Bentleyville USA

This 2023 season Bentleyville will be celebrating its 20th anniversary! Bentleyville story began in 2001 when Nathan Bentley first started decorating his home in Esko, MN for the Christmas season. For the next two years he continually added more lights to create a larger holiday light display; his home quickly became known as the “House with all of the lights in Esko.” In 2003 Nathan changed his l

ight display from a “drive by” to a “walkthrough” with Santa Claus visiting on weekends. Since Nathan was going overboard a friend sarcastically started to call it Bentleyville (referencing Dr. Seuss’s town of Whoville). The name caught on with visitors and in 2003 “Bentleyville Tour of Lights” was born. During the summer of 2004, Nathan and his family moved from Esko, MN to rural Cloquet, MN to a larger home for their 4 children. With the new name of “Bentleyville” came a whole new vision for Nathan. To entice people to drive out into the country a larger and grander Christmas light display was being built. A 78’ x 24’ high entrance castle made of 45,000 lights was built to greet visitors. Over 500 illuminated snowflakes hung from trees on his wooded property. Dozens of light displays were created and new ones added each year. Live entertainment was added featuring area school groups and community musicians. Fire pits were added for people to gather around and roast marshmallows. Santa Claus was now a permanent guest every night at Bentleyville visiting with children and handing out a free winter hat and bag of cookies to all the young children visiting with Santa. A “Cookie House” was built offering free cookies, coffee and apple cider to everyone visiting Bentleyville. All the walking paths were paved allowing it to be fully handicapped accessible. A Popcorn building was built to hand out free popcorn to the people as they strolled through the light show. A food and toy drive was started to collect items for the Salvation Army in Carlton County. As the popularity of Bentleyville grew quickly so did traffic problems with the very limited parking available on a dead end country dirt road. The neighbors soon began to express their concerns that something needed to be done about the increased traffic congestion. After just two years and an estimated 35,000 people visiting, Nathan decided the only way to solve the traffic concerns was to build parking lots in nearby horse fields owned by area neighbors. Visitors would be bussed in by hiring nine 72 passenger school busses to transport visitors from two parking fields to the entrance of Bentleyville. After just 5 years of hosting Bentleyville at his residences and transporting over 72,000 people by school bus, in 2008 Nathan thought it was a good time to take a year off and reevaluate how everything was working. In the fall of 2008 Nathan received a phone call from Duluth City Mayor Don Ness’s Office inviting him to a meeting to discuss an invitation to host Bentleyville Tour of Lights at Bayfront Festival Park in Duluth, MN. Nathan thought the new location would be a good fit for Bentleyville and accepted the one year trial invitation. For the next year planning for the large undertaking of moving Bentleyville to a venue 4 times the size of his residence was underway. Nathan selected a Board of Directors, formed a 501c3 non profit organization, and asked his original Bentleyville team of 25 people to help organize and plan for a Christmas light show in need of over 600 volunteers over 37 days, taking over 10 weeks to set up the massive light show in Bayfront Festival Park. The excitement of Bentleyville moving to Bayfront Park grew and so did the support of area businesses that wanted the light show in Duluth in hopes of drawing people downtown in the cold and snowy months of November and December. On Friday November 27, 2009 Bentleyville Tour of Lights turned on its millions of lights to thousands of onlookers for the first time at Bayfront Park in downtown Duluth. Over 150,000 people visited Bentleyville enjoying the sounds and lights of Christmas. On January 8, 2010 Bentleyville announced that it had made a commitment to return to Bayfront Park for at least the next 3 years. Bentleyville expanded in those 3 years with new displays adding the 128’ animated tree as the center piece of Bentleyville in 2010. In 2011 fresh displays were added like Dino Land, a small gift shop was built in the Family Center, additional lighted tunnels were added, heaters were incorporated into the Santa line, a new home was built for Mrs. Claus and management of the parking lots was turned over to Bentleyville Tour of Lights. Over the years there have been many changes to Bentleyville including new front entrance displays, a 4,000sq ft. giftshop, fireworks, costume characters, different light displays and merchandise. We are always looking to change things up to keep it fresh for our guests! We encourage all to come down to Bayfront and experience the magic of Bentleyville!

©2023 Bentleyville Tour of Lights

08/16/2024

A closer look at how the tree panels are made! These volunteers made this in a record time of 22 minutes and 39 seconds! Great work guys!

08/15/2024

The rain didn’t stop these volunteers today! Thanks for another great day! Lots of progress is being made!🤩

08/14/2024

Lots of great help these past couple days with the tree makeover! Even Bumble wanted to join the fun!

Email [email protected] to schedule a time to come volunteer!

08/07/2024

Surprise! We are redoing the 128ft LED tree for this coming season! And we need your help! This volunteer opportunity includes zip tying lights to chicken wire and pushing lights through the mounting strips. This is a great sit or stand job, whichever you prefer!

Volunteering will take place at Advantage Emblem, 4313 Haines Rd, Monday - Friday. Email Jordan at [email protected] to schedule a time to come volunteer!

07/24/2024

We are honored to have been nominated for the Best Attraction! Vote for Bentleyville now till August 9th!

Check out Bentleyville USA. Check it out now!

07/18/2024

The Festive Cheer is Still Here - Celebrate Grinchmas in July!

New items are arriving daily for the 2024 season. Check out our Grinchmas selection here https://bentleyvilleusa.shoplightspeed.com/merchandise-gifts/gift-guide/how-the-grinch-stole-christmas/

06/14/2024

Thank you to our wonderful volunteers for helping with the highway clean up!!

05/14/2024

More progress has been made on the mystery building! Keep your guesses coming, no one has guessed it!

Thank you Carpenters Local 361 for all your help!

