Generating $1.4 billion annually, Duluth’s airport has new construction in the works. Bike to Duluth is gearing up for the 170-mile trek from Minneapolis to Duluth on June 28th. And, Moorhead’s mayor declared March “Kurdish Heritage Month” which is welcome news to Minnesota’s largest Kurdish community.
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HOST: You're listening to North Star Stories: Voices from Where We Live, a daily newscast about what it means to live in Minnesota.
ANCHOR: Coming up…the Duluth airport is getting a major face lift, a bike ride geared at getting more Minnesotans on long distance rides, and why Moorhead's Kurdish community is in the spotlight. I’m Chantel SinGs.
Economic uncertainty has many airlines and airports across the country quite concerned. But that’s not the case in Duluth. In fact, just the opposite. A new study shows the Duluth airport generates $1.4 billion every year and supports more than four thousand jobs. The Duluth airport authority also has several big projects on the horizon. The Duluth airport will be getting a new control tower, hangers, and taxiway. The airport authority says they’ll be Investing about 150-million dollars in improvements over the next five years.
For many, it’s almost time to get your bicycles back out. Reporter Katharine DeCelle has a story about a grassroots event that wants to make long-distance bike rides more accessible to Minnesotans.
Katharine DeCelle:
Bike enthusiasts across Minnesota are gearing up for a day long bike ride as they ride approximately 170 miles from Minneapolis to Duluth. It's called Bike to Duluth and was created last year by co-founder Quinn Erickson.
Quinn Erickson:
I am an avid biker, and I've enjoyed doing rides and then signing up for cycling events. It's just really fun. I said, I want more of this in my community. So Bike to Duluth started last year by me. I simply created a Facebook event. It took off from there.
Katharine DeCelle: Along with Quinn and his co-founder Nicholas Reese, there were around 25 other people participating, with some people driving up halfway to bike, while others biking the entire 170 miles from Minneapolis to Duluth.
Quinn Erickson: This is a kind of a "choose your own adventure." Everyone rides at different rates, I would say a range you're looking at anywhere from probably like 10 to 16 hours to finish it, and we start at 6am and I think I rolled in, I want to say around 4:30pm, five, somewhere around there to Duluth. But you can lose track of time when you're in a big ride like this.
Kathrine DeCelle: As far as I'm concerned, as long as you are biking to Duluth, somehow you're doing it right? One of the things that Quinn likes most about last year's bike trip was seeing Minnesota's geography on the bike trails and the small towns along the way up north.
Quinn Erickson: The nice thing about this route is it follows the 35 corridors, so you're always passing through small towns. And one of the best parts about this ride is we're kind of showcasing the trail infrastructure that our state has.
Kathrine DeCelle: Quinn says that the mission of bike to Duluth is to make it free for riders.
Quinn Erickson: One of the other things we like to do with this event is make it more accessible. One of the things I find with signing up for these bike events is there's a fair amount of privilege to to partake in these meaning you're paying about $1 a mile in that experience. So it can cost upwards of 100 200 bucks to sign up for some of these events with exclusive a lot of times they have limited capacities that's selling really quick. So this event free for participants, all you have to do is sign up and ride.
Katharine DeCelle: Bike to Duluth is hoping to grow its riders at this year's event in June, they're offering swag bags and door prizes for riders. Quinn hopes to make bike to Duluth an annual event.
Quinn Erickson: As long as there's an interest for it and we have the capacity to put it on this is going to be our annual event. This is an open invitation to anyone and everyone who wants to seriously challenge themselves in a pretty rewarding way.
Katharine DeCelle: Bike to Duluth is going down on Saturday, June 28 2025. For more information and to register visit BikeToDuluth.com. For North Star stories. I'm Katharine DeCelle.
ANCHOR: You are listening to North Star Stories. Moorhead’s mayor is putting a spotlight on the area’s Kurdish Community. He declared the month of march “Kurdish Heritage Month.” March is important to the Kurdish community because it Is when they celebrate the new year and the arrival of spring. Kurds, whose ancestral homelands include parts of Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria, arrived in Minnesota beginning in the 70s. Of the four thousand Kurds in the state, more than 87 percent reside in Moorhead. Moorhead is located in the northwest corner of Minnesota and has a population of more than 45,000 people.
HOST: North Star Stories is produced by AMPERS, diverse radio for Minnesota's communities, with support from the McKnight Foundation and the State of Minnesota. Online at ampers dot org.