The Lunch Box Journals

Exploring Lake Superior: North Shore (Hwy 61 from Duluth to Grand Marais and back; Duluth; and South Shore (Hwy 2 east, Hwy 13 north east to Ashland, Hwy 2 to Wakefield, Hwy 28 north to Grossing, Hwy 26 north to Hancock, MI)
Lake Superior pierces the heart of North America in a sapphire arrowhead of cobalt blue. The twin cities of Duluth, MN, and Superior, WI, straddle the bay where the St. Louis River empties into the southern tip of Lake Superior. Based in Duluth at the tip of the arrowhead, I’m going to explore the North Shore, Duluth, and then head east continuing my journey along the South Shore.

The North Shore
The North Shore stretches for nearly 150 miles towards the Canadian border. Heading north from Duluth the highway quickly leaves the urban environment and becomes enveloped in dense forests that plummet from the plateau on the left to the unseen lake on the right. The vast majority of the shoreline of Lake Superior is in private ownership and the public has very limited access. The highway runs inland with virtually no views of the lake until it climbs a hill about 20 miles north of Duluth where a small pull-out provides a stunning view to the south.

The first small town of note is Two Harbors, one of three ports along the coast where the iron riches of the Mesabi Range are loaded onto giant ships to head for the steel mills of the east. The small town is dominated by the dome of the 1907 Lake County Courthouse.

At the base of the main street is a memorial to days gone by, a massive restored 1943 Mallett locomotive that once brought iron ore from the interior to the port on Agate Bay. The locomotive is over 128 feet long and weighed in at nearly 400 tons. The coal tender held 26 tons of coal and the water tank 25,000 gallons of water. Pretty impressive!

On the far side of the locomotive is Agate Bay, still an active port shipping processed iron ore with three immense docks rising from the sapphire bay.

To my right the Two Harbors lighthouse guards the entrance to the bay while signs of fall linger on the grass as geese gather to start on their way south for the winter.

The highway returns to the forest until down the road another lighthouse darts towards the sky. Split Rock Lighthouse was built in 1910 in response to a disastrous 1905 storm that damaged or sank 29 ships in the western lake. For the first 20 years access was only by boat, the North Shore Highway reached the lighthouse in 1924.

The lighthouse is 54 feet tall and rises 168 feet above the lake. The beacon, which flashes every 10 seconds, can be seen 22 miles out on the lake. The small building hidden on the left houses the fog signal, which blares every 18 seconds on a foggy day.

Below sit three houses, built for the families of the head lighthouse keeper and his two assistants.

Far out on the lake, zooming in as much as my poor little “One Shot” camera allows, a ship steams in the distance…

The road again retreats into the woods until a massive industrial complex comes into view. The Northshore Mining Complex, now owned by Cliffs Natural Resources, was the first taconite processing site in North America in 1955. The last of the high-grade iron ore was mined in the early 1950’s and a new process was found that allowed taconite, a much lower grade iron ore found in abundance in the Iron Range of Minnesota, to be processed into iron pellets that could then be shipped to the steel mills. The facility is by far the major employer on the North Shore around Silver Bay.

100 miles north of Duluth is the resort town of Grand Marais. Beyond 40 miles to the north is Canada. Grand Marais (French for ”Great Marsh”) was home to Native Americans who lived by the small bay and marsh at the foot of steep bluffs. Today it is a tourist destination and artist colony, catering to “weekenders” from Duluth to the south and Thunder Bay (Canada) to the north.

Artist’s Point sits at the end of a small peninsula that protects the harbor from the main lake. Views from the same spot back to the west show sailboats in the bay and the small town stretching along the far shore. Note that the “beaches” are not sand, but rather pink granite pebbles.

I turn around and head back towards Duluth under increasingly cloudy skies. A quick picture shows why there’s minimal agriculture in northeast Minnesota. As the glaciers in the last Ice Age scoured the land, they left behind granite which over time has been cloaked in a very thin layer of topsoil. You don’t dig very deep in this country!

Back at the southern point of Lake Superior, it’s time to explore the city of Duluth.

