Tower, MN

Tucked along the southern shore of Lake Vermilion, Tower is a quiet northern Minnesota town with a population of roughly 430 people. It sits right where the Iron Range transitions into dense Northwoods lake country, making it a convenient home base whether you are heading out for supplies or launching a boat for the weekend. With straightforward highway connections to neighboring hubs like Virginia and Ely, it offers a peaceful, small-town pace of living without feeling completely isolated.

ATTRMcGhiever / CC BY-SA 4.0

The community grew out of the region's 19th-century mining boom, a heritage preserved today at the local depot museum and nearby Lake Vermilion-Soudan Underground Mine State Park. For education, younger kids attend Tower-Soudan Elementary, while older students can enroll in the local charter school or commute to neighboring secondary schools. Winters are famously cold and long (Tower actually holds Minnesota’s all-time record low of 60 below zero), but residents lean into the climate with snowmobiling, ice fishing, and easy access to the lake once summer rolls around.