The character of Allouez-Itasca (Superior), Wisconsin
Part of the Allouez-Itasca (Superior) neighborhood guide. Back to the full guide.
Allouez-Itasca feels like the edge of a city, because it is. Industrial infrastructure dominates the middle distance, houses appear in clusters rather than in a continuous grid, and then the land runs out into sand, pine, and open water.
The contrast within a two-mile radius is the neighborhood's defining quality. A conveyor belt moving taconite toward a thousand-foot ore carrier sits within sight of one of the best undeveloped beaches on the Great Lakes. Residents here tend either to love that juxtaposition or to have stopped noticing it.
The residential texture is mixed and modest. Older cottages and bungalows sit near postwar ranches and manufactured-home communities, with lot sizes and shapes varying in a way that reflects incremental development rather than a plat. Some pockets are tidy and long-held; others show the wear that inexpensive housing near industry usually shows.
A Saturday out here is outdoors and self-directed: the Point in the morning for a walk or a birding session, the Osaugie Trail, a round at Nemadji, fishing on Allouez Bay, or a drive east to Amnicon Falls. Evening means driving west, or staying in. Gronk's and the Choo Choo are the neighborhood's social rooms and there is not much else.
Landmarks
Built by the Great Northern Railway from 1892 on Allouez Bay, once the largest gravity iron ore dock installation in the world. A railcar dumping and sorting facility with a 3.5 mile conveyor system was built starting in 1966 at a cost of about $8 million and reached full operation in 1977. Today it is the largest taconite dock in the Twin Ports, with stockpile capacity of more than 5 million tons.
A 229-acre park on one of the world's longest freshwater sandbars, running out to the Superior Entry and its light. The Point is also a place of deep significance to the Fond du Lac Band, whose ancestral burial ground was relocated from it in the early twentieth century.
The city's 36-hole public golf facility at 5 North 58th Street East, two four-star rated courses named the Duluth News Tribune's best golf course for six consecutive years.
The shallow bay behind Wisconsin Point, subject of ongoing habitat restoration work as part of the St. Louis River Area of Concern cleanup.
Character next door
West along East Second Street, the city's historic residential district with the period architecture.
Downtown SuperiorAbout fifteen minutes west, the Tower Avenue commercial core with the breweries and civic buildings.
South End (South Superior)Southwest, quieter postwar family housing with far better errand access.
North End (Superior)West toward the harbor, the other industrial-adjacent neighborhood, with the brewery district.
Billings Park (Superior)The far west end of the city, the quiet river-bluff counterpart to this far east end.