Well, we're back home safe and sound, or as sound as this HL Wacko ever gets.

To Paul Brady, Dave H., Jakers and Suzanne Murphy, all who recommended Split Rock, from the bottom of my heart I thank you. I’m still in awe of the beauty of its Lake Superior locale, the quality of the restoration and maintenance, and the accomplishment of the site interpreters. It was an experience I’ll remember for the remainder of my life. It was like stepping back in time.

My wonderful wife Kim is not ‘into’ lighthouses as I am so we scheduled one day this vacation for visiting lighthouses. That day was Wednesday, June 28th. We’d flown into Minneapolis the previous Sunday and were staying in Bloomington, a Minneapolis suburb. We left the hotel in our rental car at 4:45 A.M. Headed for Split Rock. Our plan was to go past Duluth and Two Harbors and start at Split Rock, the farthest point, then work our way back. On the way we stopped for coffee and a quick eat-it-in-the-car breakfast.

The drive between Minneapolis and Duluth is very picturesque. There are of course many small lakes, Minnesota’s motto on their license plates is “Land of 10,000 Lakes” and I suspect they under counted. There were a few farms with red barns exhibiting weather vanes on their roof ventilators.

In route we stopped at Gooseberry Falls State Park to see the beautiful falls and walk some of the hiking trails. The natural habitat up there is so different from what we have down here that we ooed and aahed all the time. Types of ferns which we grow in greenhouses occur there naturally, sometimes covering entire hillsides. The spruce and fir we know as Christmas trees grow there naturally too, along with the silvery birch and other tree varieties I cannot identify. Tall lupines in several colors were blooming in all their splendor. Just after 9:00 A.M. we turned into Split Rock State Park and followed the signs when suddenly, there was the top of the tower and lantern room above the trees!

We entered the gift shop and museum building where we toured the museum and watched a short film on the lighthouse’s history. We paid our admission and signed up for the tour. The lighthouse and outbuildings built in 1910 are immaculately restored to their early 1920’s appearance. The lighthouse is situated on a cliff 130 feet above Lake Superior giving a majestic view of this gorgeous lake.

There are a total of three keeper’s houses at the site: one for the Head Keeper and two for Assistant Keepers. Only the Head Keeper’s house is open to the public. The two Assistant Keeper’s houses are currently occupied as residences.

After a brief oral history, the tour guide led us first to the Head Keeper’s house where an interpreter described in some detail how the keeper’s families lived in that place and time. They had a wood cooking stove in operation. The bathrooms were originally built with indoor plumbing. Each house had two separate water systems; one fed by Lake Superior, the other from cisterns. We went through the Head Keeper's house from bottom to top.

The original oil house is restored but is not currently in use, not open to the public and was only casually mentioned by the tour guide.

Next came a tour of the fog signal building which is now empty except for storyboards. The remaining fog signal equipment is on display in the museum. One of the highlights of our tour for me was the fog signal recording they can play on demand through speakers mounted at the back end of the fog signal trumpets so the sound actually comes from the original trumpets, at only 1/10th volume of the original they say. I love that BeeOh sound and they played it for me several extra times.

We then went into the tower and climbed it to the watch room level, immediately below the clamshell Fresnel lens rotating on its bed of mercury, driven by the original clockworks and weights. They wouldn’t let me up into the lantern room but I shot a few pictures of the rotating lens from the watch room level.

One of the things I noticed that Paul had mentioned earlier is the entire interior of the tower is covered with white ceramic tile. I’ve not seen that before.

Amending this post to right a wrong. It wasn't Paul who mentioned the ceramic tile lining inside the tower, it was Dave H. who pointed out this very unusual feature.

At the end of the guided tour, one can go down many stairs to the site of the original tram way where supplies were brought up from the lake level. We descended the 130 feet down wooden stairs, took more pictures, enjoyed the enchanting scenery then climbed back up. I didn’t actually count them but I think there are three or maybe four times as many steps coming up as there are going down. On the descent we saw by far the biggest rabbit either of us has ever seen!

By now it’s about noon so we asked in the gift shop where we could have a lunch of ‘local’ specialties. One of the ladies suggested we go up the main highway a little ways to the town of Beaver Bay and eat at the Northern Exposure Restaurant. The restaurant was quaint and had a comfortable, homey feeling. We had wild rice soup, wild rice quiche and herring cakes for lunch. Definitely a culinary experience. After lunch we Headed for Two Harbors.

Guided by the book Western Great Lakes Lighthouses by Bruce Roberts and Ray Jones, we found Two Harbors lighthouse in the town of Two Harbors. Two Harbors lighthouse is now a bed and breakfast. The tower portion of the lighthouse is regularly available for tours but the remainder of the dwelling is not. As our good fortune would have it, Two Harbors was having their annual open house so we were able to see the entire restoration effort. It’s still a work in progress but it was a beautiful experience, too. The rooms are nice sized and airy. Kim and I decided if we ever come back we’re going to stay here. Each guest room has a magnificent view of Lake Superior.

Two Harbors light station had two Assistant Keepers. One fact I found of particular interest was the arrangement of dwellings for the keepers. The house to which the tower is attached was the Head Keeper’s house. A house very near the Head Keeper’s house was the First Assistant’s house. The Second Assistant was housed in town but was provided with a tiny room on the first floor in the tower area for his use while on duty.

The fog signal building is converted to a gift shop now with no sign of the original equipment. It was here that we hand fed a ground squirrel and where I purchased a couple of nice small pieces of polished Lake Superior agate, two for a quarter. They’re very pretty and the price was sure right!

Also on the grounds is an unrestored pilot house from a Great Lakes cargo vessel, complete with many pieces of the navigational equipment. Interesting!

In another area adjacent to but not a part of the lighthouse grounds was a curious looking (to me) boat which turned out to be a Great Lakes fishing boat. I would guess it was about 30 feet long and entirely enclosed, stem to stern by a curved roof, occasionally punctuated with side portholes.

We then walked out to see and photograph the pierhead light. From the pier we got a good look at the massive equipment used to load ore into the holds of ore carriers. First time either of us had seen this, too.

From Two Harbors we drove back to Duluth, punctuated by many stops at little stores selling local arts and crafts items.

At Duluth, we visited and photographed all three of the lighthouses here and did more shopping at stores set up in reclaimed warehouse space along Duluth’s waterfront.

These two tired tourists then drove the two hours back to Bloomington for homemade hamburgers, fries and malts, then collapsed into exhausted slumber.

Edited to correct a factual error.

[This message has been edited by LamarB (edited 07-07-2000).]