Duluth’s historic Canal Park lighthouses will open to public for first time

DULUTH – Two of Duluth’s most symbolic and photographed landmarks, with interiors closed to the public for more than a century, are poised for future visitors.

Both the lighthouses that guide salties and lakers to Lake Superior’s narrow Duluth canal are now owned by nonprofits raising money to restore the structures to their former stateliness.

The Lake Superior Marine Museum Association recently acquired the white-brick, red-roofed lighthouse at the end of the canal’s south pier. It plans to restore it to its early 1900s condition and offer tours.

Preservationist nonprofit Rethos gained ownership of the North Pier Lighthouse in 2023, and may have it open in the next year.

Both are listed on the National Register of Historic Places and were given to the nonprofits for free as part of the federal General Services Administration’s decommissioned lighthouse program. Had there been no interest from a government agency, nonprofit or community development organization for education or preservation, they would have been auctioned off.

The south lighthouse is vital to the city’s history, Duluth Chamber of Commerce head Matt Baumgartner said at a recent tour celebrating the acquisition.

“The number one draw for people is still a big ship coming through the port,” he said. “It gets people out of their booths at restaurants. They run out of their hotels.”

The current iteration of the lighthouse was first operational in September 1901. It replaced an 19th-century wooden structure. There was never a keeper living on site, unless they were trapped by dangerous weather.

A recent tour showed an open room with several nooks, and a spiral staircase that grows steeper and narrower as it leads to the tower. There is also a balcony with a waist-high railing and an uncommon 180-degree view. It’s structurally sound, its new keepers said, but it has been subject to vandalism, roosting pigeons and deterioration.

The bulk of the renovation is expected to begin next year, with a plan for opening in 2027, Finlayson said.

The U.S. Coast Guard will continue to operate the famous foghorn and navigation light, a fixed green beacon that can be seen 17 miles out. Its former fourth order Fresnel lens, which was built in Paris, is displayed at the maritime museum.

The lighthouses were and still are critical to navigation, Finlayson said.

They also help tell the story of the region’s rich mining and shipping industry, he said.

The black-and-white north breakwater lighthouse that is in the care of St. Paul-based Rethos was built in 1910 and stands 43 feet tall.

The nonprofit, which has a downtown Duluth office, has secured some grants and is seeking others to pay for a safety assessment of the structure, interior refurbishment and paint. Rampant tagging on the outside is such a problem and Rethos got so many calls about it that they set up a hotline for spray paint reports.

“People love this lighthouse,” and have called from as far as Florida when they see pictures or web-cam footage of vandalism, said Rethos executive director Heidi Swank.

Only a handful of people can fit inside the north lighthouse at a time, but a winding staircase is situated in such a way that visitors can peer out of one of its few windows.