Midway Township, Minnesota
Acreage ten minutes from Proctor, with Jay Cooke over the back fence and a well and a septic system to look after.
Midway Township is not a neighborhood, it is an organized township of about 13.98 square miles west of Proctor, and it is one of the closest places to Duluth where acreage is the normal way to live rather than the exception. At 96.2 percent owner-occupied and 97.1 percent single-family it is the most owner-occupied place in this guide. Jay Cooke State Park is its southern boundary. There is no grocery, no gas station and no bus, and essentially every property runs its own well and septic system. Those two sentences together are the whole proposition.
Everything about Midway Township
Each part of the Midway Township guide has its own page. Start anywhere.
Midway Township sits west of the City of Proctor and south of the City of Hermantown, with Solway Township to the northwest, Thomson Township in Carlton County to the west, and Duluth's far-western neighborhoods of Gary-New Duluth and Fond du Lac to the south. Interstate 35 clips through it, and Midway Road, Becks Road, North ...
HistoryMidway Township's history is the history of what happened around it. This corner of St. Louis County was logged, then partly farmed, then gradually settled as rural residential land as Duluth and Proctor grew and cars made a ten-mile commute ordinary.
CharacterMidway feels like country that happens to be close to town, and residents tend to describe it in exactly those terms.
Who lives hereMidway is the most owner-occupied place in this guide by a wide margin, and its household profile follows directly from that. In the 2023 five-year estimates, 96.2 percent of occupied units are owner-occupied and 97.1 percent of the housing stock is single-family detached, with a further 2.2 percent manufactured on private land.
HousingMidway's housing is postwar and later rural building on acreage: ranches, split-levels, two-story rural contemporaries, some log and timber, a small share of modular and manufactured homes on private land, and a good many properties whose outbuildings matter as much as the house.
SchoolsMidway Township is in Proctor Public Schools (ISD 704), a small district, which is the main school fact to weigh.
Parks & recreationFor a township with no parks department, Midway has an unusually strong recreation offer, because of what surrounds it.
Restaurants & diningThere is one food business inside the township and it is a farm stand, so this section is mostly about Proctor.
Churches & worshipMidway is a two-car township and there is no honest way to soften that.
Safety & feelMidway reads as quiet rural residential, and the practical risks here are not the ones a city buyer is used to weighing.
Daily lifeEveryday life in Midway runs on a pantry and a car, and residents organize around that rather than fighting it.
Local loreThe township is named Midway and so is a road, and they are not the same thing. Midway Road runs a long way north through the county, well past the township that shares its name. Jay Cooke State Park is the back fence. A township of under 600 housing units has one of Minnesota's better-known ...
Is it right for you?You will love Midway Township if you want land. This is one of the closest places to Duluth where acreage is the normal way to live, with a twenty-minute commute downtown, ten minutes to Proctor for school and groceries, Jay Cooke State Park as the southern boundary, and Spirit Mountain and the Munger Trail within ...
How Midway Township scores
Is Midway Township right for you?
You'll love it if
- Acreage and genuine privacy about ten minutes from Proctor and twenty from downtown Duluth, which is a short rural commute by any standard.
- Jay Cooke State Park is the southern boundary, with the St. Louis River gorge, the swinging bridge and a large trail system.
- 96.2 percent owner-occupancy and 97.1 percent single-family, the most owner-occupied place in this guide, which shows in how the roads and properties are kept.
- Proctor Public Schools (ISD 704) is a small district where participation in activities is easy, with the middle and high school on one campus.
- A legally exact boundary and whole-township Census data, so the demographic picture here is more reliable than the tract approximations used for Duluth sub-neighborhoods.
- Spirit Mountain, the Munger Trail and the Mission Creek trails are all within about fifteen minutes.
Look elsewhere if
- No services at all inside the township: no grocery, no pharmacy, no hardware, no gas station, no transit.
- Private well and septic on essentially every parcel, which is a real diligence burden and a real maintenance cost.
- Upland elevation means more snow and a longer winter than the Duluth lakeshore, and a long driveway is an annual commitment.
- Inventory is very thin and rural comparables are scarce, so pricing is genuinely difficult and an appraisal matters more than in any city neighborhood.
- Two cars, effectively mandatory. There is no bus.
- Internet and cellular service vary by parcel and should be tested at the property rather than assumed from a coverage map.
If you like Midway Township, also look at
The township's service town about ten minutes east, with the schools, the groceries and the restaurants.
Canosia Township and Pike LakeNorth of Hermantown in the same school district, the other rural township in this guide, with lake frontage this one does not have.
