After Michigan's Sault Saint Marie Locks opened in 1855, linking the country's farthest inland sea with the lower Great Lakes, Minnesota's North Shore grew busy with pleasure boats carrying wealthy easterners to cabins and ships hauling lumber and steel to distant places. The rocky shore and Lake Superior's stormy weather caused many wrecks, and after a single storm damaged 29 ships in 1905, the federal government built the Split Rock Light Station, which opened in 1910. One of the most remote lighthouses on the Great Lakes, it was originally accessible only by water, with hoists carrying people and supplies up the 130 foot cliff. As roads improved, the lighthouse became less isolated and drew visitors by the hundreds, and by 1939 its picturesque setting had made it one of the nation's most visited lighthouses and one of Minnesota's best known landmarks. In the mid-1920s, as private automobiles became affordable to the middle class, the Minnesota Department of Highways began building the Lake Superior International Highway in 1924 along the shoreline from Duluth to Canada to serve travelers and provide outstanding lake views. North Shore tourism flourished, and the route, known as North Shore Scenic Drive, became a National Scenic Byway and All-American Road, with the Gitchi Gami non-motorized trail running parallel to it. In the early 1950s, the Minnesota Department of Highways built a scenic overlook to give travelers a safe place to stop, rest, and view the lighthouse and Lake Superior, using rough-hewn native materials in a National Park Service Rustic style associated with the 1930s and early 40s and stone gathered from across Minnesota.