Split Rock Lighthouse State Park

3 photos · 2025

3 photographs tagged Split Rock Lighthouse State Park, 2025.

Split Rock Lighthouse perches atop a rocky cliff above Lake Superior near Two Harbors, Minnesota. — Split Rock Lighthouse sits atop a 130-foot cliff overlooking Lake Superior near Two Harbors, Minnesota. The Minnesota Historical Society, which operates the site as Split Rock Lighthouse State Park, built the station in 1910 after a severe 1905 storm wrecked dozens of ships along the North Shore. The Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railroad supplied the remote outpost by boat, since no roads reached it until the 1920s. The U.S. Coast Guard deactivated the light in 1969, and the tower is now preserved as a historic site rather than an active aid to navigation.

Split Rock Lighthouse stands on a cliff above Lake Superior near Two Harbors, Minnesota. — 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.

Split Rock Lighthouse Sign in Northern Minnesota — A sign for the Split Rock Lighthouse on the North Shore in Minnesota.

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