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
Lake Superior during the 17th century referred to their discovery as "le lac supérieur". Properly translated, the expression means "Upper Lake," that is, the lake above Lake Huron. The lake was also called "Lac Tracy" (named for Alexandre de Prouville de Tracy) by 17th century Jesuit missionaries. The British, upon taking control of the region from the French in the 1760s following the French and Indian War, anglicized the lake's name to "Superior", "on account of its being superior in magnitude to any of the lakes on that vast continent." Lake Superior empties into Lake Huron via the St. Marys River and