Strange Minnesota Ruins Most People Don’t Know About

There's a huge chunk of cement that's out in Lake Superior off the shore of Duluth, Minnesota. If you've been to Duluth you've probably seen it, but do you know why it's there? It's a pretty weird sight when you see it for the first time. It's called Uncle Harvey's Mausoleum.

How did something that huge end up out in Lake Superior? Only in Your State says it's about 30 feet away from shore. It was actually meant to be out in Lake Superior like that and was built over 100 years ago!

It's named after the man who came up with the idea, Harvey Whitney. He had the structure built in 1919 according to Atlas Obscura. Harvey had a gravel and sand business at the time and Duluth was a very active place. To get his gravel and sand, Harvey would have to wait for the barges to dock but the canal was always busy. So Harvey came up with what he thought was a great idea which was to "unload the boats into a hopper and let conveyor belts bring it the rest of the way."

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However, because of how unpredictable Lake Superior can be, there were times that boats couldn't get close enough to the hopper to unload which obviously isn't good. The unpredictable lake also started taking a toll on the hopper and in 1922 it was abandoned. And it's been there ever since!

Now many people will swim out to the ruins in the summertime and jump off, sunbathe, or slackline. In the winter people can just walk out to the ruins to take a look.

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