One Stormy Night
Split Rock Lighthouses’ beacon wasn’t always shining through the night; in fact the idea for the light that would be atop Gold Rock Cliff wasn’t there at all, until a stormy November night.
In November 1905, a huge storm raged over Lake Superior, ravaging 29 ships and claiming many lives. By the end of the tragic three day storm there were four ships that had crashed within twelve miles of Gold Rock Cliff. The four ships were the Madeira, the Edenborn, the Lafayette, and the Manilla. The Madeira was pounded against Gold Rock Cliff by the waves, and soon broke in two. The Edenborn wrecked near the mouth of the Split Rock River, and the Lafayette and the Manilla, its’ tow barge, crashed at the mouth of the very same river.
Stunned at their losses, ship owners petitioned for an aid to navigation in the vicinity of Split Rock. The petition first went to Minnesota’s government, and then all the way to Washington D.C., where the government agreed to a lighthouse grant of $75,000.00. This took many years to achieve, and the construction began in 1909.
"It is extremely difficult to locate Two Harbors in a fog or storm prevalant to Lake Superior."
-The Lake Carriers' Association
The ship owners needed the lighthouse built fast, for the shipping industry was booming, from the first shipments of 2,000 tons of iron ore in 1892, to nearly 25,000,000 tons in 1910. The iron ore that was the cause of the great boom of commerce was also creating havoc with the ships carrying it. In the early 1900’s the shipping industry relied mostly on compasses and dead reckoning for navigation. The compasses, rather than pointing north were pointing to the nearby Mesabi Iron Range, causing much confusion and sending ships in the wrong direction.
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