HermantownThe suburban city immediately north, with new construction, municipal services and the region's highest price per square foot.
Gary-New DuluthSoutheast into far-west Duluth, city services and much lower prices along the St. Louis River.
EskoWest about fifteen minutes into Carlton County, a small unincorporated community with a strong school district of its own.
Fond du LacSoutheast along the river, the far western end of Duluth beside Jay Cooke.
Common questions about Midway Township
Where is Midway Township?
In St. Louis County, Minnesota, west of the City of Proctor and south of the City of Hermantown, with Solway Township northwest, Thomson Township in Carlton County west, and Duluth's Gary-New Duluth and Fond du Lac neighborhoods south. Jay Cooke State Park lies immediately south. Interstate 35 clips through it. The Census gives its area as 13.98 square miles, all land.
How much do homes cost in Midway Township?
No sale median is published for a township geography and the place sells very few properties a year, so this guide will not invent one. The Census five-year estimate of median owner-occupied home value is $274,100, which sits between Proctor at $219,500 and Hermantown at $374,000. Roughly $240,000 to $360,000 is a fair working band for a house on acreage, with land, outbuildings and the condition of the well and septic moving a property further than the house does.
What schools serve Midway Township?
Proctor Public Schools (ISD 704). The middle and high schools share a campus at 131 9th Avenue in Proctor, with A.I. Jedlicka Middle at about 450 students and Proctor Senior High at about 540. The elementary assignment needs checking per address: the district runs Bay View Elementary at 8708 Vinland Street and Pike Lake Elementary at 5682 Martin Road, and the boundary between them across the rural townships was not established in our research.
Is there a grocery store or gas station in Midway Township?
No. There are no retail services of any kind inside the township boundary: no grocery, no pharmacy, no hardware store, no gas station and no bus route. Proctor covers everyday needs about ten minutes east and the Miller Hill corridor in Duluth is fifteen to twenty minutes northeast. Esko and Cloquet are an alternative direction west on Interstate 35.
Does Midway Township have city water and sewer?
No. This is an unincorporated township, so essentially every property runs a private well and a septic system. That makes water testing, septic age and compliance at transfer, and recorded legal access the three questions that matter most in a purchase here. Minnesota law gives buyers unusually strong protection on wells, including a seller disclosure requirement and six years of liability for undisclosed wells.
How bad is winter in Midway Township?
Snowier and colder than Duluth's lakeshore. The township sits on upland roughly 630 to 670 feet above the lake and gets none of the lake-effect moderation that keeps the shoreline milder into autumn. Interstate 35 and the county roads are well maintained; the variable is the last stretch, because township roads and private driveways are plowed on a different schedule and sometimes by a different party. Settle who plows what before you buy.
Is Midway Township a good place to buy land?
It is one of the closest places to Duluth where genuine acreage is normal rather than exceptional, at a twenty minute commute downtown. The catches are that inventory is very thin, rural comparables are scarce enough that pricing is hard, and the diligence list on a rural parcel is longer than on a city lot. Read this guide's rural and lakeshore buying guide before making an offer.
Where these facts come from
- US Census Bureau, ACS 5-year 2023 estimates, Midway township, St. Louis County, Minnesota (county subdivision 27-137-42056): tenure, rent, units in structure, median value, income, year built accessed 2026-08-14
- US Census Bureau TIGERweb, Midway township internal point and land area (13.98 sq mi land, 0.00 water) accessed 2026-08-14
- US Census Bureau geocoder, 3361 Lindahl Road confirmed within Midway township accessed 2026-08-14
- Wikipedia, Midway Township, St. Louis County, Minnesota (adjacent townships and cities, road and creek network) accessed 2026-08-14
- Minnesota DNR, Willard Munger State Trail (70 paved miles, Hinckley to Duluth) accessed 2026-08-14
- Duluth Transit Authority, routes and schedules (confirming no route serves the township; route 109 serves Proctor) accessed 2026-08-14
- NCES Common Core of Data 2024-2025 via the Urban Institute Education Data API, Proctor ISD 704 (leaid 2730090) accessed 2026-08-14
- This guide's rural and lakeshore buying guide, for wells, septic, shoreland and the access question accessed 2026-08-14
- Inline restaurant, park, trail and worship rows on this page carry the source URL held by the guide's own amenity record for that place, so the citation matches where the fact came from accessed 2026-08-14
- USGS Elevation Point Query Service, spot elevations at geocoded points in and around this area accessed 2026-08-14
- NWS Duluth, seasonal snowfall records and normals accessed 2026-08-14
Last reviewed 2026-08-14 by Guide editorial.