Ore boats on Superior in the winter

Fellas, I took some pics of ore boats running through the canal in Duluth Harbor that I thought you might enjoy.

For reference, Duluth is the main port on Lake Superior. Anything shipped east through the St Lawrence seaway begins its journey here. This mostly means wheat and coal from Montana and the Dakotas. Northern MN is where a great amount of Iron Ore is mined. This is known as "taconite."


This part of MN is known as the Iron Range and it is a very special and unique place. It is a world of its own. There are two things to do up on the range: play hockey and mine ore. It is THE epicenter of hockey in the US and the talent up here is incredible. The area was settled by Scandinavians and it is extremely insular. There are still pidgin languages spoken up here that are a mix of Swedish/Norwegian/Finnish/English.

The politics up here are insane and the three biggest issues are 1) guns (pro) 2) abortion (against) 3) healthcare (free) 4) trade (protectionist). There are counties up here that Trump carried by 30 points and Klobachar also carried by 30 points. The commercials are hilarious, Dems will run ads against Dems railing about what bitches the Dems are. There is no place like it.

But I digress.

The harbor has a canal in which the big ships come off of Superior, fill up with wheat, coal, or ore and then head back out to the big lake toward Marquette, Detroit, or the St Lawrence seaway to the Atlantic. Even though it does not get above 0 degrees for months at a time the shipping lanes are open through mid January and then close through March. I have been up there when it has been -45 below zero. It was -20 below when I took these pictures. Enjoy.

Here is the canal where the ships load. As you can see it is iced up. The elevators dot the shore on the far side. They do not look it but they are HUGE



Here comes a ship.


The ice breaker leads the way


He does a couple of loops to chop the ice up. When the lake opens up it steams like a volcano as the water is 32 and the air temp is -20.



Up goes the lift bridge that allows all of Duluth to get from one side to the other


Here comes the boat. It is ****ing HUGE


Here is the lake side. It is super eerie. You feel like you are on the edge of the earth. You can hardly see anything because of the steam that pours out of the lake. I shit you not there were people jumping in the water on the far end of the beach.



All of Duluth waits patiently as the bridge is up. This happens several times a day and is known as being "shipped in."



Down goes the bridge



Off she goes to bigger and better places as life goes on in Duluth and the range.

Damn! With -20 air temperature people jumping in the water were warmer. Crazy

9397SVTs said:

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The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they called Gitche Gumee
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy…

Paul Tregurtha - definitely a big ship. I believe it is the biggest on the Great Lakes. I've seen it many times on the St. Clair River in Port Huron, Michigan. Whenever we get back there my wife an I like to sit along the river and watch the traffic for a little bit.

9397SVTs said:

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Immediately thought of the Edmund Fitzgerald as well.

Very cool Klaus. Thanks

Thanks, awesome pics!
Great Lakes Freighters are tits.

"The Port of Duluth-Superior generated $1.4 billion in economic activity and supported 7,881 jobs last year (2017). Handling 35 million short tons of cargo generated over $504 million in total wages, salaries and purchases of goods and services in the regional economy. Cargo movement and vessel activity at the port also generated a total of nearly $240 million in federal/state tax revenues.

The value of the Port of Duluth-Superior cannot be overstated,” said Jason Serck, City of Superior economic development, planning and port director. “We do the heavy lifting here in the Twin Ports in terms of tonnage. When you look at the number of jobs in this area related to maritime commerce, it is clear that the working waterfront drives the economies of this entire region.”

Awesome pics. Did a drive thru tour on detour home from ND with my brother one time about 12 years ago. Pretty cool stuff.

The Edmund Fitzgerald has always been fascinating to me. The Great Lake freighters are no joke

We like to hit the Soo locks when we are up north.

I spent about a week in the Milliken State Park Marina in down town Detroit (right down the street from the Ren Cen) a couple years ago before moving over to the DYC for the summer. It was always awesome watching the lakers come through and occasionally drop anchor right outside the harbor entrance.

Great pics! I'll just add that I learned about barbecue living in Kansas City for 14 years, but one of the best BBQ meals I've ever had was lunch at OMC Smokehouse in Duluth on the drive from Ely to MSP.

Just some clarification and anyone that served in any national navy will know where I am coming from. A boat can be held on a ship but you'll never see a ship on a boat. So that icebreaker is a boat that freighter not so much unless there was a trans ocean ROLO (Roll on Roll Off) transporter nearby.

But I have seen that exact same freighter twice in my life Outside of Toledo (1986-87) then again on the east side of Cleveland in 1999. And yes they are long but they are all the same width so as to use all the locks from Lake Superior to the St Lawrence without worrying if they fit or not.

Silverstrike said:

Just some clarification and anyone that served in any national navy will know where I am coming from. A boat can be held on a ship but you'll never see a ship on a boat. So that icebreaker is a boat that freighter not so much unless there was a trans ocean ROLO (Roll on Roll Off) transporter nearby.

But I have seen that exact same freighter twice in my life Outside of Toledo (1986-87) then again on the east side of Cleveland in 1999. And yes they are long but they are all the same width so as to use all the locks from Lake Superior to the St Lawrence without worrying if they fit or not.

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The locks they go through on the Welland Canal, from Lakes Erie to Ontario, are impressive feats of engineering. However, that's not the most fun trip in a pleasure craft. I prefer running the Erie Canal, but the Western section has some air draft limitations.

Cool stuff Klaus. How old are those pictures?

Growing up in Michigan I spent a lot of time in and around the great lakes. Soo locks is a cool place to visit if you're in the area. Lake Superior is a monster sized body of water!

Speaking of Minnesota, the wife and I spent a week up at Gunflint on the border. Did a lot of hiking in the area. You aren't kidding about the iron ore content! We found huge standing rocks that had so much ore a normal magnet would stick to them.

U.M.

03cobra#694 said:

Cool stuff Klaus. How old are those pictures?

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A couple of days

Uncle Meat said:

Growing up in Michigan I spent a lot of time in and around the great lakes. Soo locks is a cool place to visit if you're in the area. Lake Superior is a monster sized body of water!

Speaking of Minnesota, the wife and I spent a week up at Gunflint on the border. Did a lot of hiking in the area. You aren't kidding about the iron ore content! We found huge standing rocks that had so much ore a normal magnet would stick to them.

U.M.
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That is cool. Did you see any wolves? That area is lousy with wolves. Something like 3/4 of the wolves in the US are between duluth and the border.

Iron rangers are similar to Uppers if you are from Michigan.

Sweet pics man!