Spirit Valley

By Brooks Johnson bjohnson@duluthnews.com

This is the beating heart of West Duluth; the commercial capital; the boulevards of business; streetlights, people.

Since West Duluth was its own city for a minute (it became part of Duluth in 1894), a central business district grew naturally along Grand and Central avenues as industrial and residential growth took off in the bustling burb.

A city publication from 1974 stated that West Duluth “was the result of geographic necessity” for locating expansive industries: “Here were established firms manufacturing engines, mill and mine machinery, woolen goods, beer, lumber, boilers, furniture, bricks and office machinery — the firms generating new exports from the city’s local economy and the all-important opportunity for new breakaway firms which created new products and work.”

The closure of many of those businesses, the arrival of Interstate 35 and the removal of old rail lines has repeatedly threatened the community, but it wouldn’t stay down.

“West Duluth’s industrial, commercial and residential districts have been at times crushed, moved, surrounded, carved into pieces,” reads a 1994 book celebrating the centennial of West Duluth’s union with Duluth, “and yet continue not only to survive, but are commanding the respect and admiration of surrounding communities for the degree of stamina, pride, resourcefulness, flexibility and foresight shown by West Duluth, its residents and its community leaders.”