7/18 and 7/19 - Duluth - Glensheen

Yesterday's 183-mile drive from Ontonagon to Duluth was good (as in no traffic) but turned rainy at the mid-point. There were cloud-bursts so heavy we could barely see but they didn't last long. The rain was so hard it washed a lot of the red dirt off the truck and RV which was appreciated. 

Crossing Duluth Harbor from Superior, Wisconsin

The rain didn't make for good pictures. This is the only one that wasn't just a blur of water. The harbor area is very industrial with freighters loading and unloading. It's the only port at the western end of Lake Superior and is very busy. 

Sunny evening at the campground with the locals

Judging by the deposits around the area, these geese are regulars here. Walking around the little lake is like going through a mine field.  The campground has several small lakes (or large ponds....at which point does a pond change to a lake?) so Jim is getting to fish a bit. His first cast with one of his new outfits caught a decent-sized pike. 


On our way to our destination for the day we went to a great little restaurant and had a wonderful lunch of gravlax, a Scandinavian specialty of raw salmon cured with salt, sugar, dill and other spices. Gravlax is very expensive by mail order so we'll have to learn to make it if we can find the right salmon. 


Today's outing was to tour the Glensheen Estate which was built on Lake Superior by one of Duluth's elite of the early 1900's. Chester Congdon was a lawyer with extensive business interests....iron ore mining, copper mining both here and in Arizona, gold mining, banking and various other endeavors. He started building the estate in 1905 and moved into it with his wife Sarah and their seven children in 1908. Chester died of pleurisy in 1916 at the age of 63. Sarah and her youngest daughter lived at Glensheen for the rest of their lives. The estate is now owned by the University of Minnesota-Duluth and is open to the public year-round for tours.

Front of the mansion

Mansion's lake side with fountain carved from a single block of white marble

Formal gardens on lake side

Carriage house and vegetable garden

Breakfast room overlooking the lake

The weather today was warm and dry, but haze from the wildfires in the Northwest made the lake barely visible. The view from the house would be outstanding under normal conditions.

Glensheen was built about ten years after the Biltmore Estate, during the same era as the Grove Park Inn. Driving to Glensheen we saw neighborhoods that reminded us very much of the Grove Park area of Asheville. The hills on the Minnesota side of the lake are also rather like Asheville. It's a lovely area.

Tomorrow's outing will depend on the haze. We need a clear day to do the Skyline scenic drive which has excellent views of the city and lake. The sky has cleared this evening but we're about 15 miles northwest of the Duluth waterfront so what we have here may not be the same as at the lake.