From top to bottom, freshwater sandbars in Lake Eerie, Lake Baikal and our own on Lake Superior. In each image, the red line represents 15 miles. (Images from Google Earth)

The 10-mile combined length of Minnesota and Wisconsin Point is often described as one of the world’s longest natural freshwater sandbars. But which sandbars is it being compared against? This post takes a closer look at the world’s longest sandbars (and includes a Geoguessr challenge of remarkable sandbars around the world).

A sandbar as a geological term does not seem to have a precise definition. Specifically, different sources provide different distinctions between a sandbar and a sand spit. Some sources say that a sandbar must connect across two sides of a body of water, otherwise it is a sand spit. Other sources describe a sand spit as a specific type of sandbar that extends out into a body of water. As this post is being written by someone who is not a geologist, the definition of a sandbar used here is anything that looks like a long, thin beach with water on both sides. If you believe any particular example here does not qualify as a sandbar, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

Regardless of sandbar definitions, the examples shown at the top of the post are all natural, freshwater sand formations in large lakes. I found the sandbar in Lake Baikal through the blog Marie’s Meanderings, which examined the issue of the world’s largest freshwater sandbars in 2016. She had a researcher from UMD’s Large Lake Observatory confirm that Lake Baikal has at least one and possibly two freshwater sandbars longer than the one at the head of the lakes. This would still leave Lake Superior with the largest natural freshwater sandbar in North America. But only if you do not count a sand spit as a type of sandbar. In that case, Long Point, shown in the top image jutting out 25 miles into Lake Eerie, wins easily.

Farewell Spit, on the northern tip of New Zealand’s south island. The red line represents 15 miles. (Image from Google Earth)

These are all freshwater sandbars and when discussing Minnesota Point, the qualifier freshwater is definitely necessary. Saltwater sand formations can be quite long. Farewell Spit claims to be the longest natural sandbar in the world. At 21 miles, it is not. The actual record holder, which I found through a query to ChatGPT, seems to be Padre Island, Texas, a coastal barrier island considered to be yet another type of sandbar. An answer given by AI might not be definitive, but given Padre Island’s 113 mile length, Minnesota Point would have to stretch beyond the Apostle Islands to remove the ‘freshwater’ qualifier.

Padre Island, the world’s largest sandbar, no qualifiers necessary. The red line represents 15 miles. (Image from Google Earth)

This leaves the final qualifier of natural. I have doubts about whether that is actually necessary, as sand dumped by people into shallow water does not seem to meet any geological definition of a sandbar. But there are so many examples of places where people have reclaimed land in this manner (and even more in development) that if you do consider a land reclamation project as a type of sandbar then you need to add the qualifier. In the 1930s, the Netherlands turned a sea into two different lakes and then created an entirely new province by reclaiming the land in the newly formed lake. If the 16-mile dike that separates the two freshwater lakes is considered an artificial sandbar, then Minnesota Point should have the “natural” qualifier in any record-breaking claims.

A Dutch dike, completed in 1976, that divides two artificially created freshwater lakes. The red line represents 15 miles. (Image from Google Earth)

And adding just one more qualifier may give Lake Superior a sandbar record. Minnesota Point seems to be the world’s longest urban freshwater sandbar. The only competitor seems to be a 17-mile sandbar that partially encloses the Dniester Estuary in Ukraine. But as one side of the sandbar stretches along the Black Sea and salt water mixes into the estuary, that sandbar doesn’t really meet the freshwater qualifier.

A densely populated sandbar partially enclosing Ukraine’s Dniester estuary. The red line represents 15 miles. (Images from Google Earth)

While yet another qualifier may seem to render the record meaningless, I think the addition of urban is actually quite significant. When I first had the idea for this topic, I was aware that Minnesota Point was not the world’s longest freshwater sandbar. I wanted to show why this natural feature was not as unique as people sometimes claim. But having now used Google Earth to examine so many different sandbars, I’ve actually come to the opposite conclusion. I think there is something quite unique about Duluth’s sandbar beyond simply its length. It isn’t part of a wilderness area located somewhere far outside the city. It’s a part of the city itself in a way that few other sandbars are, which might be why people look for a designation to set it apart. And it might be possible to give it a record breaking designation while removing some qualifiers. Last year, Jay Gabler wrote in the Duluth News Tribune, “Duluth’s real secret isn’t the lake — it’s the hill,” noting that the hill gives visibility to Duluth’s natural beauty. This includes its remarkable sandbar, which seems to be the world’s longest sandbar — freshwater, saltwater, artificial or natural — that is entirely visible from the ground. Most sandbars of any size are located along low-lying plains. So even if you were to visit, someone would have to tell you the area has a sandbar. And for the wider ones, you could visit without ever seeing the water on either side. For other sandbars, their size is an abstraction that requires aerial imagery to understand. This is not the case for Duluth’s sandbar. Even if you have absolutely no interest in sandbars, Duluth’s is kind of impossible to miss as you come over the hill from the Twin Cities.

The world’s longest natural urban freshwater sandbar and the world’s longest sandbar fully visible from the ground. (Photo by Matthew James)

As far as I can find, there is no other sandbar that is so woven into a city’s identity, no other sandbar that is both a part of the city itself and so clearly visible from so many places in the city. The uniqueness of that may be difficult to convey in a short phrase, but it doesn’t make it any less unique.

PDD Geoguessr: Sandbars

This Geoguessr challenge takes a look at some of the world’s sandbars that are unique for their own reasons. It contains a mixture of Photospheres and Streetview. Each round has a time limit of five minutes. A guide to playing Geoguessr can be found here.