On May 3rd, 1959, a British cargo ship named the Ramon de Larrinaga sailed under Duluth's Aerial Lift Bridge and became the first oceangoing vessel in history to reach the western end of Lake Superior. She had crossed the Atlantic from Liverpool. She had navigated sixteen sets of locks through the newly opened St. Lawrence Seaway. And she had arrived in a city that sixty years earlier had been described as a lifeless corpse. Today's episode is the story of how Minnesota's Iron Range helped build a waterway, how entire communities were flooded to make it possible, and how a port city at the heart of the continent became connected to the world.

On May 2nd, 1878, a flour dust explosion destroyed the Washburn A Mill in Minneapolis, the largest flour mill in the world, killing eighteen men and devastating the city's milling capacity. What followed transformed not just Minneapolis but the entire country, from the safety innovations that changed flour milling worldwide, to the birth of the Minneapolis Fire Department, to the brands that are still in your kitchen today. General Mills, Gold Medal Flour, Pillsbury, Betty Crocker, WCCO Radio, and the Washburn Center for Children, all trace their origins to one catastrophic Thursday evening on the banks of the Mississippi River.

It's May 1st, 1951. A nineteen-year-old from Alabama wakes up in Minneapolis to snow on the ground and has no idea what happens next. His name is Willie Mays.

Welcome to Pionerd — your daily Minnesota history podcast. One story, every day. Follow now so you don't miss day one.