Photo from Bob King, Duluth News Tribune
Castle Danger. The name alone sounds dangerously romantic. It's a mysterious film noir location. How did a little North Shore town get that name? Is it truly dangerous? Two events, separated by exactly 100 years, point out the risks and the consequences.
Castle Danger was in the Duluth news today because a 30-foot cabin cruiser ran aground on a reef on Sunday. They were able to call for help. All four people aboard were rescued by the Minnesota DNR.
The news was much worse exactly 100 years ago in Castle Danger. On September 18, 1910, four people anchored their launch and rowed their dinghy to shore. A storm came up and the four men rowed back to the launch. Three of the four men had made it back on to the launch. The launch capsized and the three men aboard it all drowned. The only survivor was the man still in the rowboat, who barely made it back to shore himself.
The bodies of Captain Roy Sullivan and John Strand were found quickly. One body, that of Ingvold Aronsen, was found by two boys a month later on the South Shore.
A century later, it's the same Lake Superior, and its basic dangers remain the same. But times have changed.
100 years ago, you couldn't use your cellphone or marine radio to call for help. There wasn't a highway or a resort from which people could watch out for threatened ships or launch their rescue boat.
Now Castle Danger has the Rustic Inn and Grand Superior Lodge and Gooseberry Cabins. Thanks to modern technology and the DNR rescue squad, Castle Danger isn't quite as Danger-ous anymore.
