Last Saturday the sun was sparkling across Superior and the docket was clear, so we took the opportunity to drive up the shore. With no real plan, the first stop was made on a whim, but it proved to be the most educational part of the day. Split Rock Lighthouse State Park is a place most Minnesotans have visited at least once. Though the park is 2,200 acres and includes a campground and miles of hiking trails, this time we stuck to the lighthouse. Access to this part of the park requires an $8 admission, or for $20 you can get admission plus a one hour historical tour. We opted for the self guided tour. It began with a walk around the museum portion of the visitor center where we found photos and artifacts from the turn of the century shipping industry. We then filed into a little theatre and watched a thirteen minute movie about the history of the lighthouse. From here we made our way outside to see the lighthouse itself. It was currently having some restoration done, so we weren’t able to go inside, but a person only needs to be near it to get the sense of what an important place it was.
The lighthouse, which was completed in 1910, ran faithfully until 1969. At the time of it’s construction there were no roads to it and everything was brought in by boat and hoisted up the cliffside. You can still see the anchors of the trolly system used to get supplies to the top.
When it first opened, the light was powered by a kerosine lantern that floated in a pool of mercury. It wasn’t until 1940 that the station was electrified and the lantern replaced with a 1,000 watt light bulb. You may have heard tales of early lighthouse keepers losing their minds. I’m happy to report that there are no records of this happening at Split Rock, but it was still somewhat of an occupational hazard in its time. Once attributed to loneliness, we now know that at least some of the blame can be shared with the large pools of mercury the early lighthouse keepers worked beside.
Split Rock may have been isolated, but it wasn’t really a lonely place. It was staffed with a head keeper and two assistants. Each employee lived on site with his family through the shipping season. When the season ended in December, most often these men would move their families into town until the season opened again in April.
Though at first glance it seems a little romantic to live somewhere beautiful, purposeful, and largely inaccessible, in reality it was probably also a bit unsettling. The cost of ensuring safe passage to the vessels on the lake came at this little communities limited access to the safety, medical care, and the conveniences of society, especially in those first years before highway 61 was built. Still, it was a place and a lifestyle that drew people in.
Romanticism aside, like all lighthouses, Split Rock was built out of necessity. In November of 1905, the deadly Mataafa Storm killed 36 men and destroyed 29 ships along the north shore. The most famous of these destroyed ships was the Madeira, which wrecked at Gold Rock Point, just north of Split Rock. Miraculously, only one of the ten crewmen lost their lives. This is thanks to the quick thinking and courage of a Scandinavian crewmen named Fred Benson. He reportedly jumped from the ship to a low laying rock, then climbed the 50 foot cliff, secured a rope to shore and threw the other end to his crew mates. By this rope, all but one of them climbed to safety. The crew waited on the cliff for two days until the tugboat Edna G rescued them. Edna G, though long retired, still sits in Two Harbors.
Photo credit: By Elkman – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2808604
It was this harrowing storm that prompted construction of the lighthouse and during it’s 59 years of operation there were no shipwrecks near the point. By 1969, Radar and LORAN communication had made the manned lighthouse unnecessary. Luckily, Split Rock had already become an icon and popular tourist destination. In 1971 it was turned into a state park. To this day it is the most photographed site in the state, followed by the Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis, Artist Point in Grand Marais and Gooseberry Falls. How this is known, I have no idea. But one only needs to visit the park to see how popular it is.
To see the lighthouse illuminated, visit on November 10th. It is lit annually in memoriam of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. The annual lighting is a ticketed event which always sells out, so get your tickets early. But a visit anytime of the year will provide you with a window to life in another era along the rocky shores of Superior.
