Tofte is on the North Shore of Lake Superior, within the Superior National Forest, 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 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.

[5][6] 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.

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.