Sand Point Light

The Woman Lightkeeper -

Some locals said she could not do this job. They said that it was too tough for a woman to handle the rigorous hard work routine and chores of being a lightkeeper in the town of Escanaba Michigan. Winters were harsh and rugged. Mary Terry was to prove them all wrong. . . for eighteen years she proved them wrong.

John Terry had been assigned as the lighthouse keeper by the U.S. Lighthouse Board at the Sand Point Lighthouse at Escanaba in 1866 before it had even been built. Construction began in 1867, but before it had been completed, he died of tuberculosis. The U.S. Lighthouse Board was in a habit of assigning qualified male lightkeepers to these positions. And these positions were difficult to fill. At that time, the Board was under the direct supervision of the Department of the Treasury. Up to this point in time, few women had qualified for such a position of authority as a lighthouse keeper on the Great Lakes. The first in the State of Michigan had been Catherine Shook in 1849 at the Point Aux Barques Light, who was appointed when her husband drowned in a capsized boat on Lake Huron. She was left tending the light as well as her eight children. The U.S. Lighthouse Board sometimes was put in the position of assigning women because they were either already familiar with the particular light from their husband's work or women were the only ones who applied. When a man was appointed, they would have official photos taken and issued a uniform and given professional provisions. Women on the other hand received no photos and no uniforms. But women were given the same pay as men !

Having moved to Escanaba, Michigan in 1863, both Mary Terry and her husband John had established themselves as well respected and reliable citizens of the community. The local newspaper advocated for Mary to be the new keeper upon John's death. Mary Terry lit the Sand Point Light for the first time at sunset on May 13, 1867. She held this position for 18 years until her mysterious death in 1886. The circumstances of her death were suspicious. The entry lock on the outside had been shot off. Her body was found in the oil house, not in her bedroom. She had been severely burned to the point the coroner could not fully confirm the identity of the body. Locals first thought she had been killed and the lighthouse set on fire to cover up the crime. But she had a sizeable amount of money ($4000) in a safe along with all her important papers. None were taken. There had been previous evidence that the furnace for the Lighthouse was in poor condition and some suspect that was the cause of the fire. The task of getting to the light was difficult due to its remote location on the point and this having happened in the winter, the fire department took hours to reach the lighthouse through the snow.

The lighthouse was decommissioned in 1939. The light from the fourth order fresnel lens could only be seen 11.5 miles out into the Bay. Due to dredging and shifting sands of the point, the light became further and further away from the critical location of being at the point, and visible to the passing ships. So in 1938 a crib light was established several hundred feet off the point to better warn mariners of the pending underwater rocks and sand bars jetting out into Little Bay de Noc.

The boathouse in this photo housed a common rescue boat used by the Lighthouse Board at the time. It currently houses a boat that is not original but rather a slightly larger restored wooden rescue boat that came from a nearby coast guard rescue station. The original boat at this location would have been manned by two people and pushed out to the Lake on rails and then winched back into the boat house by the type of winch you see in this photo.

Baileys Harbor Rear Range Light

Within Range -

The Baileys Harbor Range Lights in Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin are the only remaining operational range lights in Wisconsin. The rear solid white light, as can be seen at the top dormer of the house in this photo, has a focal height of 37 feet while the front solid red range light (not seen in this photo, has a focal height of 23 feet. The lights are about 980 feet apart and have a bearing of 340 degrees. When approaching mariners align one light above the other they can rest in knowing they are in safe waters headed into Baileys Harbor. Both were electrified in 1923. The rear light was renovated in 1993 and the front range light renovated in 2012. Both lights became operational again in 2015. 

Constructed in 1868 and first lit in 1870, the lights operated with lard burning wicks that required tending every three hours 24/7. Because the maintenance required cutting of the wicks and cleaning the lens every day, light keepers were often referred to as "wickies". In those early days, all navigational lights were managed by the government run Lighthouse Service and they were fastidious about the maintenance requirements. Light keepers had few options for their own time and had a rigorous schedule every day. A daily journal was a must and all events of any kind required documentation.

