1905
Sydney Zollicoffer Mitchell organizes the Electric Bond & Share Company to hold the stock of smalltown electric utilities owned by the General Electric Company

The steamer Mataafa breaks up on the Duluth ship pier during a November storm and much of the vessel’s crew freezes to death with horrified residents looking helplessly on

1906
Electric Bond & Share Company acquires Duluth Edison Electric Company and Incorporates it as forerunner of Minnesota Power

Earthquake and fire devastate San Francisco and leave more than 500 Californians dead

1907
Great Northern Power Company begins generating hydroelectric power at its Thomson Hydro Station

The Knickerbocker Trust Company, one of the underwriters of the Thomson Hydro project, fails a month after Thomson goes on line and precipitates the Panic of 1907

1908
A forest fire destroys the mining community of Chisholm on the Mesabi Range

1910      (top)
Duluth’s population is 78,000, and the decennial census reveals that there are nearly 92 million Americans

1913
Henry Ford’s engineers begin the modern industrial era in America when they institute the first moving automotive assembly line at Highland Park, a Detroit suburb

1914
The city of Duluth offers to buy the Duluth Edison Electric Co. from Electric Bond and Share Co. for $1.2 million

The Panama Canal opens to commerce after 10 years of construction and the displacement of 240 million cubic yards of dirt

1915
The Minnesota General Assembly creates Jay Cooke State Park with 2,350 acres of land donated by the St. Louis River Water Power Co., one of the owners of the Thomson Hydro project

Duluth Edison defeats municipal ownership initiative by offering residents electric power at 6 cents a kilowatt-hour

1916
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) conduct months-long strike against Oliver Iron Mining Co. and other producers on the Mesabi Iron Range

1917
President Woodrow Wilson asks Congress to declare war against Imperial Germany

1918
Duluth-Superior shipyards build dozens of merchant ships for the U.S. and allied fleets

More than 1,000 residents of St. Louis and Carlton County are killed in the October 1918 fire that destroys Cloquet and reaches into Duluth and its suburbs

1922    (top)
The St. Louis County Historical Society is founded in Duluth.

1923
Electric Bond & Share Company consolidates ownership of Duluth Edison Electric Co. and several other northern Minnesota utilities into Minnesota Power & Light Co.

1924
The Minnesota Arrowhead Association is formed to help promote tourism in St. Louis County

MP&L joins NSP, Otter Tail Power Co. and several other utilities in the Red Wing Project, an early rural electrification project

1925
MP&L completes construction of two new hydroelectric plants, the Fond du Lac Station on the St. Louis River west of Duluth, and the Blanchard Station, on the Mississippi River near Little Falls

1927
Little Falls native Charles Lindbergh flies the Atlantic Ocean solo in the “Spirit of St. Louis”

1928
MP&L encouraged installment sales of electric appliances, offering to sell residential customers “a copper washer for a silver dollar”

1929
The Great Depression begins when the stock market crashes during the last week of October

1930    (top)
MP&L begins construction of the Duluth Steam Electric State, a $3.5 million coal-fired plant that would later be named for M.L. Hibbard

1932
New York Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected President of the United States

Samuel B. Insull’s Middle West Utilities, one of the largest holding companies in America, files for bankruptcy

1933
M.L. Hibbard is named president of MP&L as company revenues drop to a Depression low of $5 million

1934
Nearly one-third of the working population of Duluth is unemployed; several workers and police are killed during a violent Teamsters strike in Minneapolis

1935
Much of Duluth is without power for three days when freezing rain and wind coat power lines across the Twin Ports

1938
The U.S. Supreme Court affirms the constitutionality of the Public Utilities Holding Company Act (PUHCA), signed by President Roosevelt three years before

1939
The City of Duluth scraps the incline railway that climbed the hillside from the foot of 7^th Avenue West and that had been a Twin Ports landmark for most of the 20^th century

1940    (top)
Wendell Willkie, the popular president of Commonwealth & Southern, one of the nation’s largest holding companies, is tapped by the Republican Party to challenge President Roosevelt’s unprecedented third term reelection campaign

1941
Japanese dive bombers cripple the Pacific fleet in a surprise attack on the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

