Norwegian royalty visit prompts interview by MPR

If you're up and at 'em tomorrow morning, tune into Minnesota Public Radio Morning Edition with Cathy Wurzer between 7-9 am. (It's 100.5 on your FM dial in the Duluth area and may be somewhere else on the dial where you live.) Dan Kraker, local reporter for the Duluth station, interviewed me and others about Monday's visit to Duluth by King Harald V and Queen Sonja of Norway to, among other things, re-dedicate Enger Tower. As you know, I used a little tongue in cheek as I reflected on this visit in the spirit of the old rivalry between the various Scandinavian cultures of long ago. Kraker takes a look at how the city is responding to the royal visit, including my two cents.

Norsk royalty visit goes to head of local Norwegian citizens...

By Jim Heffernan

King Harald V & Queen Sonja 

I’m happy for all of the local Norwegians that King Harald V (motto: “Alt for Norge!”) and Queen Sonja of Norway are visiting Duluth next week.

Of course there will be no living with them after this (the locals, not the king and queen). If you thought (you think, don’t you?) the local Norwegians were an uppity bunch before this visit, well, what do you suppose this royal invasion will do to them?

Oh well, we’ll just have to live with it, for how long we don’t know. I think maybe until the second coming of You Know Who, but what do I know? I’m only a half-baked Swede calmly taking it all in from a well-calculated distance.

I will be nowhere near Duluth's Enger Tower when the royal couple rededicates it, even though I feel a special kinship with King Harald. He and I are close to the same age – he’s a little older, but not much. In the 1940s after World War II broke out, Childe Harald and his mother, Princess Martha, lived in the United States – at the White House with President and Mrs. Roosevelt and, at times, other guests like Winston “Win” Churchill. They had fled Norway when Germany invaded the country. (See historian Doris Kearns Goodwin’s excellent account of this in her book “No Ordinary Time.”)

At that very same time here in Duluth I was living in the yellow house in the West End with my Swedish mother (and Irish-German father and brother), where we entertained guests as well, including my Uncle Win (not short for Winston, but rather Winfield), who could imitate almost any European accent, especially Scandinavian, including, of course, Norwegian. What a stitch.

So you can see King Harald and I have some things in common, nationality not being one of them, but that’s OK. My Scandinavian heritage is on the Swedish side of the Baltic Peninsula where today good King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia hold forth on the throne and Greta Garbo is still dead.

Oh, how I long for the day that King Karl Gustaf  (they usually leave off the Roman numerals in second reference, Italy being so far away) and Queen Silvia would come to Duluth and rededicate, well, let’s see, oh, rededicate the Svithoid Hall in the West End, where local Swedish folk used to dance the schottische on Saturday night and deny it on Sunday in the Lutheran church. It’s upstairs of that auction place on 21^st Avenue West and Third Street, across from a vacant lot that could use a little sprucing up (attention Mayor Don Ness).

Now that would be a red-letter day in Duluth.

Addendum: Hey, I’m kidding, OK? I used to write newspaper columns about the competition between Duluth Swedes and Norwegians. This is in the spirit of that.

The Norwegians are coming...

Duluth's Enger Tower

It's almost here... the visit from Norway's royalty to re-dedicate Enger Tower on October 17th. (Read more about it in the Duluth News Tribune HERE.) King Harald V and Queen Sonja  of Norway will arrive for activities with local Norwegians and a re-dedication of Duluth's Enger Tower.

As you may remember from a previous post (read it HERE), I took the opportunity to climb Enger Tower coincidentally on the very date that it was originally dedicated by then Crown Prince Olav and his wife, Princess Martha of Sweden, 70 years before. That day I noticed the plaque adorning the inside of the tower wall commemorating the dedication 70 years ago.

Of course, since that June visit at Enger, the tower has undergone some needed structural improvements and efforts have been made to upgrade the tower and park (see HERE). If you have never visited visited Enger Tower and Park, you ought to. It's a gorgeous park on the top of Duluth's skyline and the vistas of lake Superior and our fair city are fantastic. It's a great place for a picnic too. Enger Tower also  has new lighting that shows it off in our evening skyline, thanks to a project from local Rotarians.

King Harald V was only two years old when his father, then Crown Prince Olav, and his mother, Princess Martha, came to Duluth for the original Enger Tower dedication. During WWII, Crown Prince Olav was forced to lead his government in exile and Princess Martha and their children (including Harald) lived for a while in the White House as guests of the Roosevelts. Much is written about Princess Martha during that era, especially in the Pulitzer Prize winning biographical account of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt on the home front in the war, "No Ordinary Time" by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Enger Tower: Duluth's landmark is lit again

Enger Tower–Duluth, Minnesota

Enger Tower, Duluth's famous landmark, is lit again! (See the picture of the tower lit up and check out more information about the event HERE in Saturday's Duluth News Tribune story.)  The famous hilltop beacon of Duluth has been undergoing a three month renovation that includes its sprucing up and some safety improvements. Friday night was the unveiling of the Rotary Club 25 of Duluth's project to light the tower with LED lights to once again shine on our hillside. The lights went on at 10:10 pm on Friday night and we headed out to see it, also driving around town to witness that mighty Duluth beacon all lit up on our hilltop. Very exciting to see it lit once again! The renovations by the City of Duluth are in preparation for the October 17 visit by Norway's King Harald and Queen Sonja. Some of you may remember my post (Happy Birthday Enger Tower–link to it HERE) in June of 2009 when I happened to climb the tower on the very day of the 70th anniversary (June 15, 1939) of its dedication by Norway's Crown Prince Olav V and Princess Martha.

