If you've been here through the past two summers, you've watched Tower-Soudan spend most of them rebuilding. The mine was shut, the trails around it were fenced off, and a lot of the reasons out-of-town family used to visit weren't available to point them toward. That chapter is closing. Summer 2026 is the first season in a while where the full roster of things a local would send a friend to is actually running.
The Mine Tours Are Back After Two Years Down
The headline change: the popular Soudan Underground Mine tours, closed since a massive storm flooded the underground mine in 2024, resumed on Memorial Day weekend. If you moved here in the last three years, you may have never seen the mine open to the public at all.
Here are the specifics worth keeping on the fridge:
- Season: Tour dates run May 23 through October 18, 2026
- Cost: $15 for adults, $10 for age 5–12, free for age 4 and under
- What you actually do: Travel 2,341 feet — nearly half a mile — down the mine shaft to the 27th level of a mine that operated from 1882 to 1962, then board a train and ride nearly a mile to the last and deepest area that was mined, hearing stories of the miners and the working conditions along the way
- Temperature underground: a cool, constant 51°F, so wear a warm jacket and sturdy boots
- Reservations: required, made through the Minnesota DNR at mndnr.gov/state_parks/tours/lake_vermilion_soudan.html
One asterisk worth flagging when you plan around visitors: science lab tours will not be available this season, as work on that portion of the facility is still ongoing. If your out-of-town guests are physics nerds who came specifically for the underground laboratory, temper that expectation now.
A Brand-New Campground Just Changed The Weekend Map
Tucked into the same reopening news is something that reshapes how you host people this summer. A brand-new campground with 24 pull-through sites, designed to accommodate visitors hauling trailers, opened June 12. Each site offers full electric hookups with 20, 30, and 50-amp service along with Wi-Fi access, and the campground connects directly to the Prospectors ATV/OHV trail system.
Two things to notice about that. First, the pull-through design is aimed at a specific kind of visitor: people towing boats or side-by-sides who don't want to back into a wooded site after a six-hour drive from the metro. Second, the direct Prospectors trail tie-in matters. A planned trail connection to the cities of Soudan and Tower is in the works but is not expected to be completed this summer, so for now the campground is a trail hub, not a downtown gateway. If you have friends who camp with an ATV in tow, this is the year to invite them.
The Cultural Center Is Running A Full Summer Season
The Lake Vermilion Cultural Center at 705 Main Street has been rebuilding its historic home too, and 2026 is the first year since the pandemic where its calendar looks like a proper season rather than a slow return. The organization reports major progress toward completing its historic building by fall 2026, and the summer programming reflects that momentum.
A working shortlist to put on your calendar:
| Date | Event | Venue |
|---|---|---|
| June 20 | Midsummer benefit, all-day event | Herb Lamppa Tower Civic Center, 602 Main Street |
| July 7 | Northern Lights Music Festival, 7 p.m., tickets $15 adults, $5 students under 18 | St. Mary's Hall in Tower |
| July 10, July 30, Aug 4, Aug 8, Aug 14, Aug 17 | Additional Cultural Center programming dates | Lake Vermilion Cultural Center |
| July 16, July 23, Aug 6 | Vermilion Park Inn evenings | Vermilion Park Inn |
Chamber Music at Tower is worth the ticket even if classical isn't usually your thing. It's built around performances by renowned performing faculty along with prize-winning students from the festival's Young Artists Program, held inside a building that was originally the Episcopal church, moved to its current spot in 2015, and has some of the best acoustics for the room size in this half of the county.
For the Midsummer benefit, the LVCC is running an online silent auction with donations that include Boundary Waters Kitchen & Market gift cards, dining-out packages from Tower restaurants, and a Dorothy Molter Museum family membership, among roughly ninety items. If you've been meaning to try a place in town you keep driving past, the auction is a low-friction way to make yourself go.
Where People Are Actually Eating This Year
The dining picture in Tower has shifted enough over the last two years that a quick refresher earns its place here. Two categories: in town, and out at Fortune Bay.
In town and along the highway:
- Benchwarmer Grille and The Good Ol' Days Bar & Grill are the reliable sit-downs. Both show up on Yelp's Tower list as of June 2026, and both handle a summer dinner crowd without a two-hour wait.
- Tavern in the Bay is the on-the-water option locals point tourists toward when they want a view with dinner.
- Sulu's Espresso Cafe covers the morning-coffee-and-a-scone slot, and Tower Cafe is the breakfast standby, the kind of small cozy and friendly cafe reviewers describe for a Sunday breakfast of biscuits and gravy.
At Fortune Bay Resort Casino:
- Sunset Steakhouse is the sit-down room, open Monday through Thursday 4–9 p.m., Fridays until 10 p.m., and reservations are worth making on weekends.
- Aki Bistro is the newer entry, positioned as elevated comfort food in a relaxed Northwoods setting with steaks, seafood, burgers, pasta, and handcrafted cocktails.
- Mino Grill reopened after renovation this year. The refresh brought an expanded menu of appetizers, burgers, sandwiches, wraps, entrées, and pizzas, which is the more casual midday option if you're at the resort for something else and just need to eat.
- The Wilderness Grill at the golf course rounds out the group for anyone playing eighteen holes.
If your out-of-town people are the kind who want one nice dinner and don't care about a casino, Sunset Steakhouse or Tavern in the Bay do the job. If they want a burger after nine holes and a nap, Mino Grill or Benchwarmer.
One More Stop That's Easy To Forget
Right at the western entrance to town, the Tower-Soudan Historical Society keeps a museum inside the 1916 Duluth and Iron Range Railroad depot. The historic Train Depot houses hundreds of local artifacts and photos, and the grounds include a historic steam locomotive engine, a passenger car, a man car for transportation of miners to Soudan mine, a caboose, and a homesteader's cabin, all open to the public during the summer.
It's a fifteen-minute stop if you're rushing and an hour if you let the volunteer on duty talk. Pair it with a morning mine tour and lunch at Good Ol' Days and you've built a day that a first-time visitor will remember for a decade.
The Practical Version
Here's the short read of the season, if you're the person in your household who plans:
- Book mine tickets a week or two ahead. The Memorial Day reopening means demand is stacked, and family visiting from the metro will assume you can walk up.
- If you have camper friends, tell them about the new pull-through sites now, before word spreads through the ATV forums.
- Put July 7 on the calendar for Chamber Music at St. Mary's Hall. It's a $15 ticket for the kind of evening that usually costs four times that in the Twin Cities.
- If you haven't been to Aki Bistro or the renovated Mino Grill yet, this is the summer.
Tower has spent a long time in "almost back" mode. It's back. If you're the resident showing people around this July, you finally have the full deck to work with again.
If you're thinking about what a summer like this one means for the value of your cabin or lake home, or you know a friend who's been waiting for the mine to reopen before making an offer around Lake Vermilion, that's the kind of local read Vermilion Real Estate Services is built for. Take a look at the Tower neighborhood page or get in touch and make your cabin dream a reality — schedule a showing.
