Silver Lake and the Floating Loon

Silver Lake sits in the middle of Virginia and is the most pleasant open space in town. A walking and cycling path circles the lake, and the views from the north shore take in the surrounding boreal forest on the horizon. The lake is the home of the famous Floating Loon — a large fiberglass model of a common loon that bobs on the water and has become the unofficial mascot of the city.

The lake is used for swimming in summer (the beach is open from June through August), fishing year-round, and ice skating in winter. The annual Loon Festival takes place in June, drawing visitors from across the Iron Range with music, food stalls, and activities around the lake. It is a genuinely local event, not a tourist production.

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A story
Silver Lake's giant loon is the world's largest floating loon, commissioned in the 1980s as part of Virginia's annual Loon Festival. The loon — Minnesota's state bird — floats on the lake year-round and has become an unlikely symbol of this Iron Range city. It was built as civic boosterism during a period of economic difficulty in the region, and it worked: it put Virginia on the map for reasons other than mining.