Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Two Harbors, MN

Two Harbors is a city and the county seat of Lake County, Minnesota, on the North Shore of Lake Superior, named for its two natural harbors, Burlington Bay and Agate Bay.

Two Harbors exists because of iron ore: the first load of ore from the Vermilion Range left Agate Bay on July 31, 1884, and the city remains a working cargo port shipping iron ore (taconite) across the Great Lakes.

Agate Bay began in 1883 as a railroad construction camp whose infamous four-acre saloon district, leased from homesteader Thomas Sexton, earned the nickname "Whiskey Row."

The village of Two Harbors was platted in 1885, incorporated as a village in 1888, and reincorporated as a city on February 26, 1907.

Two Harbors is the birthplace of 3M: five local businessmen founded the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company there in 1902 to mine what they believed was corundum for sandpaper — the mineral turned out to be worthless anorthosite, but the company survived, and founder John Dwan's original office is now the 3M Birthplace Museum, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The tugboat Edna G., built in 1896 and moored in Agate Bay, was the last coal-fired, steam-powered tugboat operating on the Great Lakes when it retired in 1981, and it is now a museum ship on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Two Harbors Light Station, first lit on April 15, 1892, is the oldest continuously operating lighthouse on Minnesota's North Shore of Lake Superior.

A massive Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range "Yellowstone" steam locomotive, among the largest steam locomotives ever built, is preserved on display by the city's historic depot.

The population of Two Harbors was 3,633 at the 2020 census, with 1,588 households; the city peaked at 4,990 residents in 1910 during its ore-boom years.

Two Harbors is the gateway city to the North Shore: Highway 61 leads from here to eight state parks, including Gooseberry Falls, just 13 miles northeast.