Duluth


Region Type Maps & Charts (if available, no international)
North America, Mid-West Inland Port, City Duluth

City ( 2000 pop. 86,918), (cap.) St. Louis co., NE Minn., on St. Louis Bay, at W end of L. Superior, 140 mi/225 km NNE of Minneapolis, opposite Superior, Wis.; 46º46'N 92º07'W. Westernmost port in Great Lakes. St. Lawrence Seaway Navigation system. A commercial, industrial, and cultural center of N Minn., as well as a major port on the Great Lakes. Native Americans were found here in the 1670s by the early explorers and fur traders, and included the Sieur Duluth (for whom the city was named). Permanent settlement began c.1852. Built largely on rocky bluffs overlooking the lake, the city was at first a trade and shipping center for timber. Discovery of iron (1865) in the Mesabi range made it the chief shipping point for ore for the nation’s steel mills. With the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway (1959), it became one of the leading ports on the Great Lakes for the export of grain.

Sources

Robert A. McCaughey

Compiler

Peter Richards

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