Split Rock Lighthouse State Park is a state park of Minnesota on the North Shore of Lake Superior. It is best known for the picturesque Split Rock Lighthouse, one of the most photographed lighthouses in the United States. The name Little Two Harbors comes from the division of the inlet by a small island, formerly a tombolo, and refers to the city of Two Harbors farther down the shore. There are two shallow sea caves at the base of Stony Point.

The east and west branches of the Split Rock River, not to be confused with Split Rock Creek, join in the park. There are ten waterfalls on the river, although because they can only be reached by a moderate hike on the Superior Hiking Trail and are not marked on park maps, they are lightly visited.

Geology

Much of the shore of Lake Superior is made of basalt erupted from the Midcontinent Rift System when the middle of the North American Plate began to crack 1.1 billion years ago. In a small tract that includes Split Rock Lighthouse State Park, additional magma intruded into the basalt and cooled underground into a harder rock called diabase. These flows also carried with them blocks of anorthosite, an even harder rock from the base of the Earth's crust, which became interspersed randomly in the diabase.

Beginning 2 million years ago a series of glacial periods repeatedly covered the region with ice, scouring the bedrock and scooping out a great basin. The glaciers, and later meltwater, wore away less resistant rock, leaving behind hills and ridges of the harder diabase and anorthosite. The Merrill Logging Trail follows the route of their rail line.

Split Rock Lighthouse

Three violent storms struck the Great Lakes in November 1905, killing 116 sailors. One, the Mataafa Storm of November 28, damaged nearly 30 ships on Lake Superior. Two ships were wrecked against the future park's shore, the steel steamboat William Edenborn and a barge it was towing, the Madeira. The Edenborn was beached far ashore at the mouth of the Split Rock River and later salvaged, but one of the 25 crewmembers was killed. The Madeira with 10 men aboard drifted northeast until violent waves began smashing her against the cliffs of Gold Rock Point. Crewman Fred Benson managed to leap onto the rocks and scale the cliff in the midst of the snowstorm. The first mate was swept overboard and drowned, but Benson was able to lower a rope and pull the other eight crew to safety. The Madeira sank in pieces at the foot of Gold Rock while the crewmen, suffering from exposure and frostbite, found shelter with local fishermen and loggers. Both crews were picked up two days later by the tugboat Edna G.

thumb|right|Split Rock Lighthouse under construction in 1909

The shipping companies that had sustained losses in the storms lobbied the federal government for an expanded system of navigational aids on the Great Lakes. Besides the Edenborn and the Madeira, five other ships had been damaged within a dozen miles of the Split Rock River.

Due to its popularity with tourists, the lighthouse was kept operating well after radar and other technology had rendered it obsolete. The next year Nadine Blacklock, a nature photographer and president of the Parks and Trails Council, was killed in a car accident just outside the north end of the park. The Council and the Blacklock Nature Sanctuary, an art and conservation non-profit organization she and her family had founded, jointly purchased of land around the accident site. were transferred to the state park while the remainder, with an existing one-bedroom cabin, is managed by the Blacklock Nature Sanctuary as an artists' retreat. The additions were developed with access features for Madeira wreck divers and the Gitchi-Gami State Trail, a paved bicycling route in development along the North Shore.

Recreation

thumb|left|A hiking trail in the park

thumb|West Split Rock River alongside the Superior Hiking Trail, approximately 1/2 mile downstream from the Split Rock Camp Sites in the Split Rock State Park area.

Split Rock Lighthouse State Park has a unique cart-in campground with 20 secluded campsites and a modern restroom. Campers leave their vehicles in a parking lot and use two-wheeled carts provided by the park to carry their equipment a short distance to their site. There are four backpack campsites along the shore, two accessible to sea kayakers. Conventional drive-in campgrounds managed by the state park are available in two state forests in the area.

The park contains of trails for hiking, bicycling, and cross-country skiing. There are several overlooks providing views of the lighthouse and Lake Superior. A paved section of the Gitchi-Gami State Trail runs through the park near the shore, while the Superior Hiking Trail runs inland and skirts both the Split Rock River and Split Rock Creek.

References

  • Split Rock Lighthouse State Park
  • Split Rock Lighthouse State Historic Site