Lake Vermilion is a freshwater lake in northeastern Minnesota, United States. The Ojibwe originally called the lake Onamuni, which means "Lake of the Sunset Glow". French fur traders translated this to the Latin word Vermilion, which is a red pigment. Lake Vermilion is located between the towns of Tower on the east and Cook on the west, in the heart of Minnesota's Arrowhead Region at Vermilion Iron Range. The area was mined from the late 19th century until the 1960s, and the Soudan Mine operated just south of the lake.