Is Fond du Lac, Duluth, Minnesota right for you?
Part of the Fond du Lac neighborhood guide. Back to the full guide.
You will love Fond du Lac if you want land, river, and forest at the lowest prices in Duluth, and you have genuinely made peace with the drive. Jay Cooke is four miles upstream, Chambers Grove is at the end of the block, and the place is quieter than anywhere else in the city by a wide margin. It suits retirees, remote workers, outdoor people, and anyone buying acreage rather than a neighborhood.
Look elsewhere if you have school-age children, because the bus ride is the longest in this guide at every grade for thirteen years, a real cost measured in hours. Look elsewhere if you need groceries, a pharmacy, or a clinic close by, or if a twenty-four minute drive to a hospital would worry you. Look elsewhere if you want neighbors, a walk to anything, or a community you can join without driving to it.
And do three things before buying here: get the septic inspected and the well tested, pull the flood history and floodplain status for the parcel, and ask the City and the Minnesota SHPO about review requirements before planning excavation, because this ground has documented pre-contact and fur-trade occupation.
For the same price and setting with services and a school district next door, look at Cloquet. To stay in Duluth at similar value but closer in, look at Gary-New Duluth or Morgan Park. If the river and the quiet are the draw but you want a neighborhood around you, look at Smithville.
Is it right for you? next door
The next community northeast along the river, with the nearest gas, convenience, and community facilities.
Morgan ParkNortheast along the river, the 1913 US Steel company town, with level ground and concrete houses.
SmithvilleFurther northeast along the river toward Spirit Valley, with more conventional housing.
Spirit ValleyThe nearest full commercial street in Duluth, about twenty minutes northeast.
CloquetAbout fifteen minutes southwest in Carlton County. For many households here it is the practical shopping town, closer than most of Duluth.