World United States Minnesota Duluth

Mike and Roxanne travel east

Duluth, MN Aug 8, 2007

Aug 8, 2007 Duluth, Minnesota

We started off the day by finding the Scenic Parkway and driving the full or almost the full length. We made several stops to see the sights, the bridges, the ore loading docks and the city of Duluth.

The French explorer Daniel de Greysolon, Stear du Lhute landed on the site of the present day Duluth in 1679 and in 1792 the North West Trading Company established a trading post here. A permanent settlement was not established until 1852. In 1865 Iron ore and gold was discovered and Duluth became the northern terminus of the Lake Superior and Minnesota Railroad and lumber was shipped out of the area.

Duluth is now a major inland port and important grain center. There are 49 miles of ore and grain docks and ships were all over the world dock here and take on iron ore, grain and taconite.

One of the residents in the late 1800's and early 1900's was a man named Enger who came from Norway. From humble beginnings he managed to amass a large amount of land on the hill above Duluth. He enjoyed the area so much he left the land to the city for use as a park. It also encompasses a large golf course. Enger Park and 80 foot Enger Tower were dedicated in 1939 by Crown Prince Olav and Crown Princess Martha of Norway.

After the scenic drive we picked up maps at the visitor's center and headed to Bayfront Park. This is where you learn all about Duluth and its shipping history.

We toured a Coast Guard ice breaker and buoy tender, the Sundew which is much like the one stationed in Seattle. The other ship we toured was the William E. Irvin a 630' iron ore hauler. She is small by today's standard, with ships over 1000' long.

We barely finished that tour and it was time to board the Vista King for a cruise of the harbor and out under the lift bridge. We were able to see close up the shipping activities within the harbor. One point of interest since the Skyline drive had been what railroad tracks that went out over the water. This turned out to be one of the loading docks for taconite, pellets made from iron ore. A ship was being loaded as we cruised by and with the explanation from our guide, and later a movie at the Maritime Museum I think we finally have the general idea. The ships are loaded practically automatically and a 1000' ore ship can be completely loaded or unloaded in a matter of only a few hours.

After the cruise we went to Grandma's Saloon and Grill for lunch. We were able to sit on the upper deck to eat and while we were there we watched the 1000' ore ship the American Century enter the harbor under the lift bridge.

Impressive, the ship is taller than the two-story Maritime Museum and is maneuvered as easily as a small vessel by the Captain.

Next was the Maritime Museum run by the Army Corps of Engineers. The museum is free and shows more detail on the harbor, the types of cargoes and ships and well as the disasters in the area and ships that have sunk in Lake Superior and the other Great Lakes.

It had been a full day for us, we had left the RV at 8 in the morning and did not finish at the museum until after 5. We came home, Mike watched the game and I worked on the day's pictures and such.

Oh, I mentioned that our neighbor was a RV from Washington. Well, he turned out to be Roger Johnson, an author. We talked with him for a few minutes in the morning before they left and he let me download 3 of his books to my computer. They travel around the US getting ideas for locales for his books.