Minnesota Point
{{Short description|Neighborhood in Duluth, Minnesota, United States of America}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2025}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
Image:Duluth-Minnesota-Superior.jpg hillside looking south toward Wisconsin]]
Minnesota Point, also known as the Park Point neighborhood of Duluth, Minnesota, United States;{{gnis|661924|Minnesota Point}}{{cite web|url=http://www.duluthmn.gov/parks/parkpointtrail.cfm |title=City of Duluth - Parks |publisher=Duluthmn.gov |access-date=2013-08-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130809093012/http://www.duluthmn.gov/parks/parkpointtrail.cfm |archive-date=2013-08-09 }} is a long, narrow sand spit{{cite web|url=http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/waters/lakesuperior/306_24_00.pdf |title=Minnesota Point Natural Resources Education |format=PDF |date= |access-date=2013-08-18}} that extends out from the Canal Park tourist recreation-oriented district of the city of Duluth. The Point separates Lake Superior from Superior Bay and the Duluth Harbor Basin.http://wikimapia.org/#lat=46.7386842&lon=-92.0417404&z=12&l=0&m=b Satellite View of Minnesota Point/Wisconsin Point
South Lake Avenue / Minnesota Avenue serves as a main route in the community.
Near the end of Minnesota Point is a small airport, Sky Harbor Airport. Beyond the airport, approximately 3/4 mile, is an old growth red and white pine forest. Within the forest is a Minnesota Department of Natural Resources designated area, the Minnesota Point Pine Forest Scientific and Natural Area, which encompasses 18 acres.{{cite web|url=http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/snas/sna02000/index.html |title=MNDNR Minnesota Point Pine Forest SNA |publisher=Dnr.state.mn.us |date= |access-date=2013-08-18}}
Minnesota Point is about 7 miles long, and when included with adjacent Wisconsin Point, which extends 3 miles out from the city of Superior, Wisconsin, totals 10 miles.
History
File:St. Louis Avenue, Duluth, by Childs, B. F..png view card of St. Louis Avenue, Minnesota Point ~ date unknown]]
Due to the short and easy portage across Minnesota Point, the Ojibwe name for the city of Duluth is Onigamiinsing ("at the little portage").
In the 1850s, the Saint Louis River was established as the border between neighboring states Minnesota and Wisconsin and the two ports, Duluth (Minnesota) and Superior (Wisconsin), became fierce economic competitors for shipping traffic off of Lake Superior. As commercial traffic on the lake increased with the completion of the Sault Ste Marie canal connecting Lake Superior to Lake Michigan, Congress appropriated the funds to build a lighthouse on the narrow opening in Minnesota Point, known as Superior Entry. The Minnesota Point Light, built between 1855 and 1858, was the first to use RH Barret's Fifth Order Fresnel lamp{{cite web|url=http://www.terrypepper.com/lights/closeups/illumination/fresnel/5order.htm |title=Fifth Order Fresnel |publisher=Terrypepper.com |date= |access-date=2013-08-18}} and Barret became the station's first lighthouse keeper, succeeded in 1861 by Samuel Stewart Palmer. Affectionately known as "The Old Standby", this lighthouse is now an abandoned ruin listed on the National Register of Historic Places.{{cite web |title=Minnesota Point Lighthouse |url=http://www.mnhs.org/preserve/nrhp/NRDetails.cfm-NPSNum=74002206.html |work=Minnesota National Register Properties Database |publisher=Minnesota Historical Society |year=2009 |access-date=2018-12-01}}
Since the digging of the Duluth Ship Canal in 1870–1871, Minnesota Point is technically an island, connected to the rest of Duluth since 1905 by the Aerial Lift Bridge.
Beginning in 2023, North Shore LS LLC (managed by Kathy Cargill, member of the Cargill family) began purchasing and renovating properties located on Minnesota Point,{{cite web|url=https://www.startribune.com/park-point-cargill-north-shore-duluth-housing/600334538/
|title=As Cargill family member's company buys up Duluth's Park Point homes, will locals get priced out?
|publisher=startribune.com |date= |access-date=2024-03-24}} owning twenty properties by March 2024.{{cite web|url=https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/news/local/cargill-speaks-up-on-park-point-purchases
|title=Cargill speaks up on Park Point purchases|date=2024-03-24 |access-date=2024-03-24}} Cargill, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal stated that her intentions were to beautify and modernize the neighborhood,{{cite web|title=Why did a billionaire snap up homes on a sandbar in Duluth?| url=https://www.wsj.com/us-news/why-did-a-billionaire-snap-up-homes-on-a-sandbar-in-duluth-67776881| publisher=wsj.com| date=2024-03-23}} including building amenities such as a coffee shop and a complex for pickleball, basketball and street hockey. However, when residents, including Duluth mayor Roger Reinert, asked Cargill to provide details for her plans for Park Point, she did not respond.{{cite web|title=Cargill ignores meeting request from Duluth Mayor over Park Point purchases| url= https://www.aol.com/kathy-cargill-ignores-meeting-request-223400338.html| publisher=wsj.com| date=2024-03-11}} After local pushback, Cargill eventually cancelled her development plans, saying Reinert "peed in his Cheerios right there, and definitely I'm not going to do anything to benefit that community."{{cite web|title=Cargill ignores meeting request from Duluth residents put positive spin on Park Point spat by collecting, not 'peeing in' Cheerios| url= https://www.kare11.com/article/news/local/duluth-park-point-cheerios-kathy-cargill/89-ddbe913d-dc6b-4afb-bd3d-fceabe3efca2 | publisher=wsj.com| date=2024-04-01}}
Adjacent neighborhoods
- Canal Park and Downtown Duluth – to the immediate north
See also
Notes
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20080914203538/http://www.duluthmn.gov/ City of Duluth website]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20150905223711/http://www.duluthmn.gov/media/125119/Neighborhoods_11x17.pdf City map of neighborhoods] (PDF)
- [http://www.terrypepper.com/Lights/superior/minn_point/ History of the Minnesota Point Lighthouse]
{{City of Duluth, Minnesota}}
{{Duluth neighborhoods}}
{{Greatlakes}}
{{Authority control}}
{{Coord|46|44|29|N|92|03|41|W|display=title|region:US-MN_type:landmark_source:dewiki}}
Category:Duluth–Superior metropolitan area
Category:Neighborhoods in Duluth, Minnesota
Category:Peninsulas of Minnesota
Category:Geography of Duluth, Minnesota
Category:Spits of the United States