SUPERIOR, a city in the north-western corner of Wisconsin, U.S.A., at the western end of Lake Superior, opposite Duluth (Minnesota), with which it is connected by bridges; a port of entry and the county seat of Douglas county. It is on Federal highways 2 and 53, and is served by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific, the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha, the Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic, the Great Northern, the Northern Pacific and the Soo Line railways, and many lake steamers. Pop. (1920) 39,671 (27% foreign-born white), and was 36,113 in 1930 by Federal census. The city occupies a spacious site (36.1 sq.m.) on gently rising ground facing three bays (Superior, Allouez and St. Louis). It has 29 m. of water front, and shares with Duluth (q.v.) one of the finest natural inland harbours of the world, ranking second only to New York among the ports of the United States in the amount of commercial ton nage handled (52,712,269 tons in 1927). There is ample water power, and the manufacturing industries are important, with an output in 1927 valued at $23,063,094. Superior has a cheap fuel supply and power is furnished by electricity generated on the St. Louis river. Superior is an important grain market. Flour is the principal product, and shipbuilding is important. Among steel ships, the type, now almost entirely extinct, known as the "whale back" originated here; and iron and wooden ships, launches and small pleasure craft are also made. Other manufactures are rail way cars, casks, cooperage, saw and planing mill products, furni ture, wooden ware, windmills, gas-engines, and mattresses and wire beds. Much iron and copper ore is shipped from the Duluth Superior harbour; and large quantities of coal, brought by lake boats, are distributed from here throughout the American and Canadian North-west. Superior is the seat of a State Teachers college (established 1893).
Pierre Esprit Radisson and Medard Chouart des Groseilliers probably visited the site of Superior in 166r, and it is practically certain that other French coureurs-des-bois were here at different times before Daniel Greysolon, Sieur Du Lhut (Duluth), estab lished a trading post in the neighbourhood about 1678. About
182o the Hudson's Bay Company established a post here, hut there was no permanent settlement until after the middle of the 19th century. Attention was directed to the site by a survey made by George R. Stuntz, a government surveyor, in 1852, and in 1853 a syndicate of capitalists, at the head of which was William Wilson Corcoran, the wealthy Washington banker, associated with whom were Senators Stephen A. Douglas (for whom the county was named), R. M. T. Hunter and J. B. Bright, Ex-Senator Robert J. Walker, Congressmen John C. Breckinridge and John L. Dawson, and others, largely Southern politicians and members of Congress, bought lands here and platted a town which was named Superior. The proprietors secured in 1856 the construction of a military road to St. Paul, Minnesota, 16o m. long. The town grew rapidly, and in 1856-1857 had about 2,500 inhabitants. The panic of 1857 interrupted its growth, and the population dwindled so that in 1860 there were only a few hundred settlers on the town-site. The Civil War increased the depression, and the lands of those who had taken part against the Union were confiscated. In 1862 a series of stockades was built as a protection from the Indians. Within the area under the government of the town of Superior, which was at first co-extensive with the county, West Superior was platted in 1883 and South Superior soon afterwards. A village government was established in September 1887, includ ing the three settlements mentioned, and in April 1889 Superior was chartered as a city. The harbour was surveyed in 1823-1825 by Lieut. Henry Wolsey Bayfield (1795-1885) of the British Navy. In 1860-1861 it was resurveyed by Captain George G. Meade, who was engaged in the work at the outbreak of the Civil War. A branch of the Northern Pacific railway was built to Superior in 1881.