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Reported phenomena — as catalogued
+ 2 further entries on record
Two Harbors restaurant in a building with 16-documented owners since 1900 — including stints as a boarding house and bakery — where a bartop menu was caught flying off the bar on security camera footage
612 7th Ave, Two Harbors, MN 55616
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Standard restaurant pricing; open daily
Access
Wheelchair OK
Ground-floor restaurant on 7th Avenue
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1900 · 16 documented owners or organizations since 1900 (Lake County records) · Former boarding house and bakery · North Shore dining landmark
Lake County deed records document roughly 16 owners or organizations at the 612 7th Avenue property in Two Harbors since 1900. The building operated as a boarding house and bakery at various points in the twentieth century. Local tradition long held that it also served as an orphanage, but the Lake County Historical Society found no documentation to support that claim.
The building's second floor contains dormitory-style rooms now used for storage — a feature that may have contributed to the orphanage legend. Blackwoods opened at the location in 1994 as part of the chain that also operates restaurants in Duluth and other North Shore communities. The chain's Two Harbors location has become one of the more well-documented haunted dining sites in northeastern Minnesota, largely because of staff accounts and security camera footage that received attention in the Duluth News Tribune.
The Duluth News Tribune feature on the restaurant's ghost stories specifically noted the Lake County Historical Society's finding that the orphanage origin story is not supported by records, distinguishing between the documented boarding house use and the undocumented legend.
Sources
The ghost at Blackwoods Two Harbors is known among staff as Sarah, described as a young child who — according to local legend — died falling down steep stairs to the second floor. The second floor's dormitory-style rooms, now used for storage, give the story its architectural anchor, though no death records have been located to confirm it.
Nicole Beveridge, who had worked at the restaurant for more than six years at the time of the Duluth News Tribune feature, described the haunting in tactile terms: 'I can feel people that aren't always with us, in the living.' She showed a reporter security camera footage in which a bartop menu appears to be flung off the bar. Hannah Story, with eight years at the restaurant, said the activity reliably intensifies after renovations: 'She flies it off of there. In the blink of an eye.'
Other phenomena documented in the News Tribune include dishes smashing when no staff were nearby, drinkware flung from shelves, hamburger buns tossed aside, silverware rearranged overnight, and customers and servers reportedly poked by an unseen presence. Lights have been reported switching without apparent cause.
Not all staff share the belief. Cheryl Watson, with 21 years at the restaurant, offered a more measured assessment: 'She maybe just comes out at certain times.' Newer employees had heard the stories but reported witnessing nothing unusual themselves.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Blackwoods serves lunch and dinner daily in the building where staff and longtime employees have documented unexplained phenomena for decades. Security camera footage of a bartop menu flying off the bar circulated locally. No paranormal programming is offered; it's a working restaurant.
Black Woods has operated at this Two Harbors location since 1994 in a building that previously served as a boarding house and bakery. The restaurant is known for hand-cut steaks, fresh Lake Superior walleye, and pasta. Staff have reported a white-gowned apparition, phantom footsteps, and the independent movement of dishware — attributed by folklore to 'Sarah,' a young girl whose connection to the building cannot be documented.
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