Superior Map
Superior is a city in and the county seat of Douglas County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 27,368 at the 2000 census. Located at the junction of U.S. Highways 2 and 53, it is north of and adjacent to both the Village of Superior and the Town of Superior.
Superior is at the western end of Lake Superior in northwestern Wisconsin. Bordered by Saint Louis Bay, Superior Bay, and Allouez Bay, it is also framed by two rivers: the Nemadji and the Saint Louis. Superior, and the neighboring city across the bay, Duluth, Minnesota, form a single metropolitan area called the Twin Ports and share a harbor that is one of the most important ports on the Great Lakes. Both cities have museum ships (SS William A Irvin in Duluth and SS Meteor in Superior) devoted to the local nautical heritage. Superior was the last port of call for the Edmund Fitzgerald before its famous 1975 sinking.
Superior and Douglas County's early history is a story of the Native American. The first-known inhabitants of what is now Douglas County were Mound Builders. These people appeared on the shores of Lake Superior sometime after the latest glacier receded. They mined copper in the Minong Range and at Manitou Falls on the Black River. They pounded this metal into weapons, implements, and ornaments, which were later found buried in mounds with their dead. Their civilization was eventually overrun by other tribes, mainly of Muskhogean and Iroquois stock, and disappeared as a distinct culture in late prehistoric American times.
Nearby cities include Esko, Wrenshall, Carlton, Cloquet, Poplar.