It seems as though every town of any size in every state in the country has at least one tourist attraction. Whether it’s a giant statue of Paul Bunyon and Babe the Blue Ox, or the world’s largest ball of twine, every place claims to have something that the world needs to see!

Recently, the folks at the website Supercompressor.com put together a list of the most underrated tourist attraction in each state. What made the list for Minnesota? Some place that you’ve probably never heard of, but that I’ve had the odd chance to visit on several occasions. The site has chosen the Soudan Mine Underground State Park.

Located in Northern Minnesota, near Ely and the Lake Vermilion area, the Soudan Mine is an awesome historic landmark and Minnesota's first working iron ore mine, that was in use until 1962. The tour lets visitors travel deep into the actual mine (nearly half-a-mile in a rickety, old, metal elevator) to look around and learn historical information on how things worked down there.

The Soudan Mine is a personal favorite attraction of mine, thanks to an annual camping trip up to Lake Vermilion I used to take with some college friends. We'd go visit the mine every year - mostly because one of the guys was super afraid of closed-in and tight spaces, yet would subject himself to the torture of this tour, anyway! Once we were back on the earth's surface, he'd need a handful of beers just to recover!

The story got me wondering, what is the most underrated tourist attraction in our area? What does Rochester, or the surrounding area, have to share that more people need to know about? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this! Then I'll put together a list of the great ideas you share!

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