The Superior Entry is a natural waterway between Minnesota and Wisconsin Points, known in Ojibwe as Zhaagawaamikong-neyaashi or "point of land," which together form the planet's largest natural freshwater baymouth bar separating Lake Superior from the bay. Both points were created by fine soils carried by the St. Louis River, the Nemadji River, and Western Lake Superior, and the entry has long allowed marine traffic, from the canoes of native peoples and fur traders to modern 1,000-foot ore carriers, to navigate between the lake and bay. The first lighthouse to guide mariners through the entry, the Minnesota Point Light, was built at the southern end of Minnesota Point in 1858 and operated until 1885. In 1889, after wooden piers were built along the entry, the fixed-red Fifth Order Fresnel lens from the 1858 lighthouse was moved into a simple wooden structure on the north pier and called the St. Louis Pierhead Light, then moved to the south pier five years later. In 1902 a 62-foot-high pyramidal tower was built on the south pier with a fixed-white Fourth Order Fresnel lens, and that same year the U.S. Corps of Engineers began improving the Superior Entry. Lake Superior's 1905 Mataafa Storm destroyed the pierhead light, damaged a nearby fog signal building, and led the government to lengthen the concrete breakwaters and later provide funds for a modern lighthouse and fog signal. Until the new lighthouse was ready, a simple lantern atop the fog signal house served as the guiding light. Powered by electricity, the new light first burned in the early summer of 1913 with a fixed Fourth Order Fresnel lens; set 70 feet above lake level, its 2,900-candlepower lamp rotated on ball bearings and could be seen 16 miles away, flashing 5 seconds of light followed by 5 seconds of darkness. A fog siren was added the next year. Between 1913 and 1965, lighthouse keepers and assistants included Edwin Bishop, Roger Campbell, Wilbur Ranville, William Small, Hans Christensen, Angus Graham, John Kirkendal, Frederick Penry, David Simonson, and others. The lighthouse was fully automated in 1970, when a DCB-224 aero beacon replaced the original Fresnel lens, and its VRB-25 marine rotating beacon, installed in 1997, now sends a green beacon 22 miles across the lake at 5-second intervals. Operated by the U.S. Coast Guard, the Breakwater Light remains an aid to mariners navigating the Superior Entry and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
