When you walk along the Park Point trail, at a certain point you see enormous hulking dark ore docks across the Superior Bay. The ore docks are no longer in use as of 1970, but they still have a profound presence in Superior and Allouez bays.

Also known as the Burlington Northern Ore Docks, these docks were the largest in the world and consisted of three structures of concrete and steel. The were used from 1890 to 1970. The longest dock was 2244 feet long, 80 feet high, and contained 374 individual pockets which can hold 100,000 long tons of ore or 7 average trains of 205 cars each. Over one billion tons of ore were shipped through these docks, the largest year’s shipment being 32.3 million tons in 1953. (https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=147249)

Working conditions were hard on the docks. In 1913, workers walked off the job after two ore punchers were crushed to death. Ore punchers climbed on top of the train cars hauling ore and broke up frozen ore with poles so the ore could be loaded on to ships. The men who died in 1913 were killed when the trains began to move without any notice to the workers.

Frank Little (1879-1917) represented the Industrial Workers of the World. He was involved in organizing lumberjacks, metal miners, migrant farm workers, and oil field workers into industrial unions, often as part of free speech campaigns. He arrived in Duluth in August to support the strike of the ore-dock workers against the Great Northern Railway over dangerous working conditions. In the course of the strike he was kidnapped and held at gunpoint outside of the city, until he was rescued by union supporters.

Frank Little’s story is compelling but short. I recommend this video of Jane Little Botkin giving a talk to the Montana Historical Society about her research and her book Frank Little and the IWW.