Tower, guarded by Jasper Peak and Lake Vermilion, and in the shadow of the historic Soudan Mine, to which it owes its existence, is the Arrowhead's oldest incorporated municipality north of Duluth. Over inland waterways, in the early days of the Northwest, paddled adventurous fur traders, one of their well-traveled routes being through Lake Vermilion.

During 1865-66, rumors of gold were rampant, and so many prospectors rushed into the district, accessible only by complicated and difficult water and land routes, that the Vermilion Trail was cut from Duluth to the site of Tower.

Among the gold prospectors was George R. Stuntz of Duluth. When he found outcroppings of iron ore at the site of the present Soudan Mine, he was not surprised, because he knew of the existence of iron ore in the region and had seen samples of it. Stuntz surveyed a town site at the wilderness end of the Vermilion Trail in 1882, after a sawmill and a planing mill had been set up to saw the pine logs floated down the East Two River. Stuntz's town site was selected for a business section to serve the location (Soudan) where the Minnesota Iron Mining Company already had put up homes. In 1883, it was organized as a village and named in honor of the Philadelphia financier, Charlemagne Tower.

The early settlers suffered many hardships. Transportation facilities were poor - it took two nights and three days to travel by wagon over the Vermilion Trail from Duluth. The weekly mail service was, of course, uncertain. (The mining company's payroll was sent nailed in a wooden box.) During a severe cold spell, the clerk at the store is said to have requisitioned a six-foot thermometer guaranteed not to freeze at 40 below zero.

In 1884, the Duluth and Iron Range Railroad, running between Two Harbors and Soudan, was extended to Tower. Lumbering then became a thriving industry. The population of the village was increasing, and Tower was incorporated as a city in 1889.

Tower is on the south shore of Lake Vermilion, one of the largest and most popular summer resort lakes in the region, and one to which fishermen form all parts of the United States are attracted. Wall-eyed and northern pike, perch, and rock bass are plentiful. Lake Vermilion, 35 miles long, with 365 islands, has a 1,000-mile shoreline backed by coniferous trees and lofty hills of granite. It was called Sah-Ga-Ee-Gum-Wah-Ma-Mah-Nee, "lake-of-the-sunset-glow," by the Chippewa. Swimming, boating, fishing, and canoeing facilities are available at numerous resorts.

The remnant of a large band of Chippewa still lives on the shores of Pike Bay. Their handiwork is exhibited in the stores at Tower. A few years ago the Government transferred the majority of the Lake Vermilion band to the Bois Fort Reservation on Nett Lake, but many preferred to stay where they were.

The McKinley Monument was erected shortly after the assassination of the President in 1901, and Tower gained distinction as the first city in the United States to unveil a memorial in his honor.

Agriculture is being developed in the surrounding area, while lumbering, though a declining industry, is still of some importance.