pride of the Inland Seas is a very special and enthusiastically recommended regional history."

_ Wisconsin Bookwatch, October 2004

"They nailed it. Beck and Labadie touch all the bases in the newest book to document the history of Duluth-Superior's world port."

The Senior Reporter, July 2004

Pride of the Inland Seas, an Illustrated History of the Port of Duluth-Superior, was launched to an enthusiastic crowd at a book signing in August at the Lake Superior Maritime Visitors Center in Duluth's Canal Park.

This 288-page hardcover book is the first comprehensive history written about the Great Lake's largest port. The Duluth Seaway Port Authority entered into an agreement in December 2001 with Afton Historical Society Press, Afton, Minn., to publish the book.

(From left) C. Patrick Labadie, Bill Beck and Afton Press Publisher Patricia Johnston were on hand to sign books at the launching of Pride of the Inland Seas.

It is available at or through national and regional book outlets as well as the Duluth Seaway Port Authority's website and the Lake Superior Marine Museum Association at www.lsmma.com.

The manuscript was written by one-time Port Authority President Bill Beck, now based in Indianapolis, Ind., and former Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center Director C. Patrick Labadie, now of Alpena, Mich. It was edited by former Duluth Port Director Davis Helberg.

Mr. Helberg launched the project with the Port Authority board's approval in the late 1990s, saying the book "will appeal to regional historians, scholars, maritime industry professionals, general readers and the ubiquitous marine buffs who line the shores from Duluth to the mouth of the St. Lawrence River,"

Mr. Beck, the chief author, has written nearly 30 company and organizational histories as well as literally hundreds of magazine and newspaper stories on trade and transportation. For Pride of the Inland Seas he interviewed about 50 local and national maritime personalities in addition to researching the Lake Superior Marine Museum's collection at the University of Wisconsin-Superior Library, the historical societies of St. Louis and Douglas Counties and numerous books, trade publications, newspapers and letters.

There was, in fact, so much valuable material accumulated that it couldn't be accommodated by the book's pages. Consequently, 20 additional stories have been made available on the Port Authority's website, www.duluthport.com. Companion stories include:

Building the Birch Bark Canoe
Ahmik
Captain Meade
Mr. Boeing's Canal
The Hulett Ore Unloader
The Rafting Era
The Lap of Luxury
Dredging: A Basic of Port Development
Casualties of War
The Triple Expansion Engine
A Trip Down the Lakes
The William A. Irvin
Launching the Quint Fleet
The Clure Terminal Rises from the Sand
Superior's First Seaway Ship
The Taconite Breakthrough
The Western Coal Boom
The Socrates
Salt, Sand and Stone
The Incan Superior