04/17/2024

The Official 2024 Sweatshirt is finally here!🤩 Link to shop! bit.ly/4dc6WnE

04/09/2024

Celebrate National Unicorn Day with this dazzling Pink Unicorn. With its plush pink body, lustrous silver horn, and silky mane and tail, this unicorn is ready to gallop into a child's heart and playtime fantasies.

https://bentleyvilleusa.shoplightspeed.com/14-pink-unicorn.html

03/20/2024

Still searching for Easter basket items?! Check out our new plush animals!
Link to shop! bit.ly/3VrJf4b

03/18/2024

Any guesses on what the Carpenters Union is making for Bentleyville?! Carpenters Local 361

Bentleyville Hat Contest 2024 – Bentleyville "Tour of Lights"

02/08/2024

There is still time to submit a drawing for the 2024 Hat Contest! Click the link for more details! Contest ends February 12th!

Bentleyville Hat Contest 2024 – Bentleyville "Tour of Lights" Bentleyville Hat Contest 2024 We are looking for a new hat design for our 2024 season! The winning design will receive a prize package that contains an official 2024 hooded sweatshirt, a Tree Pass, Santa Pass! Here are some hats that have won the contest: Details: We will produce 30,000 hats with th...

01/23/2024

The first of the 2024 collection! Available now!
https://bentleyvilleusa.shoplightspeed.com/2024-bentleyville-mn-outline.html?id=101890651&quantity=1

01/22/2024

It’s time for the Santa Hat Contest! We need your help creating the 2024 hat design!

Guidelines:
-Must be a design that both boys and girls can wear
-The name “Bentleyville” needs to be on the hat
-Must submit design by February 12th

Submit designs to: [email protected]
For more information visit our website:

https://www.bentleyvilleusa.org/bentleyville-hat-contest-2024/

01/11/2024

The numbers are in! Bentleyville had 302,000 visitors this season! Guest’s help donate 12,417 lbs of food and 1,545 toys to the Duluth, MN Salvation Army! Thank you to the community, volunteers and sponsors who make it all happen!

01/09/2024

Last chance to get Bentleyville clothing at this great price! Use code ENDOFSEASON for 50% off🤩

https://bentleyvilleusa.shoplightspeed.com/clothing-and-accessories/

01/05/2024

Incredible Savings! Use code ENDOFSEASON for discount!
https://bentleyvilleusa.shoplightspeed.com/

01/03/2024

Check out the online store for 50% off remaining clothing! Use code ENDOFSEASON for deal!
https://bentleyvilleusa.shoplightspeed.com/

12/31/2023

Mission Complete! With exceptional weather and an incredible workforce these past 4 days, today’s small, but enthusiastic group brought the 2023 Bentleyville season across the finish line with a record tear down.

Thank you Volunteers, Sponsors, Red Coats, Board of Directors the 20th Anniversary of Bentleyville could not have been a better year than what it was. Thank you!

12/30/2023

Day 3 of the Bentleyville tear down continued making great progress. Don’t let the pictures fool you we have a lot of work ahead and would appreciate your help Saturday 8:30-4:00pm. Come for 2 hours or for the day. We appreciate all help. Thank you and Gerbert’s, B for lunch today.

Thank you Brother’s Trucking for the incredible help you provide to Bentleyville!

12/28/2023

It was an absolutely wonderful 2nd day of incredible volunteerism happening!

Thank you so much!! Volunteers came in from North Dakota, Floodwood, Ashland, Esko Baseball team, NBC Bank and the list goes on. Local 512 Iron Workers were taking down the Gift Shop.

We will be back at it again tomorrow 8:30am - 4:00pm. Would love to have you!! Donuts, beverages and lunch!

12/27/2023

Awesome first day of tear down! Lots of great people, so much got accomplished! Thank you all so much! Please join us tomorrow if you can 8:30 am - 4:00pm. Donuts, beverages and lunch!

12/27/2023

Thank you VW of Volkswagen of Duluth so much support!! We appreciate you so much!

12/26/2023

Tonight is the last night of Bentleyville for the 2023 season 5-9pm. Thank you to everyone for making the 20th Anniversary possible!

12/25/2023

Yes, Bentleyville is open today 5:00-9:00pm
Tuesday, December 26th Last Night 5-9pm

12/24/2023

Yes, Bentleyville will be open even with potential wet weather. Regular hours 5:00 - 9:00pm.

12/23/2023

Happening now. Could not get 8 people to sign up and show up. If people love Bentleyville as much as they say, we NEED people to show us and VOLUNTEER a night. Tear down begins Wednesday, December 27th 8:30am - 4:00 pm EVERYDAY. Please show that you appreciate the FREE event and come help. Thank you. Merry Christmas!

12/22/2023

Open Christmas Eve & Christmas Day 5-9pm
Santa last night is Christmas Eve.

12/22/2023

We are proud to be a sponsor of the Bentleyville USA Tour of Lights for 2023! Hopefully you've had an opportunity to experience the magic in Duluth! If not, you've got a few days left to check it out!

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Videos (show all)

A closer look at how the tree panels are made! These volunteers made this in a record time of 22 minutes and 39 seconds!...

Make sure to checkout the Bentleyville Gift Shop in-person or online! https://bentleyvilleusa.shoplightspeed.com

Full moon, ship entering the harbor and bright lights. Great views at Bentleyville tonight!

It’s the final countdown! We open in 5 days!

Be the first to have this commemorative 20th Anniversary sweatshirt! Link to shop http://bit.ly/3ZMyd9X

Bentleyville Tree taking a walk down Railroad St, Duluth MN

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Website

http://www.bentleyvilleusa.org/

Address

700 W Railroad Street
Duluth, MN
55802

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Bentleyville USA

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