Take a Bob Dylan-Themed Tour of Minnesota
Take a Bob Dylan-Themed Tour of Minnesota
Born in Duluth, raised in Hibbing, and spending his college years in Minneapolis, Robert Allen Zimmerman (better known as Bob Dylan) is one of Minnesota's biggest claims to fame. Here is how to build an entire itinerary around local landmarks that helped shape Dylan's early days....
Looking toward downtown Duluth from Canal Park / Ty Miller
DULUTH
Robert Zimmerman (later known as Bob Dylan) was born on May 24, 1941 in St. Mary's Hospital in Duluth. Along with his parents Abram Zimmerman and Beatrice Stone, Dylan lived here for the first six years of his life.
Noteworthy Stops
First Home (519 North 3rd Ave. East)
Dylan lived here until 1948.
Duluth Armory (2416 London Road)
Dylan witnessed the second last performance of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens here in February 1959, just prior to their deaths in a plane crash in Clear Lake, Iowa. Now called the Armory Arts & Music Center, it marks the end of Duluth's Bob Dylan Way, a 1.8-mile cultural pathway designated with brown, black and white signs depicting the world-famous singer/songwriter. An exhibit about Bob Dylan Way is at Fitger's, located at 600 E. Superior St. in downtown Duluth.
Highway 61
Dylan’s iconic "Highway 61 Revisited" album was named after this stretch of highway that runs for more than 400 miles (644km) in Minnesota from the southeast corner north along the Mississippi River on the Great River Road to Minneapolis-St. Paul and then to Duluth and along the North Shore Scenic Drive to Canada.
Credit: Duluth Dylan Fest
Duluth Dylan Fest
Held every May, “Dylan Days” celebrates the artistic freedom, intellectual honesty, and integrity of Bob Dylan and his legacy. The festival is coordinated by volunteers and celebrates the artists, poets and musicians. Past events have included jam sessions on the porch of his childhood home, singer/songwriter contests, self-guided tours of the Duluth Armory, and more.
Bob Dylan Way
The 1.8-mile cultural pathway stretches through downtown Duluth, extending from Michigan Street at 5th Avenue West to 14th Avenue East and London Road (Historic Highway 61). Find artistically designed manhole covers featuring nods to Dylan, his songs, and his cultural significance. You can find the manhole covers at the intersection of Bob Dylan Way (Michigan Street at this point) and Fifth Avenue East, outside the Fitger’s Brewing Complex, and near the corner of the Duluth Armory.
Stroll the streets of downtown Hibbing, Bob Dylan's childhood home / Hibbing Area Chamber of Commerce
HIBBING
When Dylan's father developed polio, the family left Duluth and returned to his mother's hometown, Hibbing. This small Iron Range city in northeast Minnesota is where a young Bob Dylan discovered an interest in music, where he started his first bands, and where he graduated high school.
Noteworthy Stops
Braman Music (208 E. Howard St.)
Dylan took guitar lessons here, a building that now belongs to Ohana Therapeutic Massage.
L&B Cafe (417 E. Howard St.)
The L&B Cafe has been closed for years but holds notoriety as its the spot Dylan met Echo Helstrom, a.k.a. the “Girl from the North Country.”
Collier's Barbeque and Bar (1928 E. Fourth Ave.)
Dylan and The Golden Chords jammed here on Sundays in late 1957 and early 1958. His final Hibbing band, Elston Gunn and the Rock Boppers, performed here during the summer of 1958. It is now the Hong Kong Kitchen.
Bob Dylan's childhood home in Hibbing
Childhood Home (2425 7th Ave. East)
Dylan lived here from 1948 to 1959. This location is a drive-by visit only, unless you see a small sign on the front lawn with a number to call. The owner, Bill Pagel is available for tours. Fans may stand outside the home for photos.
Dylan Drive (7th Ave. East)
The street that spans his former neighborhood was named after him in 2005. Snap a photo with the music notes painted in the crosswalks.
Hibbing High School
Hibbing High School (800 E. 21st St.)
The Hibbing High School was gifted to the city to entice mine workers to the area. The school is filled with art, and the auditorium is modeled after a New York theater with chandeliers, intricate architecture, and a Steinway piano that Bob Dylan used to play. Dylan's second band, The Golden Chords, performed in a talent show in the Auditorium in 1957. He graduated in 1959.
