2025-07-18 – Finland, MN
We made a number of stops along the shoreline on our way to our Harvest Host in Finland.
Our first was an historical marker for President Buchanan whose home in Lancaster, PA, was a couple of blocks from our own. It’s kind of an odd marker in that it indicates a town site that was laid out in 1856 and named after one of our lesser presidents but that was apparently never really developed into a town.
Brighton Beach lighthouse was on our list of stops. But we discovered it was a fenced, commercial site and we chose not to pay for yet another lighthouse tour and gift shopping opportunity. There was a breakwater, though, and Sandy walked out to the lighted navigational marker at is end.
Then there was the town of Two Harbors with it’s obligatory two lighthouses, one for each harbor. The harbors are protected by massive breakwaters but only one of its huge ore docks is still in operation. It was lunchtime so we stopped at Northshore Pizza Café for one of their chicken wild rice pizzas. Interesting and excellent twist on pizza! The place is a promoter of wild rice and offers large bags of it for sale.
Gooseberry Falls State Park features three successive waterfalls on one river. We followed the park’s trail system to see them. They were beautiful and well worth the walk!
The town of Finland appears little more than a crossroads but we’re learning that appearances can be deceiving. Even though the place is hardly a tourist mecca, it manages to support two decent restaurants and a general store. Its just that people’s homes are scattered out in the wooded terrain and are not readily visible. Our host location, the Finland Minnesota Historical Society, is a free museum dedicated to presenting and preserving the Finnish heritage of the settlers of this place. Even today, most of its inhabitants are of Finnish lineage.
A couple and their son, who live full time in their large, fifth-wheel camper, are the caretakers for the facility. They give tours to visitors, tend the lawn, gardens and buildings and manage a seasonal music festival hosted there.
We decided on dinner out and chose the Four Seasons Restaurant because more cars were parked there. There was live music, a guy on acoustic guitar, and we had an enjoyable time.
2025-07-19 – Finland, MN
One heck of a spectacular lighthouse was first on our list for touring today. Split Rock Lighthouse stands on the precipice of a prominent rock that soars 130 feet directly above the lake. It is quite a sight.
Our visit began in the visitor center where we watched a video detailing its history and looked over the displays. The lighthouse has a huge third order Fresnel lens and a replica of it is one of the displays.
Climbing the mere 32 stairs to the top was kind of a treat. The structure didn’t have to be very tall since the cliff it was perched on was so high. The reason for the replica lens displayed in the visitor center became apparent since you can only see the bottom of the massive lens from inside the tower.
Although there was considerable construction going on, we were able to tour one of several homes and other buildings associated with the station.
Materials to build the structure had to be delivered by boat and carried up to the top of the cliff. A tramway was eventually constructed to bring supplies to the keeper and, today, a stairway follows the tramway’s path down to the lake. There you get the full effect of the lighthouse on a cliff. Cool! We took the easy way back up from lake level, walking the switchback path in lieu of climbing all those stairs.
If you get the idea that this is a land of lighthouses and waterfalls, you’d be right. It seems that every stream entering the lake has to lose considerable height near the edge of the lake and, so, the waterfalls. The mining industry needed boats to transport their product to market and those boats needed aids to help them navigate the often dangerous waters. Lighthouses were the solution for the technology of times.
The Beaver River Falls, near the town of Silver Bay, was an easy one. We pulled into a very nice roadside rest, walked a few feet to the bridge that crosses the river and there it is! Nice falls, it kind of shoots out from a narrow slot in the rock.
When we returned to our campsite in Finland we got a tour of the Finland MN Historical Society from our host. Concerned that their heritage was slipping away, the community decided to bring together some of their traditional structures to remind people of their heritage. Among the structures is Alex Rousku sauna built in about 1920. It is no longer functional but you get the idea.
There is a one room school that was moved to the site after it was no longer needed as a school.
Small, simple, log home of an early resident contains a hidden compartment below the stove’s chimney.
Finally, there’s a little museum containing artifacts from earlier times. Altogether it was a nice look back at the way things were.
The trail to Caribou Falls led us a bit more than a mile up a fairly steep, rough trail and a couple of hundred stair steps to the base of a spectacular waterfall. At the base you could approach the roiling water via a steel mesh stairway. A few young people walked around the edge of the pool and began to climb the rocky face. We didn’t hang around to witness the results.
