Crime Scene and Trauma Cleanup in Beaver Bay, MN

Beaver Bay is the oldest settlement on the North Shore of Lake Superior, established in 1856, two years before Minnesota became a state.

Beaver Bay was founded by the five Wieland brothers, German immigrants from Wurttemberg who arrived on the steamer Illinois in 1856 and built a sawmill on the Beaver River, later adding a tannery and grist mill that sustained the town for decades.

Beaver Bay survived the financial Panic of 1857 that emptied most other early North Shore settlements, and it went on to serve as the first county seat of Lake County before the seat moved to Two Harbors.

Mineral exploration launched from Beaver Bay, where guide Christian Wieland led prospector Peter Mitchell toward the Babbitt area, helped lead to the iron ore discoveries that eventually created the taconite town of Silver Bay.

Beaver Bay was the home of John Beargrease, the Ojibwe mail carrier who for about 20 years delivered mail along the North Shore by canoe, horse and dogsled; the John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon is named in his honor, and he is buried in the Ojibwe burial ground in town, where burials date to about 1865.

Despite its 1856 founding, Beaver Bay was not incorporated as a city until August 13, 1953, nearly a century later.

The 2020 census counted 120 people in Beaver Bay, a steep drop from 181 people in 84 households at the 2010 census.

Beaver Bay's population peaked at 287 in 1960, in the years when neighboring Silver Bay's taconite plant was new.

The Beaver River flows through Beaver Bay and empties into Lake Superior, and the city lies about 25 miles northeast of Two Harbors on Highway 61.

Of Beaver Bay's 1.26 square miles, more than 0.5 square miles is water, reflecting its shoreline setting on Lake Superior.