1942
More than 90 million tons of iron flow down the Great Lakes for the war effort, virtually all of it from mines on the Mesabi, Vermilion and Cuyuna Ranges electrified by MP&L

1943
MP&L doubles the size of the Duluth Steam Electric Station when it installs a second, 25,000-kilowatt unit at the coal-fired bayfront plant

1944
Almost one in four pre-war MP&L employees are serving or have served in the nation’s armed forces.
More than 14,000 workers are employed in the Duluth-Superior shipyards, making everything from merchant vessels to 180-foot Coast Guard buoytenders

1945
MP&L completes a federally-mandated reclassification of accounts and refunding of debt that is the first step in the company’s spin-off from holding company ownership.
Twin Ports native Richard I. Bong, one of the nation’s most accomplished fighter aces, is killed while testing experimental aircraft.

1946
Servicemen and women return to Duluth to jobs with such firms as Marine Iron & Shipbuilding, Coolerator, Kleerflax Linen Mills, Clyde Iron and Diamond Tool

1947
MP&L embarks upon a major postwar expansion program, including a near doubling of the generating capacity at the Duluth Steam Station and construction of 110,000-volt transmission lines across the service territory

1948
Drought across northern Minnesota reduces MP&L’s hydroelectric power generation by more than 20 percent

Duluth philanthropist Richard Griggs donates 160 acres of land for the establishment of the University of Minnesota-Duluth

1949
MP&L experiences a new peak load record of 171,000 kilowatts in September

1950    (top)
Duluth’s population is 104,500

North Korean People’s Army divisions stream into South Korea as President Harry S. Truman orders U.S. troops to the aid of its ally

1951
Reserve Mining Company begins construction on a taconite mine at Babbit near Birch Lake and a railroad spur down to Lake Superior at what would become the brand new community of Silver Bay
 

1953
MP&L essentially doubles its electric power production when it completes its new Aurora Steam Station on the eastern end of the Mesabi Iron Range

More than 65 million tons of iron ore flow down the Great Lakes from the Twin Ports for the nation’s Korean War effort

1954
Clay Boswell, one of the most accomplished engineers to ever work at MP&L, is named the utility’s president and general manager to succeed M.L. Hibbard

1955
The federal government’s Western Area Power Administration sells large amounts of hydroelectric power from its newly-opened Garrison Dam in North Dakota to rural electric cooperatives and municipal utilities in Minnesota

1956
The C.L. Austin leaves Silver Bay with the first load of 10,800 tons of taconite pellets from the Mesabi Range

1957
Duquesne Power & Light Co., Westinghouse and the Atomic Energy Commission begin generating electric power at the nation’s first nuclear power station at Shippingsport, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh

1958
Bob Zimmerman graduates from Hibbing High School and immediately sets off down Highway 61 for fame and fortune

1959
Duluth-Superior becomes an international port when the Ramon de Larrinaga slips under the Duluth Aerial Bridge to open the St. Lawrence Seaway

1960    (top)
The first two 65,000-kilowatt units at the Clay Boswell Station west of Grand Rapids are dedicated and placed into service

1961
The Minnesota Twins bring major league baseball to the North Country and defeat the New York Yankees 6-0 at Yankee Stadium on opening day

What would soon become known as the Blatnik High Bridge spans the harbor between Duluth and Superior

1963
MP&L energizes its first interconnection with NSP

President John F. Kennedy visits the Twin Ports and spends the night at the Hotel Duluth, just two months prior to his assassination

1964
Minnesotans flock to the polls in record numbers to vote “Yes” for the Taconite Amendment, giving the steel industry a boost in its quest to rejuvenate the Mesabi Iron Range

1965
Shareholders approve a two-for-one stock split at the annual meeting and remove the $100 million limitation on indebtedness

1966
Clay C. Boswell retires as MP&L chairman and president following a 37-year career with the Duluth electric utility

Minnesota Governor Karl Rolvaag presides over opening ceremonies for the Duluth Arena-Auditorium

