We drove the North Shore drive from Duluth to Grand Portage MN. It’s a beautiful drive with awesome views of Lake Superior. The scenic route starts at the very end of I-35 just north of Duluth and goes all the way to the Canadian border. Portage NM is just 6 miles from the border. We stopped along the way at Two Harbors to see the harbor (where they load Iron Ore for shipment east) and the historic Light House. It’s a quaint little town. The loading facilities for the Iron Ore date back to the late 1890s and are massive. The Lighthouse dates back to the early 1900s and was one of the lighthouses built along the Lake Superior North shore after the storm on 5 Nov 1905 when 11 ships were sunk or damaged from running ashore. The rock in this section of the shore contains magnetite which would deflect the magnetic compasses of the time by up to 18 degrees, coupled with deep water right up to just 20-30 yards from shore and poor viability due to blowing snow (Temperature was below zero), fooled the ships into believing they were farther from shore than the actually were. Seventy years later a similar storm on the same day sank the infamous Edmond Fitzgerald.
Further up the coast we stopped at the Split Rock Light house and took the tour. It was an interesting tour about the history of the lighthouse, how it was constructed, and the lives of the lighthouse keepers in that remote area. The North Shore road was not completed that far until 1924 so from 1907 – 1924 all supplies for the lighthouse and its keepers came by boat. All the construction material, including the unique color brick (each light house on the shore had different color brick so that navigators could recognize which light house it was by its color) was brought in by boat and hauled up the cliff. The light had a ten second interval on it and used a white light. Other lighthouses used different color light and different flashing intervals so they could be identified by the ships navigator. The Split Rock Lighthouse light could be seen up to 22 miles out on the lake before the curvature of the earth blocked it from view. The Fresno Lens for the light was made in Paris France specifically for this lighthouse. The spindle for the lens floats on mercury bearings that are so efficient they are still almost friction free today. The light mechanism is driven by a counter weight that must be wound every two hours. The foghorn, also at a unique interval, could be heard out to 7 miles. A pretty impressive piece of engineering. There were three lighthouse keepers, with their families, that manned the lighthouse during the season (Early April through late December). The house was not manned during the winter since the lake froze over and shipping was not moving. Supplies came in by boat until the early 1930s. The lighthouse was shut down in 1969 due to the availability of other forms of modern navigation and was turned over to the state in 1971 and then to the Historical Society in 1975. If you do this drive, make sure to stop for this treasure.
We ate lunch at Split Rock, walked Etta (Yes we brought her on the drive) and proceeded to Grand Portage NM. Due to the stops along the way, we did not get to Grand Portage until 3:45PM and it closes at 5. We got our passport stamp (#13), saw the park film and reviewed the exhibits in the visitor center before walking down to the recreation of the Grand Portage Stockade on the lakeshore. In the stockade there were exhibits on the fur trade, life in the stockade, canoe making and the Ojibwe Indian teepees, fur hunting tools and their lives. The stockade was part of the North West Company. This was the site of the great Rendezvous in July. Here furs brought by canoe from the west by the Voyageurs were traded for goods brought in from Montreal by the “Pork-Eaters” or “Montrealers”. The fur traders would buy the furs from the Indians, who hunted for them through the winter, load them up in the Birch Bark canoes and start east as soon as the ice broke on the lakes in late April. The Pork-Eaters would load up their canoes in Montreal with trade goods and head west as soon as the ice broke on the Ottawa River and the great lakes. Both were trying to be at Grand Portage by early July for the great Rendezvous. The stockade was abandoned by the North West Company (A Scottish owned business) in 1803 due to the line between British Canada and the new USA being drawn just 6 miles north of the portage along the Pigeon River. The Company moved its operations north of the new border to Fort William, eventually merged with the Hudson Bay Company but went out of business as the demand for Beaver Fur had dropped since felt hats were no longer in style in Europe by the mid 1800s. The NM takes its name from the 8.5 mile long portage that goods arriving from the north west were carried over from Fort Charlotte since the rapids on the Pigeon River below Fort Charlotte were not passable with the canoes. The entire NM is on the Grand Portage Indian Reservation. We stopped at the Canoe making exhibit and had a wonderful conversation with one of the skilled Birch Bark canoe makers. He discussed with us the process by which the canoes are formed and sealed. One of the things we did not know was the Spruce Pitch that they used to seal the seams in the birch bark had to be reapplied every night by the Voyageurs as it would get scrapped off by rocks and flexing of the canoes under load and start leaking. So every night, after a 13-14 hour day of paddling, they would have to unload the canoes and repair/reseal them with Spruce pitch before going to sleep. We wish we had more time before they closed to talk with more of the period dressed actors. If we ever do this drive again, we definitely would plan on stopping overnight. As it was, by the time we got dinner at Voyageurs Brew Pub in Grand Marais, and started back it was 8PM with a 3 hour drive ahead of us. We were tired by the time we got back to the Wanderer but thoroughly enjoyed the excursion.
On the way back to Cloquet, we stopped to get a couple of pictures of the most fantastical front yard we have ever seen. It must have taken this man years to build all of this up and sculpt it into whatever chaos he saw fit. Check it out! We've noticed in Minnesota that folks like to set up scenes or scenarios in their yards. They might put two stuffed people in a metal boat with fishing poles in there hands. Another was two stuffed people riding in a carriage. Quite entertaining to say the least.
Notes for future travels on the North Shore:
There was a RV park right outside the Grand Portage NM at the Grand Portage Casino and Lodge. It was nothing to brag about, but it was accessible, clean and looked to have plenty of availability. We also saw there was a RV Park in Grand Marais run by the city which looked a bit packed with seasonal Rvers but is a good option. There was also a really nice RV Park (Burlington Bay Campground) at Two Harbors (about 2 hours from the NM) run by the city.
We also spoke with the rangers about the boat to Isle Royal NP which left out of Grand Portage NM. They said the boat ride is only 1.5 hours if you are going to Windago for a day trip or two hours to Rock Harbor if you are staying overnight in the lodge. The day trip to Windago allows four hours on the island before the return. The Lodge and boats book up months in advance. So some planning is required. There was nothing on the North Shore road that would be any obstacle to towing to Grand Portage. There are a couple of tunnels but there is plenty of room of vertical clearance.
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