Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Come Along and Ride This Train: Duluth's Historic Depot Offers Glimpse of Another Influence on Bob Dylan

The history of our country is interwoven with the history of the railroad. For a good read about this history you might enjoy Stephen Ambrose's Nothing Like It In the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869.

Before railroads, waterways were a primary means of transportation. This is why cities historically rose up at the edge of bodies of water, and why rivers--the Seine, the Mississippi, the Potomac--are so famous.

On one occasion when Abe Lincoln was a young lawyer, he became involved in a case that involved a railroad bridge over a river. In preparing for the trial it became apparent that someone would have to decide who had the right of way, the boats or the railroads. What Lincoln learned from this experience showed him the future, which is why the Transcontinental Railroad was initiated during Lincoln's first term as president.

My daughter Christina with her husband Joey and my grandson Wally.
Point of Information: All 3 are Dylan fans, including Wally.
The city of Duluth is a prime example of the impact of waterways and trains. By means of the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway, Duluth became the biggest inland port in the world for a period of its history, due chiefly to the rich natural resources here. During Lincoln's presidency Northern Minnesota was populated by immigrants who were offered free 40 acre plots if they would cultivate and use it.

Until the railroad was completed, the region's growth was but a trickle. Upon getting connected by rail to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul, 3,000 arrived overnight. The people already here used chalk to draw spaces the size of cots on their wooden floors, renting those spaces out to these newcomers seeking a roof over their heads.

This is the "dashboard" of a massive steam engine.
Trains also figured prominently in the transport of iron ore from the Iron Range to the Twin Ports, and to this day run continuously. Duluth's Historic Depot captures much of this history. The Lake Superior Railroad Museum has seven steam, 14 diesel, and two electric locomotives; and more than 40 other pieces of rolling stock, including an enormous snowplow and another giant contraption for keeping the rails cleared.

This aspect of life in the Northland might explain why the words "train" and "trains" appear more than 45 times in Bob Dylan's songs, plus additional references to railroads. Two albums have railroad-themed titles, Slow Train Coming and Blood on the Tracks.

You can walk inside many of these cars and sense the life lived here.
Because railroads were the new highways, they also had "hitchhikers" who rode the rails from place to place looking for work. Hobo camps sprang up where the railroads ran. There were three in Carlton just south of Duluth, and others along the way. Hemingway wrote about these things in some of his Nick Adams stories.

One of the highlights of Duluth Dylan Fest most years has been the Blood on the Tracks Express, a train ride with electric and acoustic acts performing at each end of the train, along with a V.I.P. car. Dylan fans coming from out of town will want to include the Depot and Train Museum on their list of things to see while in town. It's the starting point for Bob Dylan Way.

* * * *
One of the highlights for Dylan fans this year was the release of Bootleg Series #15: Travelin' Through, more than half featuring Dylan making music with his friend and fellow Columbia recording artist Johnny Cash. Dylan and Cash not only shared Nashville connections but also this connection with the common folk who worked in the rail yards and drifters who dreamed of a better life farther down the line, as Johnny Cash sings in Folsom Prison Blues. And it's especially fun to hear Dylan sing Johnny's song on Bootleg 15. "And I ain't seen the sunshine since I don't know when..."

If you live in the Northland you regularly hear them whistles blow, coming 'round the bend.

Here's a picture of Johnny Cash atop a railroad car in a photo taken for the cover of Orange Blossom Special. Released in 1965 it was Cash's 21st album. This particular page from the Bill Pagel Archives has Bob Dylan's assessment and flamboyant signature.


Trains are a central feature of both the Northland and American history.
Related Links
What's It Like to Live Through a Northern Minnesota Winter?
Historic Architecture: Duluth's Union Depot
Duluth's Major Railroads
Bob Dylan's Train Tracks from his Drawn Blank Series

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2 comments:

  1. LEWagnerDecember 31, 2019 at 8:39 PM

    I never have toured that museum. Grandma Wagner and I planned to go there together some day, but then she told me we'd waited too long, and she was too old. I never did go by myself.
    Three of Grandma's brothers retired as railroad employees.
    Louis Seelig was a brakeman for the DM&IR, Art Seelig was an engineer (a "traveling engineer" for the Sioux Line in charge of investigating accidents and mishaps over 3 states), and Carl Seelig "never made it past the grade of 'wiper'".
    I asked my dad what a "wiper" did, and he told me he carried rags in his pocket and wiped grease and dust off the locomotives (on sober days, at least).
    Having railroad employees in the family meant having railroad tools on the farm.
    We had no shortage of 2-pound railroad hammers, a 9-pound sledge hammer, and three or four 4-foot switch handles, which we called "bars", on the farm.
    The 4-foot switch handles were heavy steel, and we used them for starting holes for fence posts and tomato stakes in the garden, etc., and also for prying heavy objects.
    I remember we were moving one of the brooder houses one time when I was about 13 years old, and Dad told me to run to the barn and get a "bar". I'm guessing it weighed about 25 pounds. It took some strength just to carry it. The bar was strong enough to pry up the corner of a small building.
    Johnny Cash's song "John Henry" tells about John Henry

    "with a steep-nosed hammer on a 4-foot switch handle,
    John Henry raised it back until it touched his heels,
    The spike went through the twelfth tie,
    And it split it half in two
    Thirty-five cents a day for driving steel,
    (SWEAT, BOY! YOU OWE ME TWO MORE SWINGS!)
    I was born for driving steel."

    I laugh whenever I hear those line, because I know exactly what a 4-foot switch handle is, and a person would have to be a super-man to lift just the handle back like that, let alone swing it forward with a heavy hammer-head attached to it, too.
    https://youtu.be/-TzQiJQiXMA (at the 2:00 mark)

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  2. DaleJanuary 1, 2020 at 1:17 PM

    Might also explain Bob's talented penchant for ironworks art. Duluth/Gibbing is fortunately to be able to lay claim to this legacy favorite son. It will serve the area's tourism interests long after the artist has passed on.

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