Two Harbors is a city in and the county seat of Lake County, Minnesota, United States, along the shore of Lake Superior. The population was 3,633 at the 2020 census. Minnesota State Highway 61 serves as a main route in Two Harbors. Gooseberry Falls State Park is 13 miles (21 km) to the northeast and the city is home to a cargo shipping port for mined iron ore.
The Superior Hiking Trail, also known as the SHT, is a 310-mile (500 km) long hiking trail in northeastern Minnesota that follows the rocky ridges overlooking Lake Superior for most of its length. The trail travels through forests of birch, aspen, pine, fir, and cedar. Hikers enjoy views of boreal forests, the Sawtooth Mountains, babbling brooks, rushing waterfalls, and abundant wildlife. The lowest point in the path is 602 ft (183 m) above sea level and the highest point is 1,829 ft (557 m) above sea level. The footpath is intended for hiking only. Motorized vehicles, mountain bikes, and horses are not allowed on the trail. Many people use the trail for long-distance hiking, and facilitating this purpose are 94 backcountry, fee-free campsites.
Minnesota State Highway 61 is a 148.843-mile-long (239.540 km) highway in northeast Minnesota, which runs from a junction with Interstate 35 (I-35) in Duluth at 26th Avenue East, and continues northeast to its northern terminus at the Canadian border near Grand Portage, connecting to Ontario Highway 61 at the Pigeon River Bridge. The route is a scenic highway, following the North Shore of Lake Superior, and is part of the Lake Superior Circle Tour designation that runs through Minnesota, Ontario, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
Split Rock Lighthouse is a lighthouse located southwest of Silver Bay, Minnesota, USA on the North Shore of Lake Superior. The structure was designed by lighthouse engineer Ralph Russell Tinkham and was completed in 1910 by the United States Lighthouse Service at a cost of $75,000, including the buildings and the land. It is considered one of the most picturesque lighthouses in the United States.
The North Shore of Lake Superior runs from Duluth, Minnesota, United States, at the western end of the lake, to Thunder Bay and Nipigon, Ontario, Canada, in the north, to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario in the east. The shore is characterized by alternating rocky cliffs and cobblestone beaches, with forested hills and ridges through which scenic rivers and waterfalls descend as they flow to Lake Superior.
Tettegouche State Park, pronounced “tet-a-gooch”, in the United States, is a Minnesota state park on the north shore of Lake Superior 58 miles (93 km) northeast of Duluth in Lake County on scenic Minnesota Highway 61. The park's name stems from the Tettegouche Club, an association of local businessmen which purchased the park in 1910 from the Alger-Smith Lumber Company. The club's members protected the area until its sale in 1971 to the deLaittres family. In 1979, the state of Minnesota acquired 3,400 acres (1,400 ha) from the Nature Conservancy, including Tettegouche Camp. The land was added to Baptism River State Park, which was renamed Tettegouche State Park.
Interstate Park comprises two adjacent state parks on the Minnesota–Wisconsin border, both named Interstate State Park. They straddle the Dalles of the St. Croix River, a deep basalt gorge with glacial potholes and other rock formations. The Wisconsin park is 1,330 acres (538 ha) and the Minnesota park is 298 acres (121 ha). The towns of Taylors Falls, Minnesota and St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin are adjacent to the park. Interstate Park is within the Saint Croix National Scenic Riverway and the Ice Age National Scientific Reserve. The western terminus of the Ice Age National Scenic Trail is on the Wisconsin side. On the Minnesota side, two areas contain National Park Service rustic style buildings and structures that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Jay Cooke State Park is a state park of Minnesota, United States, protecting the lower reaches of the Saint Louis River. The park is located about 10 miles (16 km) southwest of Duluth and is one of the ten most visited state parks in Minnesota. The western half of the park contains part of a rocky, 13-mile (21 km) gorge. This was a major barrier to Native Americans and early Europeans traveling by canoe, which they bypassed with the challenging Grand Portage of the St. Louis River. The river was a vital link connecting the Mississippi waterways to the west with the Great Lakes to the east.
Judge C. R. Magney State Park is a state park in the U.S. state of Minnesota, on the North Shore of Lake Superior. It was named for Clarence R. Magney, a former mayor of Duluth and justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court, who was instrumental in getting 11 state parks and scenic waysides established along the North Shore. The park is best known for the Devil's Kettle, an unusual waterfall and rock formation in which half of the Brule River disappears into a pothole.
