The sixth day of our "Tour de Minnesota" began with a hearty breakfast at the Grand Ely Lodge before we departed to see some of the great natural landscapes Minnesota has to offer. We visited Tettegouche State Park and Gooseberry Falls State Park, stopping in Two Harbors before arriving to the day's final stop: Duluth. From a Waterfront Tour, to the Lake Superior Marine Museum, to Canal Park, we were sure to get a taste of Duluth. The temperature was at an average 43°F (6°C) with a consistent chilly breeze in the air. Throughout the day, we traveled about 104 miles (167 kilometers).

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Grand Ely Lodge 

47°54'45"N 91°51'43"W 

8:00 AM Left the Grand Ely Lodge  

 

Our day six, the second of October, started with an early wake-up at the Grand Ely Lodge. It was a cold, cloudy morning, complete with a fine mist in the air. We hit the road at 8:00 AM, and drove southeast down MN highway 1. It wasn’t until we were driving for 50 minutes that we encountered our first passing lane. After another half hour of driving, we stopped abruptly in the middle of the road to allow a moose to cross. This was somewhere near Finland, Minnesota. 

 

We drove for a little while longer until 9:40 when we pulled up to Tettegouche State Park.

 

Stop #2 Tettegouche State Park, Silver Bay, MN 

47°20’18”N 91°11’46”W 

 9:40 AM; cloudy, breezy, chilly.

 

Tettegouche State Park is located on the North Shore of Lake Superior. It was a cold, cloudy morning with a slight breeze when we got there at 9:40 AM. Something we noticed right away was the new visitor center, which had an incredibly interesting museum we got to peruse for a little bit. 

 

Past the visitor center is a network of trails that led throughout the park. We split into a few groups and followed the trails down to the lakeside where we were immediately in awe of the powerful waves crashing into the cliffs along the shore. The water was a root beer like tan color, and was spraying the dark red rock faces as each waved crashed ashore. It was an incredible exhibition of the power of nature in action.

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Stop #3 Gooseberry Falls, 3206 MN-61, Two Harbors, MN 

47° 8’ 24”N 91° 28’13”W; Elevation: 300ft 

 

After getting to explore Tettegouche State Park, we had the pleasure of visiting Gooseberry Falls State Park in all her glory.  Gooseberry is well known for its Lake Superior shoreline, breathtaking waterfalls, and its river gorge. The park features historic log and stone structures, multi-use trails, and a gateway plaza, along with its popular Gitchi-Gami State Trail. This two-and-a-half-mile long paved trail goes through the park along Highway 61 and connects the picnic area to the rest of the trail.   

Gooseberry Falls State Park brings in more than 750,000 visitors a day on average, with their busiest days on weekends—especially during July and August—and the three or four weekends of peak fall colors. During these short weeks of fall foliage, there can be an upwards of 960,000 visits in a day.  

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Stop #4 Two Harbors, MN

47° 1’ 3”N 91° 40’ 20”W; Elevation: 630ft

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Before making our way to Duluth, we stopped in Two Harbors, Minnesota for a beer and some background on the significance of this small town. Two Harbors was formed by waves to which led to the building of a break wall for civilization to thrive along the shore. The Ojibwe people would spearfish by moonlight along Agate Beach’s break wall. This barrier was constructed of cement and boulders to calm waves and allow boats to come in. Two Harbors became the second biggest port in Minnesota to this day.

Two Harbors has a piece of Minnesota’s heart located in its history, as it is the birthplace of the 3M Corportation. In the beginning of the 20th century, five businessmen took advantage of the minerals in the town and established the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Corporation. Through their various financial obstacles, 3M found stability in sandpaper products and moved to Duluth.

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Prior to highways, railroads were built from Two Harbors to Duluth, increasing tourism to the town. When Highway 61 was built, it was constructed with the intention to go through Two Harbors. The scenic highway brought many more people in year-round. This city has much to those passing by, including the famous Edna G. Tugboat, the only operating lighthouse in Minnesota, Grandma’s Marathon, and various winter activities and events! Though winter tourism is down in comparison to summer, dog sledding, a fully lit ski trail, and the Lake Superior Hiking Trail are among some of the things that bring people in during the bitter winter. One of this town’s most well-known businesses is the Castle Danger Brewery, which has won the Minnesota Star Tribune’s Brewery Bracket twice.

