Duluth was originally founded as Howell's Cross Roads in 1821 by prosperous farmer Evan Howell. The little farming village got a boost and a name change when the railroad came through in 1871. At the dedication of the new depot, Evan Howell's grandson named the town Duluth in honor of a little railroad town in Minnesota that had taken a drubbing in Congress. The name stuck, and in the next 100 years Duluth grew from an agricultural hamlet to a populous...