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
Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa 4,044. The Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa originally inhabited the area along the lower courses of the Saint Louis River, where the present-day cities of Duluth, Minnesota and Superior, Wisconsin developed. The "Wayekwaa-gichigamiing" controlled the river access to both the Saint Louis and the Nemadji River rivers, major trade-routes during the decades of the fur trade with European traders. In the same area is Spirit Island of the "Sixth Stopping Place", one of the former seven Anishinaabe administrative centers. The Fond du Lac Band's regional economic influence helped establish the American Fur Company's trading post in what