Keeping warm. Bentleyville includes a warming pit to ward off the chill of lake winds.
Centerpiece is 128-foot animated tree
DULUTH, Minn. – The Bentleyville walk-through experience with five-million lights opened for the season at Bayfront Park – its 23rd year. For $10 people parked and footed their way through the spectacle. Others arrived by train from downtown. Some got an a rial view from a helicopter. Inside, the display was all free – cocoa, coffee, marshmallows, cookies, popcorn, a word with Santa.
What’s in a name
Nathan Bentley, an embroidery and screen-printing entrepreneur, strung lights outside his home in Cloquet in 2001. Neighbors took his cue and did so too It grew and grew. In jest a friend called the ever more spectacular show Bentleyville. The name stuck. In 2003 Nathan Bentley changed the light display from a “drive by” to a “walkthrough” with Santa Claus visiting. In 2009 at the invitation of Duluth Mayor Don Ness, Bentleyville relocated to Duluth’s Bayfront Park.