Superior
Superior names 4 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below. 1 of them is described by more than one encyclopedia.
Superior the second city of Wisconsin
Described by 2 of the 6 encyclopedias.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
the second city of Wisconsin, is situated favorably on the Wisconsin shore of Lake Superior, at the mouth of the St. Louis River. The current of the river and the contending waters of the lake have formed a long bar extending out from the shore. This long horn is known as Wisconsin Point. It is approached by a similar bar from the Minnesota shore. The two afford shelter for a capacious harbor which is shared by Duluth on the Minnesota shore. As much of the Duluth shore is confined between the lake and a high bluff, and the Superior shore is an extensive plain, the railroads that shape their course for the head of Lake Superior make it a point to secure yard facilities in Superior. Ores from the Minnesota mines, wheat from the Red River Valley, and lumber from the pineries find their way to Superior for shipment. Coal, salt, and other heavy commodities are unloaded from ships at Superior. The city has forty miles of natural wharfage and claims to have the largest ore dock in the world, the largest coal docks in the world, the largest grain elevator in the world, the largest railroad yard in the world, the largest coal receiving port in the world, and to be the greatest wheat-shipping port in the world. A large shipyard and a dry dock make Superior one of the important ports on Lake Superior. Superior and Duluth are connected by extended drawbridges over which trains, tramways, and city traffic pass to fro. Electric railways, electric lights, paved streets, waterworks, well organized and well housed schools proclaim the energy and foresight of a city destined to be a commercial and industrial center of note.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
LAKE cific, the Great Northern, the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul, the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie, the Chicago and Northwestern and the Duluth, South Shore, and Atlantic railroads; opposite Duluth, Minn. It shares with Duluth the commercial advantage of being the extreme W. port of the Great Lake system of the United States. It has three connecting harbors, well sheltered, and deep, making a combined length of 13 miles, with an extreme width of 3 miles. The city comprises the ports known as East, West, South, and Old Superior. Here are the Finnish University, high schools, street railroads, electric lights, a State Normal school, several hospitals, numerous churches, waterworks, National and State banks, and several newspapers. The industries include the manufacture of flour, lumber, lath, shingles, wagons, chairs, barrels, woolen goods, cement, furniture, bags, iron, steel, etc. There are also shipyards, sawmills, coal docks, many grain elevators, and dry docks. Pop. (1910) 40,384; (1920) 39,671.
Superior LAKE Huron up the river St
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
LAKE Huron up the river St. Mary, the outlet of Lake Superior, through the center of lake, to the mouth the lower half of this of Pigeon river on the N. shore, between Isle Royal and the Canadian coast. The S. coast of the lake from the outlet to Montreal river belongs to the upper peninsula of Michigan. From this river to the St. Louis river at Fond du Lac the coast belongs to Wisconsin, and thence around to Pigeon river to Minnesota. Toward each extremity the lake contracts in width, and at the lower end terminates in a bay which falls into the outlet, the St. Mary's river, at the two opposite headlands of Gros Cape on the N. and Point Iroquois on the S. Thence to the mouth of the St. Mary's at Lake Huron is about 60 miles. The navigation of this river is interrupted 20 miles below its source at the Falls of St. Mary, or, as the place is commonly called, Sault Ste. Marie. Here the river descends in a succession of rapids extending 3% of a mile, from 18 to 21 feet, the fall varying with the stage of the water in Lake Superior. A ship canal has been constructed past the falls by the United States Government, so that now the lake is accessible to vessels from the Atlantic Ocean. The rocks around the lake are very ancient, belonging principally to the Laurentian of the Azoic and Huronian systems series, overlaid in some places, especially on the S. side, with patches of the Lower Silurian. The prevalent Laurentian rock is orthoclase gneiss. Among the Huronian rocks are greenstones, slates, conglomerates, quartzites, and limestones. The Lower Silurian rocks are soft sandstones. There is everywhere much evidence of glacial action. The Huronian rocks are well stored with useful minerals. The copper and iron mines of the S. side are celebrated for their extent and richness. The richest copper mines are situated near Kee-wee-naw Point. The metal occurs principally native, and sometimes in single masses of great size. Native silver is found associated with the native copper, and sometimes intimately mixed with it. Gold has been found in small specks at Namainse on the British side. Lead ore occurs in some places. The beds of hæmatite, or red iron ore, at Marquette, on the American side, are of wonderful extent. The water of Lake Superior, remarkable for its coldness, purity, and transparency, is inhabited by many kinds of fish, among which are the delicious white fish and the gray trout.
Superior LAKE, the extreme W
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
LAKE, the extreme W. and most extensive of the great lakes of the St. Lawrence basin, in North America, being the largest existing body of fresh water. It is of a triangular form, extending between lat. 40° 30′ and 49° N., and lon. 80° and 92° 20′ W. Its length, E. to W., is about 360 miles, with a mean breadth of about 80 miles, so that its area may be taken at about 28,600 square miles. The mean depth is estimated at 900 feet, and the height of its surface at about 640 feet above the Atlantic. It receives upward of 50 rivers, but none is of much importance except the St. Louis which enters at its S. W. extremity, and the Riviere au Grand Portage. During the melting of the snow, these and the other rivers sweep into the lake vast quantities of sand, bowlder stones, and drift timber. It discharges itself at its E. extremity into Lakes Huron and Michigan, by the river and falls of St. Mary. This lake embosoms many large and well-wooded islands, the chief of which is Isle Royal. The country of the N. and E. is a mountainous embankment of rock, from 200 to 1,500 feet in height; the climate unfavorable, and the vegetation slow and scanty. On the S. the land is also high, generally sandy, sterile, and the coast dangerous, subject to storms, and sudden transitions of temperature, and to fogs and mists. The mean heat in June and July is about 65° F., but an extremely cold winter prevails. The boundary line between Canada and the United States passes from Lake
Superior a city, port of entry
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city, port of entry, and county-seat of Douglas co., Wis.; on Lake Superior, and on the Northern Pa-
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's 1910 boast that Superior had "the largest ore dock in the world" and "the largest grain elevator in the world" belonged to a boom that did not last: Collier's already recorded a slight dip, from 40,384 people in 1910 to 39,671 in 1920, and the city has shrunk since to roughly 26,000. The twin ports still work — Duluth-Superior remains the busiest bulk harbour on the Great Lakes, shipping taconite pellets rather than raw ore, and the St. Lawrence Seaway of 1959 finally made good on Collier's claim that the lake is "accessible to vessels from the Atlantic Ocean" for ocean-going ships. The Keweenaw native-copper mines Collier's called celebrated for their richness are gone; the last large operation, the White Pine mine, closed in the 1990s. Modern surveys also correct the lake's figures: about 31,700 square miles rather than 28,600, and a mean depth near 480 feet rather than the 900 Collier's estimated, with a maximum of about 1,330 feet.
Written for this edition, 2026.