Duluth and Minnesota’s North Shore may rank among the Midwest’s best kept secrets.
Dan and his brother visited in 2018 as a diversion on a trip to North Dakota . A stop in Fargo netted Dan and his brother their 49th and 50th states, respectively. (Find that post here.) Smitten by Duluth, less so by Fargo, Dan returned to the North Shore with Dawn on their 2023 Great Lakes road trip for a second helping of “Minnesota nice.”
Two Nights in Duluth
Duluth sits on the westernmost shore of Lake Superior. A critical hub for transporting iron ore, coal, grain and more, the port can serve ocean-going vessels who enter the St. Lawrence Seaway some 2,300 miles away. Dan wanted to visit the S.S. William A. Irvin Ore Boat Museum to learn more about the Duluth’s economic engine. Alas, it was closed during our visit.
Still, we found no shortage of things to see and do:
- Duluth Commercial Historic District: The mix of Neoclassical Renaissance Revival, Richardsonian Romanesque, Romanesque Revival, and Tudor Revival architecture in various shades of basalt highlighted our walk down Superior Street. Clean and calm streets front a nice mix of retail, office and restaurant space that occupy the historic buildings.
- Duluth Lakewalk and Boardwalk: We hiked the piece of the Lakewalk that parallels Superior Street. We wish we’d scheduled time to hike all seven plus miles.
- Glensheen Historic Estate: Entrepreneur Chester Adgate Congdon built the 39-room mansion from 1905-1908. The University of Minnesota Duluth took over the estate in 1977 under a trust agreement after the death of his daughter Elisabeth. Of note, but not mentioned on the tour, the heiress’s son-in-law murdered Elisabeth and her nurse in the mansion with a silk pillow and a candlestick, respectively.
- Fitger’s Inn: A hotel and tiny shopping mall reside inside the shell of the 140-year-old Fitger’s Brewing Co. building on the shores of Lake Superior. Our split-level room had a 20-foot ceiling. The brewery closed in 1972, but Dan enjoyed a replica draft in the hotel pub. The brewery’s ornate cashier cage serves as the front desk.
Gooseberry Falls State Park
Minnesota’s North Shore is awash in waterfalls with frothy, root beer-colored water. Gooseberry Falls State Park claims five. Or four, depending on which website we visited. And none of them are named Gooseberry.
We decided to see them all by hiking the three-mile Fifth Falls and Superior Hiking Trail Loop . The trail begins at the visitor center and walks out to a downstream view of Lower and Middle Falls. The twin cascade tumbles beneath the US 61 bridge over the Gooseberry River. Most visitors begin and end their visit at the base of these falls.
The trail meanders past a third cascade, Upper Falls, where the crowd at the popular state park vanished as we pushed on to Fifth Falls along the east side of the river. Aside from the frothy cascades, the trail was kind of a snooze till we crossed Gooseberry Creek. As the trail continued, we enjoyed hiking in the woods across occasional boardwalks with planks laid lengthwise to accommodate cross-country skiers. And we spotted Fifth falls, our fourth cascade, through breaks in the trees.
About that root beer-colored water: The color comes from tannins leached from the leaves of oak and fruit trees in riverside swamps as the water flows to Lake Superior.
Split Rock Lighthouse
Fifty-six light stations dot the Lake Superior Shoreline. The U.S. Postal Service commemorated Split Rock Lighthouse in 1995 as part of its “Lighthouses of the Great Lakes” series of five stamps – one for each Great Lake. Pay a visit and you’ll understand why it deserves to be on a stamp.
Commissioned as a response to the Mataafa Storm of 1905, which sank or damaged 29 ships on Lake Superior, the 54-foot octagonal light station overlooks Lake Superior on a majestic cliff of subvolcanic rock that rises 133 feet above the water. No roads reached this corner of the Northwoods in the early part of the 20th century. So, workers hauled 310 tons of building material for the tower, three keeper houses and a foghorn building from boats to the top of a cliff via steam-powered hoist, completing the station in 1910. We spotted remnants of a tramway from the water to the station, built in 1915-16 to ease the transfer of supplies, along a trail that meanders from the lighthouse to the lake.
Split Rock Lighthouse was decommissioned in 1969, as advanced navigational aids rendered it obsolete. Today, the Minnesota Historical Society manages and maintains the buildings and visitor center as part of Split Rock State Park. They’ve done a great job.
We spent three weeks enjoying friends, family and the wonders of the Great Lakes region of the United States in May and June 2023.