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Train Displays: Duluth and Iron Range steam locomotive 'Three Spot' in Two Harbors
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If not for a Brazilian railroad company that refused delivery and a courageous tugboat captain who refused to give up a cargo, the steam locomotive known as the Three Spot might never have come to Two Harbors, Minnesota.
Brazilian Connection
In 1883, the Philadelphia-based Baldwin Locomotive Works built a locomotive engine for Brazil’s San Juan and Vera Cruz Railroad. The price of construction was $12,000. The Brazilian railroad canceled their order and Burnham, Parry, Williams and Company had to find a new purchaser.
Redirected to Minnesota
Almost halfway across the United States, John S. Wolf and Company of Ottumwa, Iowa, was hired to build a 68-mile railway line. The company was charged with laying track from a place on Lake Superior called Agate Bay to an iron ore mine near a town later known as Tower. A railroad requires locomotives and rolling stock. The first locomotive the Duluth and Iron Range Railroad purchased was the No. 3, nicknamed the Three Spot. They paid cash for it in the amount of $9750. The Lake County Historical Society Museum has the original bill of sale in its museum archives.
Perilous Lake Journey
Bringing the Three Spot from Philadelphia to Duluth was relatively easy. The locomotive came to the Lake Superior port on existing railroad lines. The over thirty mile trip from Duluth to Agate Bay, later known as Two Harbors, was a different story. Neither rail lines nor roadways existed. In Duluth, the Three Spot was carefully lashed down to a scow under the direction of the D and IR civil engineer William McGonagle. It left the port on July 8, 1883, towed by the steam tugboat Ella G. Stone, another D and IR property. Captaining the tugboat was Cornelius O. Flynn.
All was well until the tugboat and her consort neared the mouth of Knife River. A northeaster blew up and threatened to drive the scow and locomotive into the lake. Many a Lake Superior captain in similar conditions would order the tow lines cut so that both boats would not be capsized. In his memoirs, McGonagle attributed their safe arrival in Agate Bay to Flynn’s seamanship and providence. Once in Agate Bay, the scow was guided up to an ore dock which had been constructed with rails for the engine and rolling stock. The Museum displays a painting by D and IR employee Albert Headley showing the tugboat and scow pitching up and down in tumultuous lake waters.
Duluth and Iron Range Railroad Service
The Three Spot was pressed into service shipping supplies, rails, and all the necessary equipment from Agate Bay up to the rail-laying site. The Three Spot’s first engineer was Thomas Owens, a founding father of Two Harbors. The first fireman was William Pettibone. A mural on the side of the Two Harbors Municipal Liquor Store depicts these two men along with other D and IR veterans in front of the Three Spot.
Later Years
The rail line was completed on July 31, 1884. From that time, the Three Spot was occasionally rented by the Scott Holsten Company to haul lumber. In 1899, the Three Spot was sold to the Alger-Smith Duluth and Northern Minnesota Railroad, a logging interest. During the summer, the renamed No. 2 would assist in lumber camp construction and in winter, it would be used in hauling logs.
When the Duluth and Northern Minnesota Railroad chose to retire the engine, the Duluth, Missabe, and Iron Range Railroad bought it back. The Thirty Year Veteran’s Association of the Duluth and Iron Range Railroad Company was allowed to place the Three Spot by the Museum at 520 South Avenue as a static display. When the larger Yellowstone type locomotives arrived in Two Harbors in 1941, newspapers showed the Three Spot dwarfed by the new engines.
As an outdoor exhibit, the Three Spot as well as the related D and IR railroad equipment surrounding it may be visited any time. To get there, take Waterfront Drive off US Highway 61.
For more information about the Duluth and Iron Range Railroad, Frank Alexander King's book. "The Missabe Road: the Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway", is a good resource.
