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
University of Minnesota Duluth University of Minnesota Duluth The University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) is a public university in Duluth, Minnesota. It is part of the University of Minnesota system and offers 15 bachelor's degrees in 84 majors, graduate programs in 26 different fields, and a two-year program at the School of Medicine and a four-year College of Pharmacy program. Although the University of Minnesota Duluth didn’t officially make its appearance until 1947, plans for a college in the Duluth area were first made in the 1890s. The state legislature planned for a teaching school for women (then referred to as a normal school)