Duluth Town Green in Full Fall Glory

Kathryn Willis, who will chair the 30^th Anniversary Duluth Fall Festival in 2012, shared these photographs of the in all its fall splendor and this message to festival volunteers and friends with Duluth Patch:

“In case you haven’t been by there lately I wanted you to see the Town Green in the fall with the crosses and flags. It is absolutely beautiful. If you get a chance to go by in the next few days please do. You won’t believe it! Mack Cain, who designed our Town Green, took most of the attached pictures, and some were taken by my son, Tom Willis. And to think that just a little over 10 years ago this was an old asphalt parking lot with weeds growing everywhere.”

The markers and flags honoring Duluth citizens who served their country go up the week before Veterans Day and remain for a week afterward.

Since its inception, funds raised by the festival have been used for downtown improvements and beautification. Duluth Fall Festival proceeds built the $1.3 million , which will be paid off next year, on the Duluth Town Green and paid for the recently erected Eastern Continental Divide marker. The Duluth Fall Festival Committee also shared half the cost of purchasing the land to develop , a train-themed recreational area located next to Duluth City Hall, with the city.

The 29^th annual festival broke all records, Willis said, and the Duluth Fall Festival Committee is already at work planning the 30^th anniversary festival. “It will be bigger and better than all the others,” she promised, “plus we will have a huge special event in early summer to celebrate 30 years.”