SPLIT ROCK LIGHTHOUSE
https://www.mnhs.org/splitrock/learn/history\
In the early years of the 20th century, Lake Superior was experiencing a high and growing demand for iron ore shipments. With 112 steel freighters in 1901, U.S. Steel Corporation bulk ore carriers became "the greatest exclusive freight-carrying fleet sailing under one ownership in the world." The call for a new lighthouse on the lake’s inhospitable North Shore was hardly surprising.
On November 28, 1905, a single storm damaged 29 ships, fully one third of which were the uninsured property of the U.S. Steel fleet. Two of these carriers foundered on this rocky coastline. As American novelist James Oliver Curwood proclaimed, the North Shore of Lake Superior was "the most dangerous piece of water in the world."
Split Rock Light Station was completed in 1910, and for half a century it oversaw the safe passage of freighters carrying freshly mined ore from Minnesota’s Iron Range.
As new navigational technology, such as Long Range Navigation (LORAN), radar, and Global Positioning System (GPS), began to emerge, the use of lighthouses as a navigational tool declined. Split Rock Light Station was closed in 1969.
There are only five staffed light stations in operation today. All other lighthouses in the United States are either automated or decommissioned.
https://www.mnhs.org/splitrock/learn/history\
In the early years of the 20th century, Lake Superior was experiencing a high and growing demand for iron ore shipments. With 112 steel freighters in 1901, U.S. Steel Corporation bulk ore carriers became "the greatest exclusive freight-carrying fleet sailing under one ownership in the world." The call for a new lighthouse on the lake’s inhospitable North Shore was hardly surprising.
On November 28, 1905, a single storm damaged 29 ships, fully one third of which were the uninsured property of the U.S. Steel fleet. Two of these carriers foundered on this rocky coastline. As American novelist James Oliver Curwood proclaimed, the North Shore of Lake Superior was "the most dangerous piece of water in the world."
Split Rock Light Station was completed in 1910, and for half a century it oversaw the safe passage of freighters carrying freshly mined ore from Minnesota’s Iron Range.
As new navigational technology, such as Long Range Navigation (LORAN), radar, and Global Positioning System (GPS), began to emerge, the use of lighthouses as a navigational tool declined. Split Rock Light Station was closed in 1969.
There are only five staffed light stations in operation today. All other lighthouses in the United States are either automated or decommissioned.
© David D. Dolton