Split Rock Lighthouse Weblog

Split Rock Lighthouse Museum Store and the Duluth Pack Store have teamed up and now an assortment of  locally made Duluth Pack bags are available with a Split Rock Lighthouse logo leather patch.  Available for purchase are Daypacks, Shell Bags, Haversack, Market Totes and Wanderer (the pack chosen by NBC to be featured in Love in the Wild, a TV reality show).  We also have the ability to special order any of the Duluth Pack items with the Split Rock patch on.

This may have been a poor winter on the North Shore for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing but it has been a good winter for watching the full moon.  Each year, between November and March, photographers line up on the shoreline of Lake Superior in the state park to catch the full moonrise lined up behind Split Rock Lighthouse.
 
With the lack of snow and the unseasonably warm temperatures this winter more people than ever have set up tripods at sunset to catch the moon rising out of the lake right off of the lighthouse cliff.  Last night I spent about an hour on the rocky shoreline with a half a dozen or so shutterbugs who came equiped with an amazing array of equipment.  I snapped a few shots then mainly got out of the way.  Some of these people are very serious and focused on the sole mission of capturing “the” shot.  It was like watching a choreographed dance as the group scampered with tripods across the icy rocks to try to rearrange their equipment to keep up with the rising moon and to keep it in line with the distant lighthouse and cliff. 
I seems that there is (or should be) an unspoken photographer’s etiquette, or maybe it’s just a gentleman’s agreement, that implies that a photographer not set up their tripod and camera directly between the subject and cameras already shooting the same scene. 
Anyway, it ended up being more fun capturing the activity in front of and behind me along the shore. 
The moon will be there once a month, but then again so will the shutterbugs.

Just added to the museum store! This great new poster depicting the lighthouse “icon brand”. (available at the online store too!)   Split Rock = the lighthouse, trees, waves, highway 61.  Romance and nature, captured in a poster.

22 X 28 poster that fits standard size frames!

Cold weather and a little bit of snow!  We are please to announce the addition of Minnesota Mittens, Mittens with a Mission to the Split Rock Museum Store!  The traditional wool/cotton mittens are manufactured from recycled yarn or fabric.  The are made at a regional rehabilitation center in Winona MN. The mittens offer comfort and warmth for your hands and heart!  Come shop and check them out!

On June 23, 2011 U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced the designation of Split Rock Light Station as a National Historic Landmark.  Split Rock has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1969 but designation as a national landmark denotes a much higher level of historic significance.   

During two world wars and beyond, Split Rock Light Station served as a vital aid to navigation to iron ore carriers carrying iron ore shipments across western Lake Superior from the vast iron ranges in northern Minnesota to the lower Great Lakes for processing.  Split Rock is also a highly intact example of an early 20th century Great Lakes light station.

Split Rock is the twelfth light station in the United States and the second light station on the Great Lakes to receive national landmark designation.  The light station, an active navigational aid from 1910 to 1969, is now a Minnesota state historic site and is open daily to the public for tours from mid-May through mid-October.