1967
Former Little Falls Division Manager Axel Herbert completes his first full year as president of MP&L

On the Iron Range, taconite expansions become the order of the day with U.S. Steel's $120 million Minntac plant on line, as are the new $60 million Butler plant near Nashwauk and the $74 million National Steel pellet plant near Keewatin

1968
MP&L pioneers unit train delivery of low-sulfur coal from Montana when it announces an agreement with Peabody Coal and Burlington Northern to deliver coal to the utility’s new 350,000-kilowatt expansion unit at Clay Boswell Station

Vice President and former U.S. Senator Hubert H. Humphrey becomes the first Minnesotan nominated for President by a major party

1969
Duluth native Syl Laskin is named MP&L president to succeed Axel Herbert

The Izaak Walton League, concerned about preserving Minnesota's wilderness, seeks a federal court injunction to halt mineral exploration in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area

Astronaut Neil Armstrong takes “one giant leap for mankind” and jumps out onto the surface of the moon

1970    (top)
Concern about the condition of the environment is the impetus for the first Earth Day, a day designated to make the public aware of the menace of pollution

Minnesota Vikings fans are crushed when the Kansas City Chiefs upset the Vikings 23-7 in the Super Bowl

1971
U.S. Steel Corp. announces that due to tough new state environmental standards, it is closing the blast furnace at its Duluth Works in Morgan Park

1972
The arrest of five men who break into Democratic National Headquarters in the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C., begins a two-year investigation into what is to become known as the Watergate Scandal and will lead to the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon two years later

U.S. Steel doubles the pellet-making capacity at its Minntac plant in Mountain Iron, providing 800 year-round jobs for the area

1973
MP&L forecasts total system demand will exceed 1,270 megawatts by 1978, an 80 percent rise in less than five years

A subsidiary of Detroit Edison announces a new $25 million coal loading facility in Superior to handle western low sulphur coal that will be shipped to electric steam generating stations down the Great Lakes

1974
Construction work begins on the Square Butte project, a 438,000-kilowatt, lignite-fired, mine mouth station in North Dakota leased by Minnesota Power and several rural electric cooperatives

Jack F. Rowe is named president of MP&L to succeed Syl Laskin

James L. Oberstar, administrative assistant to retiring Eighth District Congressman John Blatnik, wins his boss's seat in the U.S. House of Representatives

1975
The worst blizzard of the century hits the state January 11 with the lowest barometric pressure reading ever recorded in Minnesota

The Edmund Fitzgerald departs Burlington Northern’s Allouez Docks for her appointment with legend

1976
MP&L’s Northern Division and its industrial load accounts for slightly more than half the company’s $117 million in revenues

Minnesota Senator Walter Mondale is chosen Jimmy Carter's running mate and for the second time in a dozen years the country elects a Minnesotan as vice president

1977
MP&L’s state-of-the-art Energy Control Center on Arrowhead Road is completed at a cost of $13.3 million

The North Shore Striders running club holds its first marathon race with 150 runners and financed by a $600 contribution from Grandma's, Inc., a local Duluth restaurant

1978
The five-story Lake Superior Plaza immediately adjacent to MP&L’s 30 West Superior Street headquarters is completed

Minnesota's beloved former U.S. senator and vice president, Hubert H. Humphrey, dies after a lengthy battle with cancer

1979
MP&L’s revenues top $279 million, five times what they were at the beginning of the decade

Three Mile Island becomes a household word after a series of breakdowns at the nuclear power plant on the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania lead to a major accident and the release of larger-than-average amounts of radiation

Nearly 60 million tons of taconite – a modern record – go down the Great Lakes from the Mesabi Iron Range

1980    (top)
MP&L brings the 500,000-kilowatt Clay Boswell Unit 4 on line, the biggest unit in the company’s history to that time

The U.S. Air Force shuts down its Duluth Air Force Base, once the nerve center of the country's guided missile system

University of Minnesota coach Herb Brooks and a collection of collegians pull off the “Miracle on Ice” and capture the Olympic Gold hockey medal

1981
MP&L puts a 12.2 percent rate increase into effect at the end of July

President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest by John W. Hinckley Jr. in Washington, D.C. and narrowly escapes death

