Duluth/Two Harbors, Minnesota

We left Iron Mountain on Monday, 8/21, and drove across the remainder of Michigan and then thru Wisconsin.  The whole time we were on US Highway 2 a good two lane road.

Power plant along the way.

We stopped at a roadside rest and noticed a number of people looking up into the clouds.  They were attempting to see the eclipse.  One guy had a lens for viewing so he would pass it around when the clouds parted.  We both saw it.

Later on we got to the Wisconsin/Minnesota border and would have to cross over the bridge.

Of course many geese...

Picture of Lake Superior.

We had no idea just how big Lake Superior really is.  It is the largest freshwater lake in the world.  It is the coldest, deepest, and highest in elevation of any of the Great Lakes.  Old times say that Superior doesn't give up her dead.  If you go down on Superior, chances are your body will not be found.  This is one lake that you need to know what you are doing if you play in her waters.  The last time Superior totally froze over was in 1997.  In 2003 it almost froze over again, except the western areas long the Minnesota shoreline.

The Big Lake holds as much water as all of the other Great Lakes combined plus three more Lake Eries.  To reach its deepest point, you'd need to descend 1,276 feet - about the distance of a ride down from the top floor of Chicago's 108-story Willis Tower.

This is a drawbridge that is raised to let ships in.  Last year we were here for the Tall Ships, and, they came in under this bridge.

We took the highway north toward Two Harbors (about 20 miles) and went thru 4 tunnels like this one.

We found our campground and got set up for the night.  Pam and Steve came up from Minnetonka (Minneapolis suburb) and we went out for supper.  It stormed most of the night.

The next day we drove north to a place called Gooseberry Falls, a popular place to hike, ride bikes, or enjoy the various falls.  Of course, there were flowers too.

A lot of tree roots in the rocks.

 Inuksuks were found here and there.

This was another falls higher up and flowed into the ones in an earlier picture.

More roots.

From Gooseberry we drove further north to the Split Rock Lighthouse.

This was extremely picturesque.

We toured the lighthouse and the grounds.  It was in operation from 1909 to 1969.

In the early years of the twentieth century, iron ore shipments on Lake Superior doubled and redoubled.  United States Steel's bulk ore carriers became "the greatest exclusive freight-carrying fleet sailing under one ownership in the world."  The demand for a new lighthouse on the lake's inhospitable North Shore was hardly surprising.  A single storm on November 28, 1905 damaged twenty-nine ships.  One-third of them were the uninsured property of the steel company fleet.

There were displays about all the ships that are at the bottom of Lake Superior, most notably the Edmund Fitzgerald.  They don't know exactly where it went down, but this was its expected path.

This was another ship that went down.

There are only 32 steps to the top since the rock fortress is about 110 feet off the water to begin with.

This building housed the fog horns.

There were 3 houses on the property where the lighthouse keeper, his family, and other assistants lived.  The first one was open for viewing.

The old Singer sewing machine.

Early typewriter.

A lady was making cinnamon rolls.

 View of the shoreline from the lighthouse.

The shorline below is where the materials to build the lighthouse were offloaded
and brought up.  A steam-powered hoist and derrick was used.

We walked down the 171 steps and took this photo of the lighthouse.

Stairway...

And more stairway...

Garbage bins in the park have these signs on them.

On the way back to Two Harbors, we stopped here at got a raspberry/rhubarb pie.  Very popular spot.  Delicious.

Later we did go to the brewery called the Castle Dragon (?) and had some beer.  They do not serve food so we called a local pizza shop and had one delivered to the brewery.  Very tasty.   Last year when we were here with the 'Hitchhiker Rally' group, we ate here several times.

Thursday we left for the Bemidji area to visit with Judy's relatives Donna and Karen for the weekend.

Iron Mountain, MI

On our way to Iron Mountain, we encountered some of these 'Big Boys.'  Don't want to get in their way!

Found our campground for the weekend.  Very nice place.

We toured an iron ore mine.  "Big John" watched over it!

This was part of a iron statue with various tools hanging from it.

Our guide showed us how several pieces of equipment worked.

We got on a train to go into the mine.

We rode into the mine as far we the tracks went.  From there we walked thru the mine shafts to other areas where mining took place.

This chart, not easy to read, shows the levels - 13 in total.  We were on level one.  The other 12 levels were flooded now.

Between the iron mine and Iron Mountain is the city of "Norway."

Pasties (pronounced:  pass-ties) are very popular around here.  We bought 4 of them.  They are filled with various veggies and meat.  Pretty good stuff.

We had planned to attend church on Sunday.  Found one with a service that started at 10:45.  When we got there, it looked rather deserted.  We did go in but found out that during the summer they have only one service at 9:30.  Their website said nothing about that!!
So we found another church nearby and hurried over there.  Parking lot was quite full but sign said service was at 10 so we missed that one as well.

We tried...