Duluth, MN
Duluth is a seaport with access to the Atlantic Ocean via the chain of the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway. While the city itself is home to only 90,000 people, the city center seems way out of proportion with its early 20th century sky scrapers clustered along Superior Street. Duluth boomed in the latter half of the 1800’s and in 1869 was the fastest growing city in the United States. The city flourished, reaching over 100,000 people by 1900 as the riches from iron mines, steel production and the shipping of the bounty of the Mid West flowed through the city. The glory days began to wane in the 1950’s when the high grade iron ore ran out, eventually the steel mills closed and now the economy is relatively stable based upon mining, shipping and tourism. Enger Hill, southwest above the city, provides a panoramic view of the bay area. First is downtown Duluth, then Canal Park and Park Point (a five mile long sandbar that protects the inner harbor from Lake Superior, and finally the port and the flat Wisconsin landscape to the east of the town of Superior.

The iconic “Lift Bridge” crosses the canal that connects the inner harbor to Lake Superior. It rises every half hour when ships are present to allow passage.

Just to the east of the bridge (right in the picture above) is the marina where the Lunch Box is resting during our stay. It’s a great place because of the location on the bay with views of the city and inner harbor from the marina. As I stand on the jetty protecting the marina the view to my left is of the city and the view to the right is of the Lunch Box, hiding behind boats in the slips.

The view from the Lunch Box is south across the harbor to the port area.

South across the harbor are the massive docks through which the bounty of the Midwest is shipped to the outside world. It’s a massive complex, stretching for miles along the shore of the inner harbor to the south and west.

The city center of Duluth climbs very steeply from the shore of Lake Superior, which made it virtually impossible for my usual cruising town in the Lunch Box. However, Canal Park, the flat beginning of the peninsula that protects the inner harbor, is very accessible because it’s right across the Lift Bridge. Canal Park used to be a warren of warehouses and docks but now is the social center of Duluth and a tourist hot spot. The old warehouses have been converted to trendy hotels, restaurants, bars and shops. Walking to Canal Park, I cross the shipping channel on the Lift Bridge, looking out to Lake Superior.

Looking up Lake Street I can see the city center climbing the bluffs to the west.

Look closely in the distance on the hill and you can see a clock tower rising over the city. This is the iconic 1893 Duluth Central High School (now vacant).

Back in Canal Park the renovated warehouse district unfolds around me.

Walking over to the board walk that follows the shoreline of Lake Superior on the other side of the Canal Park hotels, etc., I see the city center to my left and Park Point to my right.

Duluth was a much more interesting destination than I had anticipated, I’ll be back but now its time to move east and explore the South Shore.

The South Shore
Crossing over the St. Louis River from Duluth Hwy 2 runs east through Superior, WI, a town of approximately 28.000 people and part of the “Twin Ports” The land is much flatter as we head out of the urban area on Hwy 2 and the highway skirts the fringe of northern Wisconsin dairy country. Leaving Hwy 2 and turning north on Hwy 13 a quick picture out the window shows a slightly blurry landscape of verdant fields and dense forest undr misty skies.

Lake Superior is out of sight to the north, even more inaccessible here than on the North Shore, and just to reassure myself that it is still there I take a brief 5 mile side trip to Little Sand Bay for a glimpse at the lake. Yup, still there!

The Red Cliff Reservation takes up the northern point of Wisconsin and Hwy 13 turns back south to the small resort town of Bayfield. Founded in 1856 as a small lumber and fishing port, Bayfield today is a quaint little village frequented by summer residents and tourists, best known as the ferry port for the trip to Madeline Island and the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, a collection of 22 islands off the tip of Wisconsin. I planned on visiting Bayfield on a Saturday but even though the weather was drizzling, the little town was packed with tourists and cars. I went back on Sunday morning to visit, much better. Bayfield hugs a hillside above the small harbor with views to the east towards Madeline Island.

Down on the docks, the car ferry (left) is leaving for Madeline Island.

The small town center bustles with shops, restaurants and pubs.

Given that there are only around 500 year-long residents in Bayfield, the Victorian houses that dot the hillside about the town must contain many summer homes as well as bed and breakfast inns.