The Glensheen Mansion

Thursday, September 17, 2015

It was raining pretty hard this morning so we delayed our departure for today’s activities.  It finally let up about 10AM, so we headed to the Glensheen Mansion.  This is a 27,000 sq ft, 39 room, “summer” home built by Chester and Clara Congdon on lakefront property a bit east of Duluth.  It was built between 1905-08. 

Chester Congdon was a lawyer by trade and bought a bunch of stock at $26/share in the Oliver Mining Co., for whom he was a lawyering.  When it became part of US Steel, he sold out at $6000/share.  He ended up with over a million dollars.  What else would you do with a million bucks at the turn of the century?  Yep, build a mansion.  The sad thing was he died in 1916, so he only enjoyed his wealth and his mansion for about 7 years.

Ahhh, but the rest of the story is what’s interesting.  Six of their seven children had died by the late1960s.  Their seventh and youngest daughter, Elizabeth, continued to live in the mansion.  Well, on June 26, 1977, at 83, she and her maid were murdered in the house, from what appeared to be a robbery.  But, they later arrested her adopted daughter’s second husband.  The motive, as usual, was money.  Her daughter stood to inherit the family fortune if Elizabeth died. 

The mansion is now owned and operated by the University of Minnesota and has been open for tours since about 1979.  Pretty much everything in there is original.  For more information search Glensheen Mansion.  Here are a few pictures.

This is the front of the mansion

The second is the backyard.

The Congdons had a stone foot bridge crossing the creek running through the property.  They also had a pretty flower garden and a vegetable garden, all attended to by a gardener who lived his whole life here.

Inside pictures were difficult, since the rooms were poorly lighted and the use of flash was prohibited.

This is the fireplace in the living room.

The library with portraits of Clara and Chester

Fireplace in the dining room

The Billiards Room.  Chester was an avid player of Billiards.

Not the coolest mansion we have toured, but still pretty interesting.

After a brief visit to the Tweed Art Gallery on the campus of the University of Minnesota we headed home.  It poured rain earlier this evening, but now appears to be clearing.  Hopefully tomorrow we can get back on track.

Duluth

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Today was a travel day from Silver Bay to Duluth.  We had a nice stay in Tettegouche, however there were issues related to electrical power.  We have a whole trailer surge protector / voltage protector.  This shuts down power outside a window of 104 to 132 volts, for the purpose of protecting our electrical devices.   We were continually experiencing brownouts; voltage below 104.  It was frustrating as we had to limit our draw to something below 10 amps, otherwise the voltage would drop and the protector would cut off power.

Once at Ogston’s we no longer had the problem, so it was definitely a line problem at Tettegouche.

Not sure how long we will stay here as there is quite a bit to see in Duluth.

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

There was a little spotty rain overnight and cloudy this morning.  We headed into town; first stop was the Army Corps of Engineers Visitor Center and Maritime Museum.  This is located on the shipping channel next to the lift bridge.  Inside are many interesting displays and the all important ship passing schedule.

The lift bridge is Duluth’s signature icon.  It has an interesting history.  The channel cut through here is the entrance to the harbor for both Duluth and Superior, WI harbors.  Back in the 1800s the two towns were competing for commercial shipping.  Superior had a natural entrance but their harbor was shallow.  Duluth had the deeper harbor but no direct access to Lake Superior.  So the towns people of Duluth dug a 3 foot channel. 

Unfortunately, while it provided a channel, it also cut off part of the town, so they constructed a structure over the channel with a trolley car that ran to either side.  The trolley ran on rails located in the overhead and suspended by cables.  Cars and people would enter the trolley and then be transported across in 2 1/2 minutes.

In about 1920 the bridge was increased in height and a roadway bridge was constructed.  This permitted passage between sides continuously until a ship needed to pass through.  The roadway is then hoisted up the 143 feet to allow ships to pass; then lowered for traffic.  That is what we have today.

Today we saw a couple of freighters pass, the Callaway and the Tregurtha.  Recall we saw the Tregurtha at the Soo, it is the largest ship on the Great Lakes.  Some pictures follow.

The bridge is in process of being lifted in this photo.

         Pretty cool!

We also walked along their 2 mile Lake Walk, which is all boardwalk, with a bike trail next to it.  Along the way was a wall mural of various marine related scenes done in mosaic tile.

The mural is several hundred feet in length. It took 8 people 8 weeks to complete. 

At the end of the walk was a really pretty rose garden, which to our surprise had many roses of all colors and varieties in bloom.  Really very pretty.

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Many more things to see, don’t touch that dial!

More Waterfalls

Monday, September 14, 2015

You would think we would have burned out on looking at waterfalls.  Well we haven’t, so we hiked to see some really pretty ones in the park today.  The park has lots of trails and some really long ones, but the falls are on some 1/2 mile trails.  Piece of cake, right?  Yes and no.  To get to them required some big up and down hill hiking.  Fortunately, they’ve installed boardwalks and steps to make the hike easier, sort of.  The water falls required negotiating about 600 steps each way.  It was worth it; these were some beautiful falls.  The first were called the Two Step Falls.

The second falls were the High Falls.  They were also spectacular.

The next feature we hiked to was a sheer cliff top called Shovel Point.  Climbers like to scale this cliff, about 500 feet up from the water’s edge.  There were three guys preparing to do just that as we got here.  We spoke to one of them and he said its fun, we should try it sometime.  Hah!  Dan’s knees were shaking so bad at the edge of this thing, it was hard to keep the camera steady.  Yeah we’ll try it when we see a pig hang glide off the top. By the way, it was another 400 steps to get up here.

Here are a couple other pretty shots.

