What Is the Split Rock Lighthouse?
This is one of Minnesota’s most visited and photographed lighthouses!
What Makes It Historical?
In the early 1900s, the north shore of Lake Superior became a major shipping lane for all sorts of products making their way from the nation’s interior to the ocean. One of those fleets belonged to the U.S. Steel Corporation, 112 freighters strong by 1901! Shipping across the lake was no surefire endeavor, though. On November 28, 1905, a single storm took out a third of that fleet in one fell swoop! After a two-year lobbying campaign by William Ellis Corey, the president of U.S. Steel, Congress decided it was time to install a lighthouse on what was then known as Stony Point, soon to be called Split Rock!
The site chosen for this lighthouse was a precarious one indeed! There was no road leading to these towering cliffs, so 310 tons of supplies had to be brought in by tender boats from Duluth and Two Harbors, then hoisted 130 feet above the water! It took thirteen months to complete Ralph Russell Tinkham’s lighthouse design, but the Split Rock light’s kerosene-fueled, third-order Fresnel lens finally shone forth for the first time on July 31, 1910! Its .5-second flash, every 9.5 seconds, was visible for over 22 miles!
For the Split Rock Lighthouse’s first fourteen years, it was as remote as could be. In May, the keeper, starting with Orren “Pete” Young, and two assistants would arrive by boat and be largely cut off from the world until December, with periodic visits from their families! Keepers would tend the light all night in four-hour shifts and had to be skilled in both equipment repair and bookkeeping. Things got a little easier in 1915 when the Lighthouse Service built a tramway to carry supplies from a dock to the top of the bluff, then much easier in 1924 when the Lake Superior International Highway was completed, allowing keepers and their families to come and go as they liked! With the arrival of the highway came tourists, thousands during the Great Depression, and the lighthouse continued to be an attraction through its decommissioning in 1969 and transfer to the Minnesota Historical Society in 1975!
How Can I #HelpTheHelpers?
- Pay the entrance fee to help maintain trails, signs, structures, and other visitor services!
- Become a member of the Minnesota Historical Society!
- Donate to the Minnesota Historical Society!
- Be a responsible visitor! Please respect the signs and pathways, and treat all structures and artifacts with respect. They’ve endured a lot to survive into the present. They’ll need our help to make it into the future!
How Do I Get There?
3713 Split Rock Lighthouse Rd.
Two Harbors, MN 55616
(Take Me There!)
When Should I Visit?
The lighthouse complex is open daily from 10:00 AM until 6:00 PM, between the end of April and end of October! In November and December, it’s open Thursday through Monday from 10:00 AM until 4:00 PM!
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