Lake Superior North Shore Self-Guided Audio Driving Tour

This tour begins in the parking lot of the Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center, located at 600 Canal Park Drive, Duluth. To begin the tour, exit the parking lot and turn right onto Canal Park Drive.

Note: The tour is over 48 miles long, with more than 47 audio stories, and takes about 2-3 hours to complete.

Buy once, use for one year! Ideal for extended visits and return trips over the next 12 months.

Local legend says in 1870 every man, woman and child in Duluth brought out their shovels and dug the canal here in just three days! In reality, a huge steam dredger did most of the hard work. Not quite as fun, I know!

Mining magnate Chester Congdon built it in 1908. It later passed to his daughter Elisabeth, who lived out her twilight years there. That is, until June 27th, 1977, when she was found murdered in her bedroom. Someone had suffocated her with a satin pillow. Nearby was Elisabeth’s nurse, bludgeoned to death with a candlestick.

As we head for the outskirts of Duluth, you might be wondering where the city got its name. Well, for that we have to meet French explorer Daneil Greysolon Dulhut. He set up camp in this area in 1679, proudly planting the French coat of arms.

This overlook also features a series of panels highlighting the history of commercial fishing on the lake. It’s big business! The fish sanctuary across the street isn’t open to the public, but it does brisk business catching rainbow trout, raising their offspring, then returning them back to the lake. It’s a cycle that goes on every year and helps maintain our marine ecosystems.

To see the marker, park in the turnout ahead. Otherwise, continue nutrients from the soil. And just like the trees, wildflowers have intricate root systems of their own. Their roots help stabilize the soil. They then use these nutrients for their own growth, then return the nutrients to the soil when they decompose.

This was the seedy part of town where men could be “relieved of their pay.” At its height in the late 1800s, there were 22 saloons in just a two block radius! That’s certainly a lot of places for these men to whoop it up and share wild tales.

Thankfully, workers completed the 3-year project without incident. With the tunnel completed, drivers no longer had to go miles out of their way, driving on a narrow two-lane road that ran right along the cliff’s edge. Talk about a white-knuckling drive! One mistake and the car would have plunged right into the lake.

On a clear morning in June 1928, Captain Edward Smith was commanding the SS America, a passenger steamship with 47 on board. The passengers included a number of wealthy citizens heading to their summer vacation homes on Isle Royale.

The name actually comes from the Objiwe name for this place. They call it Shabonimikani-zibi, or River Place of the Gooseberries. And they have a very special connection to these small tart berries.

As this part of the earth shifted, volcanic eruptions spewed lava onto the surface. The lava filled in cracks and crevices, then hardened into rocks called igneous rocks. The type of stones found at Iona’s Beach are specific kinds known as rhyolite and felsite.

Just ahead is a perfect spot to take a photo of the Split Rock Lighthouse. In fact, millions of people have taken a photo from this very spot, making this one of the most photographed lighthouses in the world!