Split Rock Lighthouse Above a Forested Shoreline on Lake Superior

Split Rock Lighthouse stands atop a 130-foot cliff within Split Rock Lighthouse State Park near Two Harbors, Minnesota. The U.S. Lighthouse Service built it in 1910 after a series of shipwrecks, including the 1905 loss of the Mataafa, revealed the danger this stretch of the North Shore posed to Great Lakes shipping. Its beam once reached 22 miles across Lake Superior, guiding freighters carrying iron ore from the Mesabi Range. The Coast Guard decommissioned the light in 1969, the same year it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The Minnesota Historical Society now manages the site as a museum and historic landmark.

Taken September 2025