 

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Stop #5 Duluth, MN 

46° 46’ 52”N 92° 5’ 49”W

1:50 PM

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Our next stop was the Duluth harbor. We rolled up to a parking lot adjacent to a small inlet in the harbor. We were informed to bundle up, as the temperature was dipping into the 30’s, and the periodic rain was not helping our efforts to keep warm. So, we layered up and walked across the street to a gift shop nestled in the side of a large white building. The store was filled with nautical knick knacks and locally nuanced novelties. While there, Ezra and Garry handed us our tickets for a boat tour of the harbor.

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We left the shop, crossed the street, and there before us she lay. The Vista Star in all her glory rocked back and forth in the choppy waters, awaiting her batch of passengers. After struggling to secure the gangplank with the powerful rocking of the boat, we all clambered aboard and settled inside the first deck, ordering drinks and soft pretzels, before embarking on what turned out to be one of the most densely informative few hours of the trip.

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We cast off, and our tour guide, Jess, informed us about the many aspects of commerce and industry going on in the harbor. The waters were too rough to go out into the lake, so we stayed up-river from the lift bridge, and sailed around the smattering of ports and docks along the waterfront.

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Jess described the hilly landscape surrounding the river valley, and the mills directly on the waterfront. The General Mills A mill was pointed out, and she mentioned its purpose for beet pulp pellets, reminding us of our adventures in sugar beets a few days earlier. (SUGAR BEET REFERENCE). We passed a concrete field full of wind turbine parts, as well as a massive ship, the BBC Hudson, filling up with wheat destined for distant shores.

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We learned just how important to the US economy and international commerce Duluth really is. Going in and out of the ports every day are ships from and destined for ports near and far, going all the way to places like Morocco, Italy, Spain, and Algeria! This harbor is used by so many different companies from so many different nations because shipping by sea is sixty times more fuel efficient than transporting by truck. That means it makes more sense to put your corn destined for Arkansas on a ship in Duluth harbor, have it chug its way down to the gulf, and then steam up the Mississippi than to just dump it on a few trucks and have send them down interstate 35. This mostly comes down to the sheer amount of freight these ship gargantuan vessels can carry as opposed a fleet of semi trucks.

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Among the industries in the harbor, we saw historic mill terminals, some of the largest in the world, where not only train cars, but whole trains would be flipped upside-down and their contents dumped into the cargo holds of ships. We saw massive fuel terminals, capable of pumping 560,000 gallons of fuel, filling a tanker ship’s 560,000 gallon fuel tank in a matter of hours as opposed to the days spent refueling in the past. The ship steered past some massive railroad docks used for shipping taconite and we were told a story about when a train conductor forgot just how long his train was and accidentally drove several cars off the end of the dock.

 

As we continued our voyage around the harbor, we learned a few more interesting facts about the lake and its industry. It turns out, the brown color of the water is due to tannin from upstream sources that stain the lake, and not from the dredging we saw being done in the middle of the waterway. This occurs naturally and is the source of the rootbeer color of Gooseberry Falls we saw earlier in the day. Tannin is also apparently also found in tea.  The dredging, on the other hand, is to keep river sediment from settling on the bottom of the channel and making it any less than 28-30 feet deep to allow ships to pass safely.

 

After cruising around past some more landmarks, learning about the great industries being fed by Duluth and getting waved at by some friendly ship captains, we made our way back to the dock. There we moored and disembarked into the rainy downtown, heading to the maritime museum to learn more about what we had just experienced.

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Stop #6 Maritime Museum, 600 Canal Park Dr, Duluth, MN

46°46’56” N, 92° 5’ 38” W

4:00 PM

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Our sixth stop of the day was at the Maritime Museum, where we were able to explore various interactive exhibits on the Great Lakes. This museum may not have been the size of the Smithsonian, but it was packed with endless information on the history of the Great Lakes, local and international shipping--and of course, everyone's favorite--shipwreck historical artifacts. A large screen displays a live incoming and departing ship schedule, allowing tourists and museumgoers to watch national and international ships come and go.

