Silver Bay is a city in Lake County, Minnesota, United States.

[6] It is the largest population center in a natural tourism area which includes Tettegouche State Park and the Split Rock Lighthouse.

The company town was built to process taconite mined and shipped by train from Babbitt, Minnesota, sixty miles to the northwest.

[7] Silver Bay attained widespread publicity in the 1960s when it was discovered that the Reserve Corporation was dumping taconite tailings into Lake Superior.

In 1972 they were forced to stop and charged with violating the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899, which prohibited the dumping of harmful materials into interstate waters.

Often referred to as “Mile Post 7” In 2015, the taconite tailing-rich Black Beach opened to the public,[9] the negotiation with the mining company for public access to the beaches in the area being brokered by the city of Silver Bay and the state DNR.

Tettegouche State Park, the Baptism River, and the Palisade Head rock formation are all nearby.

Germans comprised 22.2% of the population, 18.1% Norwegian, 11.5% Swedish, 6.5% Finnish, 6.4% American, 6.1% Irish, and 5.2% English ancestry.

[13] Outer Drive (County Road 5), Penn Boulevard, and Minnesota Highway 61 are three of the main routes in Silver Bay.