In 2021, a group of volunteers installed a tribute to Dylan’s Nobel Peace Prize win made of bricks outside the school with some of his most famous lyrics on the back. In January 2024, actor Timothee Chalamet paid a visit to the auditorium and met with theater students while on a research trip prior to starring as Dylan in "A Complete Unknown", an upcoming biopic.
Hibbing Public Library (2020 E. 5th Ave.)
Houses a Bob Dylan exhibit and offers a walking tour map and accompanying podcast. The exhibit features items like a copy of his birth certificate, a tile from his childhood bathroom, a guitar from a former bandmate, and more. The library has has created a walking tour throughout the city of some notable spots.
Downtown Hibbing in the 1940s / Credit: Historical Hibbing
BoomTown Brewery & Woodfire Grill (531 E Howard St)
This spot is popular with locals and one of its beers, the Tangled Up in Blueberry has a nod to Dylan. Across the street is the former Androy Hotel where Dylan hosted his bar mitzvah, and is now an event space for weddings and other private events.
The Lybba Theatre (2135 First Ave.)
This theatre was built and operated from 1947-1976 by Dylan's uncles and named after his grandmother. It closed on October 28, 1982, and became Sunrise Deli. Visit it for delicious sandwiches, soups, salads and pasties, an iconic Iron Range dish.
The Little Theater (400 E. 23rd St.)
Dylan and The Golden Chords performed at the Winter Frolic Talent Contest here in February 1958. It now contains the Hibbing Historical Society & Museum.
A group of friends walk past the Bob Dylan mural in downtown Minneapolis / Paul Vincent
MINNEAPOLIS
Although he only lived in Minneapolis for less than a year, Dylan's time at the University of Minnesota set the stage for much of his musical career — from his budding interest in folk music, to trying on the name "Bob Dylan" for size. Visit these sites to see where the man, myth and legend of Bob Dylan began.
Noteworthy Stops
Bob Dylan Mural
Just across from the Warehouse District light rail stop — on the corner of 5th St. and Hennepin Ave. — a mural entitled "Times They Are A-Changin'" depicts Dylan at three stages of his life. Brazilian artist Eduardo Kobra painted it in 2015. A slightly older and smaller "Positively 4th Street" piece — one of six paintings by University of Minnesota design student Sergey Trubetskoy — can also be found on the other side of the Mississippi River in Dinkytown.
University of Minnesota
Dylan was enrolled here from the fall of 1959 to the fall of 1960, and it's where you'll find many of his favorite Twin Cities hangouts. The Dinkytown neighborhood adjacent to the East Bank campus is particularly ripe with Dylan destinations. "Positively 4th Street" runs through the heart of Dinkytown.
Gray's Campus Drug (327 14th Ave. SE)
Dylan lived above Gray's in a second-floor room starting in the winter of 1960.
Bob Dylan during the recording of "Blood on the Tracks" / Credit: Barry Feinstein
The Podium (425 14th Ave. SE)
In 1959 Dylan bought his strings here, at a former guitar shop-turned-Starbucks. In 1974, when Dylan returned to town to record "Blood on The Tracks", the Podium lent him a vintage Martin OO and the staff was taped to be his backup band for the album's recording sessions.
Orpheum Theater (910 Hennepin Ave. S)
Dylan and his brother purchased this vaudeville theater turned moviehouse in 1979. He operated as a silent partner until the brothers sold the theater to the city of Minneapolis in 1988. He hosted shows here in 1992 and 2014.
Hennepin Theatre Trust presents "Hamilton" at Orpheum Theatre
Sound80 (2709 E. 25th St.)
In 1974 Dylan gathered Minneapolis musicians to re-record new material for “Blood on the Tracks,” an album he had started in New York. Now billed “the quietest room on the planet”, Orfield Laboratories is the nation’s only independent, multi-sensory design research laboratory. The chamber can absorb so much sound, visitors can hear their internal organs working after long periods in the room.
Palmer’s Bar (500 Cedar Ave)
Named one of America’s best bars by Esquire in 2014, Dylan jammed with the popular blues group, Koerner, Ray and Glover in the early 60’s and enjoyed their shows at this dive bar.