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The Maritime Museum is operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers with the goal to maintain the marine culture and heritage behind both Duluth and Lake Superior. Due to colonial settlement and establishment of Superior City in 1852, citizens were introduced to various trade and were able to develop Duluth with the exports. Ninety percent of their exported tonnage consisted of iron ore, coal, and grains. This museum has record of bringing as many 6,00 visitors in one day, thanks to multiple notorious exhibits and displays, the most well-known being the Edmund Fitzgerald shipwreck. Along with its popular exhibits, the Maritime Museum is frequently visited due to their ever-changing and honorary exhibits for donors and supporters.

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Stop #7 Canal Park, Duluth, MN

4:30 PM

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A stop in Duluth would be incomplete without a visit to Canal Park, a hub for shopping and food. Canal Park is located on the Minnesota Point, a seven-mile-long sand bar formed from erosion from the St. Louis and Nemadji Rivers. Prior to the development of Canal Park, it was filled with warehouses and was mainly utilized for shipping cargo. Up until the 1990s, it wasn’t the go-to place for tourists as waves would frequently break windows at the nearby hotel. The Aerial Lift Bridge plays a mighty role in the shipping industry on Lake Superior and is significant for its engineering. 

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In 1964, construction for I-35 began, making it the first federal highway through Duluth. This brought great tourism and helped keep the city alive. However, the highway was a contentious topic at the time of its building. During the 1970s, there was a great uproar around interstates and their divisive effects. Cities like San Francisco were experiencing a similar issue to Duluth and were protesting highway construction. They feared that the interstate would divide the city in two. Despite these obstacles, Duluth developed Canal Park with the effects of psychological connections with water, promoting ecotourism to the city. Along with the beautiful shore of Lake Superior, Canal Park brings people in from all over for their breweries, easy parking, and fudge.

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Stop #7 Hoops Brewing Company, Downtown Duluth, MN

5:30 PM

 

The final stop of the day was Hoops Brewery in downtown Duluth. It was cold and rainy when we were let loose to explore downtown a little bit. Some of us went off to find a place to eat, a few others went to check out the shops down South Lake Avenue. A small group of us spent some time getting sprayed by the lake agate hunting, so we were soaked to the bone and shivering the whole walk down South Lake to find Hoops.

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Seeking refuge from the frigid conditions outside, a handful of us showed up to Hoops Brewing Company, on South Lake Avenue, adjacent to The Suites Hotel and Old Chicago, a little while before the rest of the class. Through the large windows we caught Ezra sitting alone at a table, so we promptly entered the brewery, set our sopping jackets on a nearby barrel, and sat with him, discussing the architecture of the converted warehouse. The place was spacious and warm, with soft orange/yellow lighting. The raw brickwork was accented by the massive Douglas Fir pillars holding up the high ceiling, giving a rugged contemporary look to place.

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When the rest of the class arrived, we spoke to (WHAT WAS HER NAME?), a recent graduate of the UWEC Geography program who agreed to meet with us. She currently works as a reporter for a local paper in Duluth and was able to give us insight on how she is incorporates her geography background into her work as a reporter. We asked her questions about life after graduation, and what we should expect and prepare for with our own career paths. She informed us about what to expect and how to prepare after we graduate, emphasizing the fact that the transition from a life of education to the workforce is incredibly tough. She lamented the loss of the research tools and resources available to university students that comes with graduating but asserted the importance of knowing how to conduct research wherever we go in our career. People would be counting on us in the near future, and we’d have to know what we are doing. Her closing words were to remember to look at everything as working in systems, a huge part of what today was all about, and that “things don’t exist in a vacuum.”

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We stayed and chatted a little while longer before being released for dinner at the plethora of restaurants in the district. The class split into two groups, but somehow both parties ended up at the same Mexican restaurant where we ate, told stories, laughed, and toasted to Sam’s birthday. From there we headed back to the vans and retired to the hotel to end our eventful day on the north shore of Lake Superior.

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