Proctor: Top of the Iron Mountain
Near Duluth, Minnesota
Proctor exists because of a hill. The Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway hauled iron ore from Minnesota's Mesabi Range all the way to Lake Superior docks at Duluth, a journey that ended with a long, steep descent. Proctor sat at the top of that grade, and the railroad built its major classification yard here, where hundreds of loaded ore cars were sorted and assembled into trains before rolling down what railroaders called Proctor Hill.
The railroad extended its track to Duluth and built an ore dock there in eighteen ninety-three. At peak, the railroad's ore traffic through Proctor was among the largest concentrated freight movements in the world. The classification yard and shops made Proctor a company town built entirely around one commodity flowing downhill toward the ships.
