The Sentinel of Lake Superior: How the Mataafa Storm Forged Split Rock Lighthouse

On July 31, 1910, Split Rock Lighthouse was lit for the very first time high above Lake Superior. When the Mataafa Storm battered the Great Lakes, destroying 29 ships and claiming 36 lives, industrial shipping giants forced Congress to act. Fifty years after surveyors first mapped the sheer bluffs at Stony Point, it took the deadliest storm in Lake Superior history to build Minnesota’s most famous beacon. We discover how builders hauled 310 tons of steel and brick up a sheer 133-foot cliff without a road in sight, how solitary keepers managed 100,000 uninvited tourists on Highway 61, and why this North Shore icon still shines every November 10th. Come here some of the stories of one of Minnesota's most popular historic icons.