1982
Kilowatt-hour sales are off 18 percent from 1981 as more than two-thirds of the taconite industry work force is on layoff because of weak demand for steel

Iron Ranger Rudy Perpich returns to the Governor’s Mansion after being ousted by Independent Republican Al Quie in the 1978 elections

1983
Six of seven taconite customers accept Minnesota Power’s offer to reduce contract demand by five percent in return for extension of their contracts by one year, through 1988

In October, the unemployment rate in the Arrowhead region peaks at 15.7 percent due in large part to layoffs and shutdowns at taconite mines on the Iron Range

1984
Arend J. Sandbulte is elected president of Minnesota Power to succeed Jack F. Rowe, who in turn succeeds Syl Laskin as chairman

Minnesota Power acquires Milwaukee-based Universal Telephone, Inc., its first major foray into diversification

Walter F. Mondale receives the Democratic nomination for President and chooses the first woman to run for vice president from a major party, Geraldine Ferraro, as his running mate

1985
City officials announce construction of a $400 million Duluth paper mill jointly owned by subsidiaries of Minnesota Power and St. Paul-based Pentair Inc. will get underway in the spring of 1986

The company’s Electric Outlet holds grand opening ceremonies at Duluth’s Miller Hill Mall

Duluth becomes the focus of national news when the Greek freighter Socrates grounds in shallow water off Park Point

Public Radio personality Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon Days, celebrating Minnesota's rural heritage, becomes a best-seller

1986
Minnesota Power is named Electric Light & Power Magazine’s “Electric Utility of the Year”

Minnesota Power helps sponsor the Steger International Polar Expedition, which reaches the North Pole by dogsled on May 1

Minnesota Power’s water subsidiary, Southern States Utilities, purchases water systems on Amelia Island, in Venice and Seminole Counties in Florida, and Heater Utilities in North Carolina

Geo. A. Hormel & Co. in Austin re-opens after a five-month strike, but striking meatpackers ring the plant, blocking entrances, and Gov. Perpich is forced to call out the Minnesota National Guard to restore order

1987
Minnesota Power’s retail electric rates are 21 percent below the national average and nine percent below the Minnesota average

The cost of a ton of taconite pellets delivered to Lake Erie steel mills averages 30 percent less than in 1982

The stock market falls 508 points on Oct. 19 on the heels of a 235 point plunge the week before and stock portfolios lose an estimated $500 billion

Northlanders believe in miracles the morning after the Minnesota Twins win the World Series, beating the St. Louis Cardinals 4-2 in Game 7 at the Metrodome

1988
Minnesota Power acquires Baukol-Noonan, a North Dakota lignite producer, as part of its diversification strategy

More than 3,000 customers respond to bill inserts asking them for suggestions on how Minnesota Power could better serve them

Lake Superior Paper Industries, Minnesota Power’s joint venture with Pentair, makes its first profit in May

The Iron Range produces 40 million tons of taconite, the most since the economic downturn that began in 1981

1989
Jack F. Rowe retires as chairman and is honored when directors name the Energy Control Center after him

Company subsidiary Superior Water Light & Power Co. dedicates a new $6.5 million water plant to serve its 9,000 water customers in Superior

Minnesota Power’s diversification subsidiary, Topeka Group, acquires the Deltona Corporation’s water and wastewater treatment facilities in nine Florida communities, making Minnesota Power the largest investor-owned supplier of water services in Florida

The company’s average retail price per kilowatt-hour hovers at right around four cents

As the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments come into force, Minnesota Power reduces its already low sulfur dioxide emission rates at its plants by 11 percent

The Americans With Disabilities Act, protecting the handicapped against job discrimination and assuring access to public transportation and public places, is signed into law by President George H. W. Bush

1991
With 179,000 water, wastewater, sanitation and LP gas customers in Florida and North Carolina, Minnesota Power now serves more customers in its diversified utility services than it does electric customers in Minnesota.

