A beacon of light...

Yesterday I was telling you about my trip to Duluth.

In addition to the aerial lift bridge...

I also showed you the Duluth Harbor South Breakwater Inner lighthouse.

But that wasn't the only lighthouse I saw while I was in town!

Behold, the Duluth Harbor North Pier lighthouse!

Built in 1910, it's a lovely little light!

Standing 37 feet high...

It still houses it's original 5th order Fresnel lens.

Unlike the light I showed you yesterday, this lighthouse is still owned by the Coast Guard.

As I was doing research on this light, I learned that the lighthouse keepers used to check on the light through a tunnel! According to Lighthouse Digest:

However, very few people are aware of the tunnels that were constructed under the piers specifically to allow the keeper to reach the towers in inclement weather without fear of being washed off the pier by a wave or slipping off the ice-covered walkway and into the frigid waters of Lake Superior. Those tunnels, unique in lighthouse history, came complete with a cable-operated car, which provided the lighthouse keeper a means to reach the lighthouse more quickly than walking. However, by [1917] they had stopped using the tunnels, believing they were no longer safe. By that time, according to Hanson [lighthouse keeper from 1917-1947], the tunnels, more often than not, had two feet of water in them from seepage. After all, he recounted, he was a lighthouse keeper, not a miner and he felt much safer topside.

But this wasn't the last lighthouse I was to see in Duluth...

Because across the canal I spotted the Duluth Harbor South Breakwater Outer lighthouse.

This house was built in 1901. At 35 feet tall, the brick tower with lantern and gallery (housing the original 4th order Fresnel lens) is mounted on a brick fog signal building.

The lighthouse is painted white, while the lantern roof and fog signal building roof are red. In addition to the light, the fog horn has been restored to it's original signal: two 3 second blasts every 60 seconds.

Want to know another interesting tidbit? According to this website:

In 2003 the [Duluth] city council approved a proposal of TOOT Inc. (reTurn Our Old Tone) to operate the diaphones during daylight hours, but the modern (and softer) signal is used at night.

I tell you- the lighthouses that are still standing around the great lakes never cease to amaze me!

And the fact that I got to visit 3 such lights on a single point of land in Duluth was absolutely great!

Thanks for stopping by- I hope you have a great day!

Quite a sight at night!

As I mentioned last week, I recently returned from a trip to Duluth, Minnesota! I had never been to that city before, so when I arrived I was instantly charmed!

One of the first things we saw upon getting to town was the Aerial Lift Bridge.

The bridge was built in 1904-1905.

According to the Duluth Library's website:

The Aerial Lift Bridge, one of the most popular tourist attractions in Minnesota, was constructed as the Aerial Ferry Bridge. Before that time, Park Point [the land that the bridge currently connects to Duluth] was only accessible by ferry boats and, during the winter months, a temporary suspension bridge. The original Aerial Ferry Bridge consisted of much of today's structure but, instead of the lift span, a suspended car, or gondola, ferried people and vehicles on a one-minute trip across the canal. The gondola could carry the equivalent of a loaded street car, two loaded wagons with teams, and 350 people. The gondola made twelve trips per hour between 5:00 a.m. and midnight and two trips per hour from midnight until morning. The lift span was added in 1929-1930 to handle increased traffic. At that time, the bridge operators moved from running the gondola to working in the control house in the center of the span. The bridge first lifted for a vessel on March 29, 1930. 

If you can believe it, the Aerial Bridge lifts an average of 5,500 times a year, and over forty times a day during the summer months. It is owned and operated by the City of Duluth.

Not only is it a necessary structure in the city, but it is also a significant (and beautiful) addition to the city's skyline.

As if the bridge isn't cool enough, it is also located next to a lighthouse!

The Duluth Harbor South Breakwater (Inner) was built in 1901, though the station was established in 1889.

The lighthouse is still functional, with a light that flashes white every 5 seconds. The tower stands 67 ft atop a steel skeletal tower with lantern, double gallery, and central cylinder.

The original 4th order Fresnel lens (1896), with its pedestal and rotating mechanism, is on display at the Lake Superior Marine Museum. The lighthouse is painted black, except for the watch room and lantern sides sides which are white.

In 2007 the lighthouse was offered for transfer, but when no preservation groups qualified to receive it, it was sold at auction to two residents of Duluth.

The light was sold for $31,000.00 in 2008- what a steal, right?

Of course, most of these photos were taken on my first night in town... which means I still have a lot to share! Feel free to stop by over the next few days to see more of Duluth!

Thanks for visiting- I hope you have a great day!

Still more work to do...

In August, I moved into my own office at work.
I had grand plans of decorating it in with photos of my travels...
And other trinkets from my vacations.
Well, 5 long months later, I haven't done much. While I framed a few photos, they're still occupying floor space...
While their paper placeholders have been taped to the wall for months!
Even some of the pretty picture frames I've been given by students and professors sit empty, just waiting to be filled with smiling faces!
FINALLY, I decided yesterday that 5 months is WAY too long to toil in a half-completed office... so I'm sharing my shame with you in an attempt to get in gear and finish decorating! I always work better under a deadline, so I'm giving myself until the end of the month to tackle my tiny alcove of an office... here's hoping I can get it done!

Thanks for visiting- I hope you have a great day!

Michigan lighthouses in the winter

Remember last summer when I visited a ton of Michigan lighthouses? I had a blast learning and taking photos of the old lights and towers. And even though we visited over 20 lights, there are still many more that I've never seen! So earlier this week, after an early morning drive up to the Mackinac Bridge, we took a detour over to Lake Huron... and stopped at a few lighthouses I hadn't visited before!
One of our stops included the Presque Isle Light Station, which might look somewhat familiar. Though it was built in 1870, the structure's design was so popular it was replicated for other lights across the Great Lakes- including the lighthouse I volunteered at last summer, Little Sable.
As the historical marker states:

This lighthouse, built in 1870 by Orlando M. