Great Lakes Waterway River between Huron and Erie. Usually, one or more U.S. Coast Guard icebreakers help keep the water passage open for part of the fall and early winter, although shipping usually ceases for two to three months thereafter. The Great Lakes Waterway is co-administered by the governments of Canada and the United States of America. The waterway allows passage from the Atlantic Ocean to the inland port of Duluth on Lake Superior, a distance of and to Chicago, on Lake Michigan, at . Together with the Saint Lawrence Seaway, the Waterway allows both ocean-going vessels and the ore, grain and coal-bearing
Duluth, Minnesota winter of 1997–98. The Blue Heron is part of the University National Oceanographic Laboratory System, and is available for charter by research scientists on any of the Great Lakes. Local newspapers include the "BusinessNorth" monthly, the "Duluth News Tribune", the "Duluth Budgeteer News," the free newspapers "Transistor", "The Zenith", and "The Reader Weekly". Locally based nationally distributed magazines include "Cabin Life", "Lake Superior Magazine," and "New Moon Magazine". The Duluth area marks the northern endpoint of Interstate Highway 35, which stretches south to Laredo, Texas. U.S. Highways that serve the area are U.S. Highway 53, which stretches from La Crosse,