Blink and you'd probably miss it. At least when headed north.
"It" was designed by the United States' most famous architect, displays a striking cantilevered roof and causes a fair amount of rubbernecking.
"It" is a gas station -- an old-fashioned, full-service gas station, in fact, concocted by a fellow named Frank Lloyd Wright and sitting smack dab in the middle of semi-scenic Cloquet, Minn.
Anyone headed to the Iron Range or Lake Vermilion might whiz past the Historical Registry-listed station, at the bottom of a hill on the corner of Hwys. 33 and 45. But its 60-foot polygonal roof and distinctive design are impossible to miss for those headed south on Hwy. 33.
"You wouldn't believe how many people stop here and take pictures," said mechanic Chris Chartier. "Frank Lloyd Wright, I guess. It's just work to us."
Wright touches include cypress-wood walls, an all-glass second-floor waiting area (now closed) and an observation deck overlooking the St. Louis River.
The station, advertised at the time as "A new concept ... in utility," was designed in 1956 and opened on Halloween Day 1958. During that period, Wright was working on 18 projects, including a slightly more conspicuous edifice: the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.
