Tofte, Minnesota
Tofte is an unincorporated community in Cook County, Minnesota|Tofte Township], Cook County, Minnesota, United States.
Location
Tofte is on the North [Shore (Lake Superior)|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 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 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. 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.