The caption for this graphic from the Feb. 11, 1925 Duluth Herald reads: “Map showing extent of Duluth’s heritage at Jay Cooke park; road which has been completed so far in the district connection with the Duluth park system, and the 1.6 miles of road which it is hoped to complete this year if the state legislature appropriates $40,000 for that purpose. Completion of the road will give Duluthians a direct route to the park.”

Before Highway 210 connected Jay Cooke State Park to Highway 23, Duluthians had to travel a long, “dusty and sometimes tiresome road,” to get to the “picturesque and pleasing stopping place,” according to an article in the Feb. 11, 1925 issue of the Duluth Herald.

The Highway 210 connection wasn’t part of the plan at the time, however. By 1925 Duluth was 35 years into developing “The Boulevard,” which would later be named Skyline Parkway. And part of the plan for what would eventually be a 28-mile scenic drive through Duluth was to connect it to Jay Cooke State Park.

And it happened. But it was short lived. The far western section through the Mission Creek area was damaged by a storm in 1958. Bridges along the route were never repaired and the road was closed to vehicles. The route still exists as a footpath, but the official Skyline Parkway today is a 24-mile route with a western terminus at Beck’s Road in Gary-New Duluth.

The text of 100-year-old Duluth Herald story about the Skyline connection to Jay Cooke State Park is below.

Space of only quarter-hour walk remains to complete road to Jay Cooke park

Only $40,000 and one and six-sevenths mile of road stand between Duluth and Jay Cooke state park.

The park, with its 4,000 acres of wild, wooded land, unexcelled in it beauty, lies for the main part in Carlton, with one edge touching Thomson and the other bordering on Fond du Lac. Now the only way that Duluth can enter the park is to take either old or new state highway No. 1 to Carlton or Thomson and go in from there. This requires the travel of many miles of sometimes dusty and sometimes tiresome road, and keeps many Duluthians from the use of the vast estate which the state has provided as a heritage for those who live at the Head of the Lakes.

Funds Asked for Road.

All this can and will be eliminated when the one and six-tenths mile of road, which lies uncompleted between Duluth and the park, is completed. To complete the road the state legislature is being asked this session to appropriate $20,000 for each of the next two years, to be used in road construction at the park.

The city of Duluth has done its share in the attempt to connect Jay Cooke park with the city. It has built a road from the end of the boulevard system, which goes through all of the city’s parks, to the state and county line at Fond du Lac, which are coterminous. From there the state, in 1924, built a road which parallels the St. Louis river to a point 1.6 miles from the short piece of road which has been built from “the loop,” which is the present terminus of the park’s scenic highway, to the river.

Present Road Crowded.

The present road through the park, which runs from Thomson to the height, which is crowned by the “loop,” is literally packed every Sunday and holiday with sightseers and pleasure-seekers. Hundreds bring their lunch baskets and picnic along the gorge of the St. Louis river, in the many camping grounds provided. Tourists on their way to the Arrowhead country find the park a picturesque and pleasing stopping place. It has played host to many who gypsy through the state during the summer time.

The park is there, the woods are still unimpaired by fire, the river with its precipitous banks and the superb heights which give an unexcelled view, are ready for use. It is all at Duluth’s back door. All that is needed to make it readily available is $40,000 from the state legislature and two years’ work.