Tofte ( ) is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Tofte Township,

Cook County Cook County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Illinois and the second-most-populous county in the United States, after Los Angeles County, California. More than 40 percent of all residents of Illinois live within Cook County. ...

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

, United States.

Location

Tofte is on the North Shore of

Lake Superior Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. Lake Michigan–Huron has a larger combined surface area than Superior, but is normally considered tw ...

, within the

Superior National Forest The Superior National Forest, part of the United States National Forest system, is located in the Arrowhead Region of the U.S. state, state of Minnesota between the Canada–United States border and the North Shore (Lake Superior), north shore o ...

, 27 miles southwest of the city of Grand Marais and 56 miles northeast of the city of Two Harbors. Temperance River State Park, the Gitchi-Gami State Trail, the Superior Hiking Trail, and the Carlton Peak Lookout are all nearby, and the communities of

Schroeder __NOTOC__ Schroeder is a North German (from Schröder) occupational name for a cloth cutter or tailor, from an agent derivative of Middle Low German , "to cut". The same term was occasionally used to denote a gristmiller as well as a shoemaker, wh ...

and Taconite Harbor are immediately southwest of the town. Minnesota Highway 61 and Cook County Road 2 (Sawbill Trail) are two of the main routes in the community. A post office called Tofte has been in operation since 1897.

History

Tofte was founded in 1893 by Norwegian settlers (and twin brothers) Andrew and John Tofte, their sister Torget, and her husband Hans Engelsen. Tofte takes its name from the Norwegian birthplace of its founders. They originally named the town "Carlton" for nearby Carlton Peak, but the name was already used by the town of

Carlton, Minnesota Carlton is a city and the county seat of Carlton County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 948 at the 2020 census. The town sits on the northwestern edge of Jay Cooke State Park. Minnesota State Highways 45 and 210 and County Ro ...

. In 1968, Engelsen's nephew Chris Tormondson wrote a booklet titled ''Tofte: A collection of facts and tales of the North Shore area of Lake Superior as told to Bill Westphal''. Much of the town was destroyed by a forest fire in 1910, but it was rebuilt.

Attractions

In 1996, the

North Shore Commercial Fishing Museum The North Shore Commercial Fishing Museum is a museum in Tofte, Minnesota, dedicated to the history of the Scandinavian immigrants and communities of the North Shore region of Lake Superior, and especially their importance to the national comme ...

opened in Tofte. The museum is Minnesota's first dedicated to commercial fishing, and chronicles the history of the Scandinavian immigrants and communities of the North Shore region of Lake Superior, especially their importance to the national commercial fishing industry of the 1880s to 1940s.

Education

All of the county is zoned to

Cook County ISD 166 Cook County ISD 166, also known as Cook County Schools, is a school district headquartered in Grand Marais, Minnesota. It is in northeast Minnesota. The square mileage is . Its service area is all of Cook County Cook County is the most po ...

References

Unincorporated communities in Cook County, Minnesota Unincorporated communities in Minnesota Minnesota populated places on Lake Superior {{CookCountyMN-geo-stub