Experts Thought This Minnesota Town Would Be Larger Than Chicago

If you were to travel back in time to the mid-1800s, you'd hear experts and tycoons speak with excitement about how this small pioneer town would be North America's next great mega-city. And while, sadly, that never came to fruition, had a few things turned out differently, it most certainly could have.

In that era, some of America's wealthiest speculators were searching for the perfect piece of land where they could build the nation's next metropolis, one that would rival Chicago. Once they found it, things began to move quickly and this small community, once known as a hub for the fur trade, started to boom.

But not everything is a "sure thing" and a few unlucky breaks, turned this mega-city into one of the biggest "what ifs" in Minnesota history.

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What is now known as Duluth, Minnesota, was first setup as a hub for the fur trade by French explorer Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut, way back in 1679. But it took a long, long time before it would become an incorporated community, let alone, a mega-city.

Fast forward almost two hundred years later, land speculators saw that the area's unique geography and strategic location along Lake Superior, made it an ideal spot for their dreams of a giant metropolis in the western Great Lakes region.

Duluth was first surveyed and plotted in 1856 and officially incorporated as a town in Minnesota on March 5, 1870. During that time period, the small town quickly became the fastest growing community in the entire United States.

It rapidly transformed to the busiest port in the nation, even surpassing the port of New York City. A wide variety of goods passed through the port of Duluth during this time, like Iron Ore, Timber, and grain.

What Happened?

In short, it was the economic Panic of 1873. A massive financial crash hit the U.S. economy hard just as Duluth was booming. This changed everything for the city, especially when the area's largest financier went bankrupt.

While Duluth still maintained itself as an important trading hub and a key point of entry along Lake Superior, it never became the "Next Chicago" as many at the time had predicted.

To learn more about the history of "Lost Duluth", check out this fascinating documentary from PBS North in the YouTube link below.