A more prosperous Northern Minnesota

At the dawn of the 20th centure Duluth, Minnesota was considered to become the next Chicago. The Mesabi Iron mines produced most of the worlds iron ore, and Northern Minnesota became the start of what is known as the rust belt. My question is.. how can northern minnesota have a higher population and be more economically prosperous with a POD no earlier then 1900. In OTL, US Steel pulled out of Duluth and due to the steel glut in the 80's, the region declined. Duluth was forced to drop heavy industry and focus on tourism, today Duluth is stuggling. It was listed as a retirement bomb due to the fact that the city will be unable to fund the pensions of the retiring baby boomers...

I don't know how many people know anything about Northern Minnesota but i was thinking about doing a timeline so any comments would be very helpful:)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duluth,_MN
 

MacCaulay

Banned
Whoof. That's a hard one. I'm a huge fan of the Great Lakes, and you'll never find a bigger fan of Superior than me (I forget which city the Aquarium's in, but it ROCKS so much my wife and I drove there from the Apostle Islands on our honeymoon!).

This is gonna sound weird, cause it's really more about the whole Great Lake area, but Northern Minnesota would work. And this is the first time I've been able to voice it...

...I remember walking through the museum near Bayfield, Wisconsin, and they had tons of display about the Sea Lamprey, and how the thing got in through the canals they built to connect Lake Superior to the rest of the Great Lakes.

Now...the first canal was destroyed in the War of 1812. The second one was completed in the early 1860s. If the British had entered the US Civil War at any time, then the canal may very well had become a casualty of war. Let's just suppose that in the ensuing years, it took them awhile to get around to getting another canal put in.
And in those ensuing years, the Sea Lamprey ate the living shit out of everything in the other Great Lakes, leaving Superior as the only lake with a fishing industry.

Bam. Every state around Lake Superior is automatically a million times richer. The fishing industry survives because the Lamprey never gets in because the canal is never built because the British or Americans destroyed it during the Civil War.

Anyway...that's an idea I had a while ago. Feel free to fill in your own reason for why the canal never got rebuilt.
 
The core problem with Duluth is that it was overly reliant upon the production of iron ore and steel. While it developed other heavy industries, they were still largely reliant upon the US Steel plant. Your best bet for continued growth would be with the diversification of industry.

A possible seed POD could be Robber Baron James Hill establishing an endowment for a world class university in Duluth. The university becomes a center for industrial research and metallurgy. The results of such help attract branch offices/plants of other corporations such as Union Carbide, MMM and Westinghouse to Duluth. The rapid expansion of industry in term leads to a wealth of new service and retail businesses. By the start of WWII, Duluth and Superior have nearly 300,000 people between them. The war brings in new industries and further immigration from the great plains and Canada. The population finally peaks in the mid 60's and Duluth follows the course of other rust belt metropols, however the decline is somewhat mitigated by government assisstence from both Minnesota and Wisconsin. By 2009 the decline has largely ceased and Duluth is seen as potental site for hightech investment due to its relatively low wages, and educated population.
 
Whoof. That's a hard one. I'm a huge fan of the Great Lakes, and you'll never find a bigger fan of Superior than me (I forget which city the Aquarium's in, but it ROCKS so much my wife and I drove there from the Apostle Islands on our honeymoon!).


I think i know which museum you are talking about as I have been there when I was really little so sadly i don't remember the name of it either
:( Unless of course you are talking about the one in Duluth, in that case it's the Great Lakes Aquarium which really isn't anything special.

This is gonna sound weird, cause it's really more about the whole Great Lake area, but Northern Minnesota would work. And this is the first time I've been able to voice it...

...I remember walking through the museum near Bayfield, Wisconsin, and they had tons of display about the Sea Lamprey, and how the thing got in through the canals they built to connect Lake Superior to the rest of the Great Lakes.

Now...the first canal was destroyed in the War of 1812. The second one was completed in the early 1860s. If the British had entered the US Civil War at any time, then the canal may very well had become a casualty of war. Let's just suppose that in the ensuing years, it took them awhile to get around to getting another canal put in.
And in those ensuing years, the Sea Lamprey ate the living shit out of everything in the other Great Lakes, leaving Superior as the only lake with a fishing industry.

Bam. Every state around Lake Superior is automatically a million times richer. The fishing industry survives because the Lamprey never gets in because the canal is never built because the British or Americans destroyed it during the Civil War.

Anyway...that's an idea I had a while ago. Feel free to fill in your own reason for why the canal never got rebuilt.


This sounds like a good idea for a more important fishing industry in Lake Superior with limited butterflys. Another idea I was thinking of was perhaps China jumps on the capitalist bandwagon earlier and the USSR opens up in the 70's instead of the late 80's. This would lead to a greater demand for steel and other goods. And when the start of the Rust Belt prospers I believe the whole great lakes region would prosper.


The core problem with Duluth is that it was overly reliant upon the production of iron ore and steel. While it developed other heavy industries, they were still largely reliant upon the US Steel plant. Your best bet for continued growth would be with the diversification of industry.

A possible seed POD could be Robber Baron James Hill establishing an endowment for a world class university in Duluth. The university becomes a center for industrial research and metallurgy. The results of such help attract branch offices/plants of other corporations such as Union Carbide, MMM and Westinghouse to Duluth. The rapid expansion of industry in term leads to a wealth of new service and retail businesses. By the start of WWII, Duluth and Superior have nearly 300,000 people between them. The war brings in new industries and further immigration from the great plains and Canada. The population finally peaks in the mid 60's and Duluth follows the course of other rust belt metropols, however the decline is somewhat mitigated by government assisstence from both Minnesota and Wisconsin. By 2009 the decline has largely ceased and Duluth is seen as potental site for hightech investment due to its relatively low wages, and educated population.

This would be a good idea as these two things remain serious problems in Duluth today. Once U.S. Steel pulled out Duluth had to try to diversify its industry. It turned to tourism. Don't get me wrong tourism can net an area alot of money but it leaves little for the local population. Duluth has serious problems because it educates people from the surrounding areas and they move to the Twin Cties which currently is undergoing a boom because Duluth has no jobs.
 
I don't think mining towns get rich in this century. The Swedish equvivalents (Gällivare, Kiruna) isn't any impresive metropoles for example. Quite the opposite.
 

MacCaulay

Banned
I don't think mining towns get rich in this century. The Swedish equvivalents (Gällivare, Kiruna) isn't any impresive metropoles for example. Quite the opposite.

And THAT'S why I'm pushing for the Sea Lamprey!

God...I never thought I'd say that...
 
I don't think mining towns get rich in this century. The Swedish equvivalents (Gällivare, Kiruna) isn't any impresive metropoles for example. Quite the opposite.

Well Duluth was a mining town that turned into a steel town, it extended its life and size by quite a bit but hardly made it into a booming metropolis.
 

mowque

Banned
Saving the Rust Belt? As a member of that area (but in PA) i doubt anything will really save any area whose main focus is a primary source of resources. The money just isn't there. Fishing included.
 
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