We hung around Two Harbors for a while, eating a picnic lunch in a park along the shore and enjoying the beautiful weather. The fog on the lake moved in and out — one minute everything would be clear, the next minute it we would be enveloped in a gray haze.
We walked out on the breakwater to take pictures of the light. It was built in 1897 and is still in use to guide ships into the harbor.
spermophilus franklini
July 3, 1996 — 11:30 am
Two Harbors, Minnesota — Two Harbors Lighthouse
We toured the Two Harbors Lighthouse. As we walked back toward the cars, I heard someone say, “Look at the rat.” I saw a ground squirrel foraging in a small short grass area on an island in the lot. It moved about slowly, then ducked into a tangle of brush.
It was silver-gray on the head and tail with a dark buffy red-brown on its back and sides. The tail was fairly long (with whitish edges) but not fluffy like a tree squirrel’s. I knew it was a ground squirrel but didn’t know what kind. I took notes and identified it when I got home. According to my field guide, it was somewhat out of its range, but we got a good shot of it with my video camera.
We took a trip to the north shore of Lake Superior. Our first stop was Two Harbors, Minnesota, which only has one harbor. (The other bay that looks like a harbor is open to the lake and doesn’t harbor anything.)
The Two Harbors Lighthouse is a museum, and the staff is very proud of the fact that they’ve salvaged the pilot house of an ore boat. They stuck it out on the lawn so that it blocked the view of the lake from the lighthouse and the view of the lighthouse from the lake. It’s obnoxious and not terribly interesting. Our guide was an old man who was very proud of the fact that he’d been in the Navy. He insisted on taking us into the pilot house and had my older daughter pretend to be steering while the rest of us looked on politely.
We weren’t allowed into the keeper’s dwelling, the part of the lighthouse that looks like a house. We did climb the tower to the level just below the lantern. We could see the beacon rotating above us. We could also see the lake (and the pilot house) through a tiny round window. After our tour, we wandered around taking photos.
The lighthouse was built in 1892 when Two Harbors was the major shipping point for iron ore from the Mesabi Range — some ore is still loaded and shipped in the harbor. The light is 78 feet above Lake Superior and is still in use.
When we visited the Eagle Harbor Lighthouse, I bought a booklet on lighthouses in the Keweenaw Peninsula. In that booklet, I discovered that there was a lighthouse in the town of Eagle River. There were no directions, but Eagle River was a tiny town, the river wasn’t very wide, and I figured it couldn’t be too hard to find. It wasn’t. I spotted it right away, although I did have a hard time convincing my family that it was a lighthouse.
It’s now a private residence, and a rather unimpressive one at that. It was built in 1874 and was removed from service in 1908. Lake Superior is barely visible in the right side of the photo.
We and I took a family vacation to Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota. On this day, we headed up to the Keweenaw Peninsula. We visited Copper Harbor, toured the Delaware Copper Mine, and visited this lighthouse.
We stopped across the harbor on the way, admired the view and wondered why we live in Chicago.
The lighthouse had a two-room museum. We walked around and saw everything there was to see. As we were on our way out, we were accosted by an elderly gentleman who informed us that he was our tour guide. We didn’t want to hurt his feelings, so we went through again. His account began slowly, but he did give us some interesting facts about the building and the harbor.
The lighthouse was built in 1871. The walls in the light tower are 12 inches thick. The original lens has been replaced by an airport beacon that flashes red and white. There was also a fog signal building that included a small but well done maritime museum.
The old guy told us there were dangerous reefs across the harbor mouth. Many years ago, rocks were dumped in the center of the channel to mark the safe passage. The two piles (visible in the postcard view below) are about 26 feet apart. The guy said that in his many years in Eagle Harbor he had only once seen a boat enter or leave the harbor anywhere other than through that narrow channel.
