The 2,200-acre (890 ha) state park offers a unique cart-in campground and scenic trails for hiking, cross-country skiing, and bicycling.

Split Rock Lighthouse State Park encompasses about four miles (6.4 km) of rocky shoreline on Lake Superior with several prominent headlands.

[6] Much of the shore of Lake Superior is made of basalt erupted from the Midcontinent Rift System when the middle of the North American Plate began to crack 1.1 billion years ago.

[4][7] Beginning 2 million years ago a series of glacial periods repeatedly covered the region with ice, scouring the bedrock and scooping out a great basin.

[3] Mammals found in the park include white-tailed deer, moose, black bears, raccoons, snowshoe hares, red foxes, bobcats, and Canadian lynxes.

The first white settlement in the Split Rock area was Little Two Harbors, a commercial fishing village populated largely by Norwegian immigrants.

Three years later the North Shore Abrasives Company set up mining operations on Corundum Point, but abandoned the site in 1908 when their product was found to be inadequate.

According to local legend it was the start of a house built around 1900 by Frank Day, a businessman from Duluth, for himself and his sweetheart, but abandoned when she did not reciprocate his love.

The Madeira with 10 men aboard drifted northeast until violent waves began smashing her against the cliffs of Gold Rock Point.

The Madeira sank in pieces at the foot of Gold Rock while the crewmen, suffering from exposure and frostbite, found shelter with local fishermen and loggers.

Both crews were picked up two days later by the tugboat Edna G.[11] The shipping companies that had sustained losses in the storms lobbied the federal government for an expanded system of navigational aids on the Great Lakes.

The site ultimately selected for the lighthouse and fog signal was 2.5 miles (4.0 km) northeast of the Split Rock River, on Stony Point.

Five years later a crew from the Civilian Conservation Corps built a new access road and lighthouse tenders were provided with a truck to bring in supplies by land, so the tramway was dismantled.

[8] The picturesque lighthouse, perched on a 130-foot cliff overlooking the world's largest lake, began attracting small numbers of visitors within weeks of its opening.

In addition to a kitschy gift shop, this tourist trap once boasted live bears in cages, the anchor of the Madeira, and a wooden tower offering a view of the lighthouse.

In 1997 it was purchased from its private owners by the Parks & Trails Council of Minnesota, an organization founded by Clarence Magney, among others, to buy and hold worthy properties until state legislation can authorize their public acquisition.

The Council and the Blacklock Nature Sanctuary, an art and conservation non-profit organization she and her family had founded, jointly purchased 80 acres (32 ha) of land around the accident site.

43 acres (17 ha) were transferred to the state park while the remainder, with an existing one-bedroom cabin, is managed by the Blacklock Nature Sanctuary as an artists' retreat.

Split Rock Lighthouse State Park has a unique cart-in campground with 20 secluded campsites and a modern restroom.

[5] The park's trail center hosts various public events, including music performances, nature walks, and history programs.