Minnesota Power’s taconite customers produce more than 40 million tons of pellets for the fourth straight year

Duluth and northern Minnesota dig out from beneath a three-foot Halloween snowstorm, the biggest such storm in the region’s history

Jack Morris pitches 10 innings of shutout baseball in the 7^th game at the Metrodome to give the Minnesota Twins its second World Series championship in four years

Operation Desert Storm pushes Iraqi troops out of Kuwait and kicks off the first Gulf War

1992
Minnesota Power’s new strategic plan serves as the company’s blueprint for future growth in an industry wrestling with the effects of the National Energy Policy Act of 1992

Minnesota Power subsidiary Synertec completes construction of a $76 million scrap paper recycling plant adjacent to Lake Superior Paper Industries.

BNI coal reports record sales of lignite

Thousands of Duluth and Superior residents are evacuated when a derailed Burlington Northern tank car spills 30,000 gallons of liquid benzene gas into the Nemadji River

Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton is elected President, ending 12 years of Republican control of the White House

1993
Minnesota Power reports that average annual return on common stock is 17 percent from 1984 to 1993

Operating revenues pass a half-billion dollars for the first time

The company’s Florida utilities are consolidated under the Southern States Utilities umbrella

Professional baseball returns to the Twin Ports after 23 years when the Duluth Dukes once again start playing at Wade Stadium

Eighteen people die when a Northwest Airlink plane crashes on approach to the Hibbing-Chisholm Airport in early December

1994
Minnesota Power makes a $167 million offer to purchase 80 percent of the stock of Indianapolis-based ADESA, the nation’s third-largest auto auction company

Taconite production and the manufacture of wood and paper products account for 49 percent of the company’s electric operating revenues

Installation of a new stacker and changes in conveyor routing at the Boswell coal-handling facility make it possible to unload an entire train without moving coal to remote stockpiles

Millions of Americans sit transfixed in front of their television sets on a Friday night in June as California law enforcement officials conduct a slow motion chase of football star O.J. Simpson, wanted for questioning in the murder of his wife, Nicole, and her friend, Ron Goldman

1995
Minnesota Power increases the dividend on its common stock to $2.04, the 25^th consecutive year in which it has raised its dividend

Edwin L. Russell is named president and chief executive officer to replace Arend J. Sandbulte, who is named chairman of the company

The company concludes the sale of Lake Superior Paper Industries and Superior Recycled Fiber Industries to Consolidated Papers Inc., fulfilling its objectives of launching two new profitable industrial companies in northern Minnesota

A truck bomb destroys the Alfred Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and wounding hundreds more

1996
Minnesota Power has 725 megawatts of power under Large Power Contracts

Southern States Utilities is renamed Florida Water Services

Minnesota Power acquires the remaining 17 percent of ADESA

Fargo, a dark comedy of the human soul by the Coen Brothers, teaches millions of Americans how to talk Minnesotan, you betcha

1997
The market value of the company’s ownership of a 21 percent share in CapitalRe, a New York Stock Exchange-traded reinsurance company, increases by $51 million

Burnt Store Marina on Charlotte Harbor is the latest customer for the company’s Florida Water Services subsidiary

Florida property sales reach an all-time high of $32 million, double the sales reported in 1996

The City of Duluth is in the process of completing the Lakewalk from Canal Park to the end of Interstate 35 at 26^th Avenue East

The death of Britain’s Princess Diana in a Paris automobile accident dominates global headlines for weeks

1998
Minnesota Power implements its Key Account Management system to better serve large power customers

MP Telecom completes a 300-mile fiber optic network linking Duluth, Hibbing and Brainerd

ADESA subsidiary Automotive Financing Corp. is the nation’s leading provider of inventory financing for used vehicle dealers

1999
Florida Water Services acquires Palm Coast Utility Corp., and the company’s real estate subsidiary acquires a major block of property at Cape Coral in southwest Florida

A total of 8,000 people in North America work for Minnesota Power or its subsidiaries

Rainy River Energy, a Minnesota Power subsidiary, negotiates agreement to purchase 275 megawatts of power from a new generating plant to be built southwest of Chicago

Hurricane Floyd skirts Florida and then devastates coastal North Carolina, with resulting floods leaving thousands of Tar Heels homeless and the city of Rocky Mount essentially under water

2000    (top)
Minnesota Power announced it will change its name to ALLETE to reflect its emergence as a multi-service company with a long, successful track record

