Star Tribune
Lake Superior shipping to get early start, nudged by steel industry, warm winter
DULUTH — The Soo Locks, a gateway on the St. Marys River between Lake Superior and the lower Great Lakes, will open on the evening of March 22 — kicking off the 2024 shipping season three days earlier than originally planned.
The shipping industry was nudged by major steel producers to jump-start the kickoff. Even a day can make a difference in keeping blast furnaces operating at full capacity, according to Jayson Hron of the Duluth Seaway Port Authority.
“At this time of year, Great Lakes steelmaking facilities are especially hungry for iron ore,” he said. “That demand, along with a lack of ice cover, was the catalyst for the industry’s request to open the Soo Locks early.”
The Soo Locks initially were scheduled to open March 25. The St. Lawrence Seaway announced in mid-February that it would open on March 22 and the Lake Carriers’ Association president asked to follow suit on the Soo.
Its president, James Weakley, noted that the 2023 season was stalled by a more than weeklong strike when 350 workers walked off the job. Extreme winds at the end of the operating season also left the fleet with undelivered cargo, he said in a news release from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Detroit District.
The winter shutdown included critical repairs to the Poe Lock and the lesser used MacArthur Lock, the two locks that are operational at the Soo Locks in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, there were structural inspections and maintenance, work on the miter gates that serve as dams and the systems that control the drift of the ships as they pass through.
Maintenance branch chief Nicholas Pettit said crews worked extended hours and were helped along by mild weather.
“We’ve been able to accomplish all required work ahead of schedule,” he said.
The MacArthur Lock still is undergoing maintenance. It will reopen on April 24.
The 2023 season was considered a very good one for the Port of Duluth-Superior, helped along by 21.5 million tons of iron ore that came through — the most in a single season since 1995, the port authority said in its season wrap-up. The international shipping season was 277 day, the longest in port history, and the Great Lakes season was 305 days.
Eight vessels spent the winter in Duluth-Superior — the most since the winter of 2016-17. The lineup included the Paul R. Tregurtha, Baie Comeau, John G. Munson, Lee A. Tregurtha, Manitoulin, Arthur M. Anderson, John Boland and American Spirit.
Hron said some local ships likely will start loading iron ore the week of March 18, then queue up to pass through the Soo Locks right when they open. The same will be happening for upbound ships headed to Lake Superior.
“Those giant stockpiles of iron ore visible alongside Interstate 35 in West Duluth will begin moving from shore to ship, destined for steelmaking facilities on the lower Great Lakes,” Hron said.
The lead pastor of Lakes Area Vineyard Church in Detroit Lakes said that a missionary was killed in an act of violence Friday in Angola, Africa.
Beau Shroyer moved there in 2021 with his wife, Jackie, and five children. They were working with the missionary organization SIM USA, founded in 1893 in Charlotte, N.C. SIM USA president Randy Fairman shared in a message to the Lakes Area Vineyard congregation that the Shroyers were one of the first families to move to Angola after pandemic lockdowns eased.
Fairman said many details are still unknown about Shroyer’s death. He said he got a call Friday “informing me that Beau Shroyer was killed while serving Jesus in Angola and is now with his Savior.”
“It is my belief that from his vantage point, he can see how his family will be cared for, and it is not hard for him to trust our good Father,” Fairman wrote. “From our perspective and the perspective of Jackie and the kids, we now must trust Jesus in a season that we never imagined. We must trust Him without requiring Him to give us an understanding of why He allowed this. It is difficult and stretches our faith.”
Troy Easton, lead pastor of Lakes Area Vineyard Church, said in a message to congregants that “Moments like these create so many unanswerable questions for us and it adds to the pain to know that we may never understand why our Father has allowed something like this to happen.”
“As more details became available regarding what’s next for the family, what arrangements are being made to celebrate and honor Beau’s life, and practical ways you can love and serve them, we will be certain to share them with you.
Along with his wife, Shroyer, 44, a former Detroit Lakes police officer and real estate agent, leaves behind children Bella, Avery, Oakley, Iva and Eden.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
This year, its jump-scares and lore landed it on Forbes’ list of “7 of the World’s Scariest Haunted Houses” alongside a 160-room mansion in California filled with “occult oddities,” a house built on an old cemetery near Chicago, and a haunted theme park in New Zealand built on the grounds of an old psychiatric hospital. The Haunted Ship, as the Irvin is known in October, is open just one more night — from 6:30 to 10 p.m. on Halloween.
“But this isn’t just a manufactured scare factory,” according to Forbes’ scare scouts, who reportedly visited the ship and had the VIP experience — which includes controlling the dialogue of a disembodied skull as visitors stream past. “In 1964, a sailor died on the ship during a boiler room accident, prompting the Duluth Paranormal Society to investigate the ship. Employees have reported seeing unexplained shadows, hearing phantom footsteps, and had objects thrown at them while doing maintenance work.”
The pilot house of the William A. Irvin is covered in cobwebs during October, a stop on the VIP tour of the seasonal Haunted Ship. (Jana Hollingsworth / The Minnesota Star Tribune)
The tour twists through the ship’s nooks, crannies and areas specific to its life on the Great Lakes — like a few gruesome dining areas where bloodied limbs are scattered about. There are creepy clowns and Victorian-era beings who stare wordlessly. A sink runs with bloody-colored water and a skeleton sits in a muddied bathtub surrounded by its innards.
The VIP experience offers a chance to roam through the ship’s living quarters alongside an ethereal character in the role of Irvin’s second wife. She sashays through the space with tales from the past, then allows you entry into private spaces where a saw blade rests in a sink and a body meant for the morgue vibrates with electrical waves on a bed. It offers a chance to dip into the pilot house, where wheels and gears are draped in cobwebs, offset in the opposite direction by a fresh perspective on the Aerial Lift Bridge.
The view from the Haunted Ship offers a new perspective on the Aerial Lift Bridge. (Jana Hollingsworth / The Minnesota Star Tribune)
There are countless dark corners for jump scares, strobe lights and tight spaces with hidden exits. There is a place designed to trigger claustrophobia. And there are mind-bending questions: Is that a person in that chair or isn’t it? Who is making that growling-moaning sound? What is that smell?
The final question is answered at the exit of the ship, where there is a running tally of how many people haven’t been able to finish the tour (90 as of Friday night) and how many have wet their pants (35).
How many people have opted out of the Haunted Ship? (Jana Hollingsworth / The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Police said they will be releasing details Monday about the shooting death of a 23-year-old man last week in New Hope.
Carnell Mark Johnson Jr., of Bloomington, was shot in the chest Thursday in the 7300 block of Bass Lake Road and died that same day at North Memorial Health Hospital, the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office said.
A police official said more information will be released about the shooting later Monday. No arrests have been announced.