Historical look at Duluth's Enger Tower...

Local publisher and author, Tony Dierckins, wrote a piece in today's Duluth News Tribune that provides a nice historical background of Duluth's famed landmark, Enger Tower. Enger Tower sets prominently on the hilltop of Enger Park and often is compared to San Francisco's hilltop landmark. Enger Tower, as you may know, is set for some major repairs that will involve closing the tower during renovation. Te read Dierckin's piece, click HERE.  

"While financial times are tough, it will be well worth a community investment to restore Enger Tower to its original glory. The tower will continue to stand as a reminder of our heritage, for Duluth is a city built on the sweat of its immigrant laborers, and our park system was developed for all of its citizens to enjoy."  Tony Dierckins 

Dierckin's X-Communications publishing house was the original publisher of my book, Cooler Near the Lake, and lis known for publishing works about area history.

Enger Tower: Our landmark needs a fix

Today's Duluth News Tribune reports that a study is underway to determine the course of action for  the needed repairs on Enger Tower, Duluth's 70-year-old cherished landmark.  They hope to have a plan for the renovations by March. As you may remember, I was hiking around Enger Park and climbed the tower on what was the actual date of the 70th anniversary (June 15, 2009) of it's dedication by Crown Prince Olav V and Princess Martha of Norway. You can read my account of that day as it appeared on this blog and a bit more about the tower's history HERE.  Earlier reports of the upcoming renovations to our popular landmark indicate that preservation groups and others will work together. Enger Tower could be closed for a lengthy period of time. One earlier report indicated that it could be closed for up to a year. Today's story indicates that work requiring closure of the tower would begin in the fall. Stay tuned...

Enger Tower: The saga of our 70 year-old landmark

Today's Duluth News Tribune reported that Enger Tower is due for repairs and may need to be closed for as long as one year during repairs. Click HERE to read that story. And... the project may require all of us who cherish this Duluth landmark to pitch in and help. The Duluth Heritage Preservation Commission is supporting this challenge to support the repairs and we all may be called upon to help save this hillside beacon. As you may remember, I wrote about my latest visit to Enger tower on the very day in June of it's dedication by the Prince of Norway 70 years ago. You can click HERE to read about my visit and that history.

More about Enger Tower Birthday...

Refer to my post of June 16 when I wished Enger Tower a Happy Birthday. As you recall I was hiking around Enger Park by pure chance on the very day of Enger Tower's 70th anniversary. As I climbed the tower, I came across the commemorative plaque noting the tower's dedication 70 years ago that very day. Check out a recent post on the Perfect Duluth Day blog to see an old Enger Tower dedication button someone found. It pictures Crown Prince Olav V and Princess Martha of Norway who participated in the dedication festivities. Interesting connections to this 70 year old famous Duluth landmark!

Happy Birthday Enger Tower...

By Jim Heffernan

With some time to kill Monday, June 15, I stopped by Duluth’s Enger Park just to look around. It’s lovely and, of course, dominated by Enger Tower, offering 360-degree vistas of most of Duluth from a commanding height.

I used to play in and around the tower as a child. We lived below it, perhaps a mile away in the West End. It made a wonderful battlement if we were playing “Ivanhoe” or Knights of the Round Table.

It had been years since I climbed the several-story tower (I forget how many), so I decided to trudge up its many steps on this visit. At my age, you never know how much longer you’ll be able to do it.

At the base of the stairs, I recognized a brass dedication plaque I hadn’t read in a long time, a tribute to Duluth “merchant prince” Bert Enger, who donated the land atop the hill, including the golf course named for him, and the tower and nearby park.

The plaque’s message ends with the words: “Dedicated by Crown Prince Olav V of Norway, June 15, 1939.”

I was there on the 70th anniversary of the tower’s dedication.

I know a little something about that dedication, having read old newspaper accounts of it (I was born three months later), and, with the help of Wikipedia as a refresher, here are some facts about the occasion.

When he came to Duluth in 1939, Crown Prince Olav V was heir to the Norwegian throne. He was accompanied by his wife, Princess Martha. The couple were the parents of Harald, then 2 years old, the current king of Norway known as King Harald V. Harald’s father and Duluth’s guest on that day in 1939 ascended to the throne in 1957 and ruled until his death at age 87 in 1991, after which Harald assumed the crown.

Just two-and-a-half months after the royal couple dedicated Enger Tower, World War II broke out in Europe when Germany invaded Poland on Sept. 1. The German occupation of Norway was soon to follow and the royal family had to flee. Crown Prince Olav joined the government in exile in England, but his wife, Princess Martha, and her children -- Harold, the heir apparent, and two daughters -- came to America and for a time resided at the White House as guests of President Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor.

Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin gives a full a account of this in her book, “No Ordinary Time.” There were those who believed that President Roosevelt was enamored of Princess Martha, and all that that implies. Princess Martha died in 1954.

Anyway, Wikipedia bore out what I thought I knew about the dedicators of Enger Tower. The stone tower has withstood a lot of Noreasters in 70 years, and silently presided over much local and national history.