A special train trip on Wednesday gave the media a chance to see the progress on the Spirit Lake/U.S. Steel project site.

Mayor Emily Larson shared, “The City Council first passed the first plan calling for the construction of the riverfront trail in far western Duluth in 1979. So that’s when the Western Waterfront Trail was first started.
For 45 years, this section of the Morgan Park riverfront has been closed to public use, signed for trespassing, overgrown with invasive plants and laden with remediated contaminants. But that is no longer the case.”

The former Superfund site is near where U.S. Steel used to operate a plant in the Morgan Park neighborhood.

Larson said U.S. Steel and EPA are paying for most of the new greenspace.

There will be a more public celebration in the spring.