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.
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.