Split Rock Lighthouse State Park preserves four miles of Minnesota’s Lake Superior shore, combining a dramatic volcanic and glacial landscape with one of the nation’s most famous lighthouses. The 1910 Split Rock Lighthouse was built after the deadly 1905 Great Lakes storms, when wrecks near this coast exposed the need for better navigation. Restored as a museum, it anchors a park that also holds sea caves, waterfalls, headlands, and trails. The area preserves traces of earlier fishing, logging, and failed mining ventures, along with the former village of Little Two Harbors. Expanded over time, the park protects both scenic shoreline and a layered human history.