Duluth, Minnesota four Catholic schools with coverage up to grades 6 or 8, two Protestant schools, two Montessori schools, and six other charter and private schools. Due to its proximity to the Great Lakes, Duluth is the location for the Large Lakes Observatory. The Large Lakes Observatory operates the largest university-owned research vessel in the Great Lakes, the R/V Blue Heron. Built in 1985 for fishing on the Grand Banks, the Blue Heron was purchased by the University of Minnesota in 1997, sailed from Portland, Maine, up the St. Lawrence Seaway to Duluth, and converted into a limnological research vessel during the
Brule Lake (Minnesota) federal wilderness area for which Brule Lake serves as an entrance point. Brule Lake is one of the largest lakes in the eastern Arrowhead Region of Minnesota. It has an area of 4272 acres, and a maximum depth of 78 feet. It sits 1851 feet above sea level. It measures approximately eight miles from east to west, and one mile from north to south. Brule Lake is located in the Duluth Complex, a geological region marked by bands of softer, more erodible bedrock, and "red rock," a harder and less easily eroded stone, which forms protruding ridges across the Superior