Silver Bay, MN

Silver Bay is a Lake County city on Minnesota’s North Shore of Lake Superior, founded in 1954 around Reserve Mining Company’s taconite processing plant. The city’s name came after the plant and town replaced the earlier Beaver Bay housing project, and Rocky Taconite’s 1964 dedication put the plant at the center of local history. Black Beach, made from taconite tailings, and the North Shore National Scenic Drive give the present map two very different shoreline markers. Silver Bay is a Minnesota company town whose story runs from ore processing to black sand on Lake Superior.