Clarence R. Magney was an American attorney, lawyer, and jurist who served as the mayor of Duluth from 1917 to 1920 and associate justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court from 1943 to 1953.
The Sawtooth Mountains are a range of hills or small mountains on the North Shore of Lake Superior in the U.S. state of Minnesota, extending about 30 miles (48 km) from Carlton Peak near Tofte on the west, to Grand Marais on the east.
Palisade Head is a headland on the North Shore of Lake Superior in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It is within Tettegouche State Park but not contiguous with the rest of that park. Palisade Head is located at milepost 57 on scenic Minnesota State Highway 61 in Lake County, approximately 54 miles (86 km) northeast of Duluth and 3 miles northeast of Silver Bay.
Madeira was a schooner barge that sank off the coast of Minnesota in Lake Superior on November 28, 1905. A schooner barge is a type of ship that functions like a barge, in that it is towed by a steamship, but also has sails like a schooner. This type of ship evolved from wooden sailing ships that were cut down into barges and towed behind wooden steamships, a practice which originated in the late 1880s in coastal areas. This design was commonly used in the Great Lakes for transporting grain, iron ore, and other products.
The Duluth Complex, the related Beaver Bay Complex, and the associated North Shore Volcanic Group are rock formations which comprise much of the basement bedrock of the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Minnesota in central North America. The Duluth and Beaver Bay complexes are intrusive rocks formed about 1.1 billion years ago during the Midcontinent Rift; these adjoin and are interspersed with the extrusive rocks of the North Shore Volcanic Group produced during that same geologic event. These formations are part of the Superior Upland physiographic region of the United States, which is associated with the Laurentian Upland of the Canadian Shield, the core of the North American Craton.
The Mataafa Storm of 1905, was a storm that occurred on the Great Lakes on November 27–28, 1905. The system moved across the Great Basin with moderate depth on November 26 and November 27, then east-northeastward across the Great Lakes on November 28. Fresh east winds were forecast for the afternoon and evening of November 27, with storm warnings in effect by the morning of November 28. Storm-force winds and heavy snows accompanied the cyclone's passage. The storm, named after the steamship Mataafa, ended up destroying or damaging about 29 vessels, killing 36 seamen, and causing shipping losses of US$ 3.567 million on Lake Superior.
The Naniboujou Club Lodge is a resort and restaurant built as part of a private club on the North Shore of Lake Superior in Cook County, Minnesota, United States, about 15 miles (24 km) east of Grand Marais. It is named after Naniboujou, a character from the Cree, and the lodge's décor has both Native American and Art Deco influences. Commenced in the twilight of the Jazz Age, the club's grandiose plans succumbed to the economic realities of the Great Depression, and only the clubhouse was built. That building retains its original design and is listed as a historic property.
Splitrock is an abandoned townsite in Beaver Bay Township, Lake County, Minnesota, United States; located at the mouth of the Split Rock River.
The Split Rock River is a 3.5-mile-long (5.6 km) river of Minnesota, in the United States. It drains a small watershed of about 40 square miles (100 km2) on the North Shore of Lake Superior. The name was used as early as 1825 and is believed to refer either to the steep-walled gorge carved by the river or to two cliffs east of the river mouth that appear split apart. An indigenous name for the river was Gininwabiho-zibi, meaning "War Eagle Iron River." The river's lower course flows through Split Rock Lighthouse State Park, and the Superior Hiking Trail ascends and descends both banks. There is a separate stream called Split Rock Creek nearby.
The North Shore Highlands are a physiographic and ecological region of the U.S. state of Minnesota in central North America. They were formed by a variety of geologic processes, but are principally composed of rock created by magma and lava from a rift about 1.1 billion years ago, which rock formations are interspersed with and overlain by glacial deposits. Their ecology derives from these origins, with thin, rocky soils supporting flora and fauna typical of their northern, inland location.
The Grand Portage State Forest is a state forest located near the community of Hovland in Cook County, in extreme northeastern Minnesota. The forest encloses Judge C. R. Magney State Park, Swamp River Wildlife Management Area, Hovland Woods Scientific and Natural Area, and Spring Beauty Hardwoods Scientific and Natural Area. It borders the Grand Portage Indian Reservation to the east, the Superior National Forest to the west, and Ontario to the north. The forest is named after the Grand Portage, a historic trade route between the Great Lakes and the Northwest.