The rock formation in the background is Shovel Point, that’s the one we hiked to with the 400 steps.  The last two shots are from Palisades Head looking northeast.

This wraps up our stay at Tettegouchi and the North Shore.  We would recommend this to anyone who enjoys breath taking scenery and waterfalls.  The are plenty of motels and restaurants along Highway 61.  It’s only 150 miles long.

Tomorrow we venture back into civilization, going to Duluth.  There are plenty of things to do and see.  Our adventure continues!

Two Harbors

Sunday, September 13, 2015


Our big day started with a 30 mile drive to Two Harbors.  The town is so named for Agate Bay and Burlington Bay Harbors.  Our to-do list included several museums here.  The first was located in the old railroad depot.  To Lynn’s relief, it wasn’t filled with just RR stuff.  Actually it was a collection of items apparently donated by town folks to tell the history of Two Harbors.


The railroad was a major factor in the town’s development as it connected the town to iron mines and logging.  It also connected them to Duluth.  The first iron ore shipment here came from the Soudan Mine.  This place became a major railroad hub with a huge roundhouse for locomotive repair and maintenance.  Now the ore comes from Hibbing, already in pelletized taconite, then loaded on ore freighters.  US Steel runs the show in Two Harbors.  The railroad company was known as the Duluth and Iron Range Railroad.  At one point John Rockefeller owned the mines and railroad, although never visited them.

This is one of trains that operated during the period

The next stop was the 3M Museum.  Of course, you are familiar with 3M products and you know 3M stands for Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing.  We bet you didn’t know they started in Two Harbors and their first product was sandpaper.  Yep, in 1902 they were incorporated here and headquartered here until they moved to St. Paul.  Their original manufacturing plant was located on the eastern border of Tettegouche on Crystal Bay.  The museum had timelines for all the products they have developed over the last 100+ years.  It was stated that one in four people use a 3M product every day.


Before telling you about our last museum stop at the Two Harbors’ Lighthouse, we have to tell you about meeting and talking with Captain Lance Nelson of the M/V American Spirit.  His ship was being loaded at one of five loading piers in Agate Bay and headed for Indiana Bay, east of Chicago.  He was at the lighthouse when we arrived.  He has been working on a Laker for 42 years and is looking to retire soon.  His ship was ahead of the Fitzgerald by about an hour, nearing the Soo Locks, when the Fitz got into trouble and sank.

We had quite a visit with him, found out about his family and his hobbies.  He told us he has been into some crazy weather situations in the Great Lakes.  Lake Superior weather can differ dramatically from it’s western shore to it’s eastern shore.  What a unique experience.


The Two Harbors Lighthouse was put into service in 1894.  The lighthouse is 44 feet tall.  It’s beam, originally from a 4th order Fresnel lens is 78 feet above Lake Superior.  The lantern used a wick and kerosene to create the light.  In 1969 the lantern and Fresnel lens was replaced with two 1000 watt aero beacons.  It is still in service.

Our last stop today was to Gooseberry Falls State Park.  Besides the falls there, the interesting feature was the work done by the Civilian Conservation Corps.  In the 1930s, the CCC laid out the park, built the campground and many of the structures.  The park lies along side of route 61.  One structure was a Gateway Plaza, “Castle in the Park”, which we think may have been a rest stop.  The structure is not used today.
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Here are some of the falls in the park.

Tomorrow is our last day here so we thought we would hike some of the trails within the park.

Silver Bay

Saturday, September 12, 2015

Another beautiful, but chilly day, as we awoke to upper 40s.  We put the electric blanket on last night; good move.  Hey, doesn’t everyone camp with an electric blanket?

Today we went into Silver Bay, an interesting little town.  It is the site of the first taconite producing company in North America.  It began production in 1956.  Northshore Mining is owned by Cliffs Natural Resources.  Most everyone living in Silver Bay is employed here; employing about 600.  Ships come into Silver Bay to load up with taconite, but only a couple ships per month now. None were loading today.

That’s Rocky Taconite welcoming you to Silver Bay.  The town owes it’s existence to taconite and the plant here.

Taconite is pelletized iron ore using a process developed by the University of Minnesota.  Ore, mostly magnetite, with an iron content of about 10% and other worthless rock is ground to a fine powder then separated using a magnet and water flotation. The richened iron is mixed with clay and rolled into marble sized pellets. The magnetite is converted to hematite by heating to 2200F.  The resulting pellet is 30-40% iron and very hard.

At the end of the plant are huge piles of taconite awaiting pickup.

After visiting a few other sites in town we moseyed down to the Split Rock Lighthouse.  This lighthouse was built as a result of six ships sinking and killing 29 men in a really bad storm in 1905.  It was put in service July 1910 and sits upon a tall rock outcropping (Split Rock). The lighthouse is 54 feet tall, it’s beam is 168 feet above Lake Superior.  Its 3rd order Fresnel lens casts a beam visible for 22 miles.  There is also a fog horn audible for 6 miles.

  

It is quite a picturesque lighthouse.  Due to the time it was built, it had many of the latest features, like a mantle instead of a wick.  Pressurized fueling and a mercury, rotational bearing instead of wheels, which were a high maintenance item.  The lighthouse was staffed by three keepers and an assistant.  It used a weighted cable to rotate, kind of like a Grandfather clock.

It was decommissioned by the Coast Guard in 1969. The Minnesota Historical Society maintains it and handled the tours today.  The State owned it until the 1990s.  Some keepers quarters have been restored with period items.  The MNHS has really done a nice job restoring and keeping it up.  Minnesotans claim it is the most photographed lighthouse in the US; not sure we agree, but that’s their hype.

One of the Keepers quarters.  They lived here with their families.

Tomorrow we hike to some falls and visit Two Harbors.