Soudan Underground Mine State Park

This park is home to Minnesota's oldest iron ore mine, where visitors can learn about how mining shaped the history and culture of the Iron Range. Explore the dry house, drill shop, crusher house and engine house, and take the boardwalk past one of the deepest open mine pits. Take an underground mine tour and travel a half mile beneath the earth to the deepest area that was mined. And don't miss the hiking trails that take you through a northern hardwood conifer forest, past the famous Soudan Iron Formation! The park is home to northern songbirds, loons, hawks, and owls. White-tailed deer, black bear, timber wolves, fishers, and many smaller animals live in the park. Evidence of human habitation dating back to 4000 BC has been found in the park. The history of the area is rich and varied, ranging from logging - to a "gold rush" - to iron ore mining, which removed over 15.5 million tons of ore from the Soudan Mine alone. The origins of the underlying bedrock formations in the park date back over 2.7 billion years. The two bedrock formations are an iron-bearing metamorphic formation and a metamorphosed sedimentary rock formation. Mixed in these formations are deposits of other minerals such as nickel, lead, gold, silver, copper, and zinc. The park is located on a rugged ridge on the south shore of Lake Vermilion and offers a unique combination of recreational opportunities, including picnicking, hiking, snowmobiling and tours of a former iron ore mine. Scenic stands of white and Norway pine, mixed with some balsam, aspen and birch, cover the upland areas. The lowlands are dominated by white cedar interspersed with balsam, tamarack, black spruce, ash and muskeg.