On the Great Lakes, however, light keepers only maintained the lights for about 8 months. Once the lakes froze, the light keepers were allowed to leave their posts until the following spring when marine traffic once again started up for the season. The keepers in the northern states needed to be extremely hardy souls since local help was a rarity and conditions harsh. Loneliness often got the best of the hardiest of souls. Few roads existed to access the lights and most access was by boat only. Winters were extreme cold and they often only had a wood burning stove for heat. Their water sources often froze over. All maintenance and repairs were done solely by the keeper or his assistant, and sometimes required the assistance of the keeper's wife and children. The Lighthouse Service would ensure that the keepers received a years food supply in the spring including meat, flour, beans, coffee/tea. It was left up to the light keeper to buy a cow for milk and chickens for eggs if they so desired. A good salary would be around $600 per year.

Ludington Light

The Ludington Tilt -

Even as early as 1891 it was evident that the entrance off Lake Michigan into Pere Marquette Lake at Ludington was busy with lots of marine traffic. Marine traffic that also included a ferry that travelled to Manitowoc Wisconsin on the other side of the Lake. So much traffic that Congress appropriated $6000 to build a significant navigational light at the entrance to the Ludington Harbor. The first light was built on the south pier head and stood only 25 feet above the waterline, but it had no attached housing for a light keeper and his family. It wasn't until the first light keeper in 1891 was almost swept to his death struggling against November gale force winds to get from shore to service the light. In 1900, quarters were built to house the keeper and his family.

Then in 1906 the Army Corps of Engineers drew up plans to build arrowhead shaped wooden breakwaters to protect the harbor entrance. Completed in 1914, the wooden structures quickly started to decay and by 1919, it was decided that the wooden breakwaters had to be replaced. By 1924, the tower seen in this photo was constructed on the new north concrete breakwater. It was to be made of steel plates over a steel skeleton that was to last 300 hundred years. 

The four-sided white pyramidal steel tower had portholes at all three levels and was shaped like a ship hull to deflect the fierce gale force winds off Lake Michigan. Unlike so many other light lenses of the period, the fourth order fresnel lens used here was made in New York rather than imported from France. It saved time and was less expensive than the French glass optics. In 1972 the light was automated and the Fresnel lens was replaced in 1995 with a new 300mm acrylic optic. 

In 1994, the Army Corps of Engineers discovered that the Light had begun to settle unevenly on the crib on which it was built. The cost to fix this tilt of 4 degrees off vertical was considered prohibitive and it has remained as is to this date. Look carefully at this photo taken at sunset and you will see the Tilt, leaning to the right side.

Eagle Harbor Lighthouse_2

Shipwrecked with No Place to Go -

The 444 foot long steel steamer City of Bangor with a 30 year long career on the Great Lakes had run aground just off the Keweenaw Peninsula near Eagle River on Lake Superior November 30, 1926. It had been en route upbound from Detroit to Duluth Minnesota with 248 brand new Chrysler and Whippet automobiles onboard when it ran into a rock reef along the shoreline while trying to seek safe harbor from a gale force wind freezing blizzard. The following day with the ship now covered like an iceberg due to the lake spray freezing over the entire vessel, the Coast Guard Life Saving Station at Eagle Harbor spotted the ship while returning to Eagle Harbor with the rescued crew of another grounded ship, the Thomas Maytham. After dropping off the Maytham 19 man crew in Eagle Harbor, the Coast Guard rescue boat headed back to pick up the 29 man crew of the Bangor. That crew had made it to shore with their own lifeboats but had spent a cold night in the heavily wood and remote area of the peninsula. They had suffered severe frostbite and hypothermia while spending the night without proper clothing or food supplies in the sub-zero temperatures. Some would have to be hospitalized.

By February 1927, a total of 202 cars were salvaged from the below deck cargo hold. These cars were in excellent condition because the cargo bulkheads held firm despite the engine room being totally flooded. There had been 18 cars spiked down above deck but those were all lost into the lake and swept overboard during the storm. These would later wash up on local beaches when spring arrived. The salvaged cars were driven off ship by way of a make-shift ramp of snow and ice. The cars were driven along the frozen shoreline to nearby Copper Harbor and left there until the following spring. Of the 202 salvaged, not all were worthy of reconditioning. Those that were got transported to Calumet Michigan for shipment back to Detroit by way of rail car. Some cars remained in Copper Harbor and were proudly driven by local towns people for many years after. The cars taken to Detroit were resold in the Detroit area. No word as to whether the buyers were told of the ordeal or if they had to pay the destination charges twice !

One of the 1927 Chrysler cars salvaged is in a local museum in Eagle Harbor as are several surviving items from the Coast Guard life-saving station. The station no longer exists here but was located across the harbor from the Eagle Harbor Lghthouse shown in this photo.