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Dan Kraker
Duluth

Winter is here: Last vessel of 2014 shipping season enters Duluth-Superior harbor

The John G. Munson closes the 2014 season
The 768-foot John G. Munson freighter traveled through the shipping canal into the Duluth-Superior harbor at about 9:30 a.m. on Jan. 20, marking the end of the 2014 shipping season in Duluth.
Dan Kraker / MPR News

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The last cargo vessel of the 2014 shipping season arrived in the Duluth harbor Tuesday morning.

The John G. Munson is one of five ships that will lay up in the Duluth-Superior harbor this winter for maintenance and repair.

Mild winter weather so far has allowed ships to catch up on cargo deliveries after record ice cover drastically slowed shipping last winter.

John G. Munson freighter
The John G. Munson was the last of five cargo vessels to arrive in the Duluth-Superior harbor for winter maintenance when it traveled under the Aerial Lift Bridge Tuesday.
Dan Kraker / MPR News

December shipments on the Great Lakes increased nearly 35 percent compared to a year ago.

"It's a bittersweet moment, I think, for all the folks who tried so hard to catch up with the very rough ice conditions at the start of the season," said Adele Yorde, spokeswoman for the Duluth Seaway Port Authority. "We were able to see a nice cargo surge in December and January this time around."

The next shipping season on Lake Superior will begin in late March, when crews return to prepare for the reopening of the Soo Locks between Lake Superior and Lakes Michigan and Huron. "It's called fit-out," Yorde said. "They get everything started up again, fire up the engines, get everything working, because they'll want to get in a queue to be downbound and ready for the locks to open on March 25."