Frequently Asked Questions

Geography and Geology

Which way is north?
While it’s called the North Shore, the Minnesota coast of Lake Superior is sort of the northwest shore of the big lake. Locals tend to think that Grand Marais is east of Duluth, and visitors tend to think it’s north of Duluth.

How cold is the lake water?
The average temperate of Lake Superior overall is 39 degrees Fahrenheit. One of the deepest parts of Lake Superior, up to 800 feet deep, is right off the North Shore, and this mass of water stays cold year-round. But depending on the amount of sunshine and the wind direction, there can be great swimming in Little Marais or Lutsen in August.

What is the average summer temperature of North Shore streams?
That’s a question trout anglers ask. The streams entering Lake Superior along the North Shore are highly variable, flooding with big rains and turning to a trickle after a few weeks of drought. In general, the streams are at their warmest in late July and August, with temps reaching 65 to 75 degrees.

Trout anglers know that when the water gets over 65 degrees, trout slow down and begin to suffer.

How big is the lake?
Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area. It’s about the size of the State of Maine. According to Minnesota Sea Grant, if Lake Superior's shoreline were unraveled into a highway, it would extend 1,826 miles, the distance from Duluth to Miami.

Is this an agate?
Since 1969, the Lake Superior Agate has been Minnesota’s official state gemstone. Agates are the top target of North Shore beachcombers. Look for glassy structure, some amount of light coming through the stone, and, most importantly, banding (tree-ring-like lines in the rock.).

How many waterfalls are there on the North Shore?
Lots! In their book Waterfalls of the North Shore, Eve and Gary Wallinga describe 123 waterfalls along 31 different rivers.

Does Lake Superior have a tide?
In theory, yes. Gravitational pull from the moon and sun moves every bit of standing water on the planet. There is so much water in the oceans that the tides there are significant. Lake Superior has a lot of water for a lake. Physicists estimate that the lake’s water rises and falls up to one inch due to gravitational pull from the moon and the sun.

The seiche is much more important on Lake Superior. That is the periodic sloshing of water back and forth in the basin, and can be as much as two feet.

Does Lake Superior freeze in the winter?
Because the lake is so big and so deep, it is slow to warm up in summer and to cool down in the winter. In sheltered bays and areas with many islands, the lake will freeze over nearly every year. However, the open areas of the lake seldom freeze over completely. The lake froze completely in the winter of 1995-96. In more recent years, the lake has nearly frozen over, but ironically open water remained along the Minnesota North Shore, due to strong northwest winds blowing out the ice cover.

Natural History

Why are the birch trees dying?
There are three main reasons for the massive die-off of birches: 1) many of the birches are at the end of their natural 80 year lifespan; 2) warmer and drier summers have stressed the birches, especially those exposed on south-facing slopes; and 3) insects like the bronze birch borer and the forest tent caterpillar have further stressed the trees.

What kinds of fish are in the lake?
Fish that like cold water. The lake herring is probably the most numerous fish on the North Shore, especially during their fall spawning time when commercial fishermen harvest them by the thousands. Other native, coldwater fish on the North Shore are brook trout, lake trout, and burbot.

What does Gitchee Gummee mean?
Nearly everyone agrees on the meaning of the Ojibway name for Lake Superior, as “Big Sea” or “Great Water.” There is no agreement on how to properly spell it. Ojibway was never a written language, and was certainly not written in the English alphabet.

Lake Superior Magazine covers the question succinctly.

Which bird species are most common in summer?
The unique boreal forests and coastal habitats of the North Shore area are home to a great diversity of summer nesting birds, many of which migrate for thousands of miles to return to the shore. Even the casual observer will notice some birds’ populations shooting up in the summer, like the Herring Gull and the many warblers.

Which bird species are most common in winter?
Birds found on the North Shore in winter are either residents or birds of the far north that have migrated south for the winter. Sometimes, these migrants come in huge waves known as irruptions. Irruptions are common for owls (like the Great Gray Owl), and finches, such as the Common Redpolls.

Explain the life cycle of the cluster fly.
They feed on your crumbs and then they die on your sunny windowsill. Got a problem with that??

History and Economy

What gets shipped into Duluth?
More than ten times as much cargo, by weight, is shipped out of Duluth-Superior than is shipped into it. Common “inbound” cargos include limestone, cement and salt. The Duluth-Superior harbor also ships wind turbine blades and towers, and other unusual large cargo.

What gets shipped out of Duluth?
Coal, taconite and grain are the main products shipped out of Duluth-Superior.

How deep is the deepest point in the lake? Where is it?
The deepest point in the lake is 1,333 ft. (405 m). and is near the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan waters.

Who was John Beargrease?
John Beargrease was an Anishinabe, a lifelong resident of Beaver Bay, who was best known for delivering the mail along the rugged North Shore between the frontier settlements of Two Harbors and Grand Marais. In the winter, he and his brothers would travel by dogsled, and in the summer by rowboat. The Beargrease brothers delivered the mail from 1879 to 1899.

To learn more about John Beargrease, check out this new book, John Beargrease: Legend of Minnesota’s North Shore.