Duluth, Minnesota.

The Vista ships have been sailing Lake Superior out of Duluth Minnesota since 1959. On our visit in September 2022, we cruised Lake Gitchigoomie (the Native American name for Superior) for the third time since our first trip there in 1970. On this visit, we joined the Vista Star for an afternoon cruise. As of this writing, the Star and the Queen are the two ships in the fleet.

The entrance to the harbor at Duluth is usually by a channel that is paralleled by two piers. That entrance is called Minnesota Point though the locals often call it Park Point. On two of our cruises, we exited and returned via that channel, however, there is another harbor entrance at the south end. We sailed that entrance outbound on one of our other cruises. Known as Wisconsin Point, the land mass at the south of that entrance is in Wisconsin. Except for the southernmost harbor area, the harbor is in Minnesota.

In 2022 I featured a story about the lift bridge and its history here, but for starters, the bridge opened in 1905 and was known as the United States’ first transporter bridge. In 1930, it was converted to a lift bridge. That’s enough history for now… check out the link above for more on this historic bridge.

Two lighthouses guide ships to the opening point. The lighthouses have standard navigation colors. The lighthouse on the left has a red light, and the one on the right has a green light. The navigation rule is “Red on right returning.” As a ship heads toward the channel entrance from Lake Superior, the red light is visible on the right. In the view above, we had just passed the two lighthouses on the way into the harbor, therefore the red light was on our left as we sailed into the channel past the lighthouses.

Given modern navigation equipment, in May 2021, the north light was determined to be navigationally unnecessary. In 2023, a nonprofit company took ownership and plans to have tours of the lighthouse beginning in the summer of 2024. The red light is still active but it blinks on and off rather than on in a steady state. You can see the operation of the lights in this YouTube video here.

The channel is flanked by two piers and unless the weather is particularly nasty, there will always be people lined up on either pier to watch the ships come and go from the harbor. In the background behind the north pier, the Tugboat Bayfield is on display for people to see. She was placed on display after she retired from service in 1995.

Most of our tour was inside the harbor. The narrator provided lots of information about what goes on inside the harbor daily. We sailed past a Coast Guard Cutter, the Spar. The ship is a seagoing buoy tender and maintains aids to navigation around the ports at Duluth Minnesota and Superior Wisconsin as well as other Great Lakes ports.

In the inner harbor, three tugs were lined up along a dock. They presented a nice composition of working ships for me to capture as we sailed the inner harbor area. Other than the generic job of assisting larger ships entering the harbor, I don’t have any further information about these tugs or their company affiliation.

Minnesota, being an agricultural state, ships products from the state throughout the country. There are many products shipped from the port and many ships call this harbor their home. Iron ore from the northern ports is shipped on Lake Superior.

Probably the most famous maritime tragedy on Lake Superior is the loss of the Edmund Fitzgerald and her 29-man crew in 1975. Her job was carrying taconite from mines near Duluth to Detroit, Toledo, and other Great Lakes Ports. Near hurricane-force winds during a major November storm caused her to break into two pieces and sink. Gordon Lightfoot’s story song of the tragedy brought the attention of the world to the Great Lakes and the hazards of shipping.

You can find additional images on my Flickr site here and view the above images in 2K HD there as well. For those who are interested in the harbor at Duluth and the shipping there, YouTube hosts several vlogs featuring the freighters that come and go from the harbor. My favorite is Vibes with Mike’s site here. His post from December 26 shows Lake Superior in a nasty mood. Strong winds and a fierce storm batter the area.

There are several options for cruises from the Vista Fleet. If you’re considering a harbor cruise, you can find their website here. I’d recommend picking a nicer day than you will see if you pick Mike’s video link above. Of course, in weather like that, you can bet the cruise will be canceled. I hate to leave this post with a negative thought about the potential for bad weather. Lynn and I have been on three harbor cruises on the Vista Fleet of ships over the years and we’ve always had an enjoyable experience.

John Steiner