McCarthy Takes Final Coal Load from SMET Dock

SUPERIOR, WI – The final vessel has departed with coal from the Midwest Energy Terminal in Superior, bringing a half-century of major fossil fuel transshipment on the Twin Ports waterfront to an official close.

On Friday night, the 1,000-foot bulk carrier Walter J. McCarthy Jr. passed beneath the Duluth Aerial Lift Bridge to take on the terminal’s concluding cargo before operations cease permanently. She departed mid-evening Saturday for the lower lakes.

Built in 1976, the Midwest Energy Resources Company facility served for decades as the largest coal transshipment hub on the Great Lakes, moving low-sulfur Powder River Basin rail coal onto giant lake freighters bound for lower Great Lakes utilities. With Detroit-based DTE Energy letting its waterfront property lease expire amid regional utility coal plant retirements, the closure will eliminate roughly 60 jobs while leaving city and port leaders searching for new industrial tenants for the 250-acre site.

Northern News Now and Wisconsin Public Radio