Automotive assets make up 46 percent of ALLETE’s business

Minnesota Power signs an agreement with Potlatch Corp. to install a 24-megawatt turbine generator at the paper company’s mill in Cloquet

For the first time since the Great Depression, western coal flowing through the Midwest Energy terminal in Superior exceeds iron ore shipments through the Twin Ports

Hanging chads and butterfly ballots become part of the political lexicon as Florida’s election snafu propels the nation’s presidential election to the U.S. Supreme Court, where the justices award the presidency to Texas Governor George W. Bush on a 5-4 decision

Californians cope with skyrocketing electricity prices and shortages as the Golden State struggles with utility deregulation

2001
David G. Gartzke is named chairman, president and CEO of ALLETE to succeed Ed Russell

ALLETE announces its intentions to exit the water business in Florida and the Southeast after building Florida Water Services into one of the Sunshine State’s premier utilities

The Wisconsin Public Service Commission approves the construction of the 220-mile, 230,000-volt transmission line from Arrowhead Substation near Duluth to Weston, Wisconsin, south of Wausau

Minnesota Power purchased the 225,000-kilowatt coal-fired electric generating station formerly owned by LTV Steel Mining Co. at Taconite Harbor on Minnesota’s North Shore

The world is horrified on the bright Tuesday morning of September 11 when Al Qaeda terrorists pilot hijacked airliners into both towers of New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon, killing nearly 3,000 people in the resulting collisions, fires and building collapses

2002
ALLETE liquidates its trading securities portfolio in the wake of the deepest bear market in two decades

The total amount of electricity sold by the company’s energy services jumps 11 percent during the year

AFC finances nearly one million vehicles and has outstanding receivables of almost a half-billion dollars

Enron, one of America’s largest energy companies, declares bankruptcy and immediately becomes the target of federal corruption investigations that reveal it is a hedge fund built on a pipeline

U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone and members of his family and campaign staff are killed in an aircraft accident near Eveleth

2003
Total shareholder return for the year is a whopping 41 percent as revenues surpass $1.6 billion

ALLETE Automotive Services handles the sale of 1.8 million vehicles at ADESA’s 27 auto auction facilities in the U.S. and Canada

ALLETE Energy Services begins implementation of an automated meter reading system that will have the capability to give real-time readings on more than 80,000 electric meters in northern Minnesota

Operation Iraqi Freedom results in a full-scale U.S. attack on Iraq and the fall of Baghdad six weeks later

Millions of electric customers nationwide are without power when a blackout cascades out of northern Ohio and trips out transmission lines from Detroit to New York City

EVTAC Mining Company closes its doors, only to be resurrected late in the year when Cleveland Cliffs and Laiwu Steel Group of China reopen the facility as United Taconite

2004
ALLETE spins off its automotive business as a stand-alone, New York Stock Exchange company and announces a one-for-three reverse stock split

Donald J. Shippar is named ALLETE president and CEO when David Gartzke moves to Indianapolis, Indiana to head ADESA

Longtime ALLETE board member Bruce W. Stender is named company chairman

ALLETE completes the sale of its Florida water services business and realizes an infusion of more than $300 million in cash after payment of taxes and debt

For the first time in more than a half-century, Florida is devastated by four hurricanes – Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne – with damage in the billions of dollars

2005
ALLETE announces it is in the process of planning a new diversification strategy that will invest proceeds from the sale of automobile services and water services properties into new ventures that will enhance shareholder value

ALLETE signs a long term, all requirements agreement with its largest customer, US Steel, to provide electric services through October 2013 to the company’s Minntac and Keewatin taconite operations

ALLETE Properties Inc. owns approximately 15,000 acres of developable land in Flagler County, Florida, midway between Daytona Beach and Jacksonville, identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as the nation’s fastest growing county

Two of ALLETE’s biggest taconite customers, Hibtac and Minorca, become part of Mittal Steel when entrepreneur sells his steel holdings to the Mittal family of India

Hurricane Katrina leaves more than 1,000 people dead when it sends 20-foot storm surges into New Orleans and adjacent coastal Mississippi

2006   (top)
Minnesota Power celebrates its 100^th birthday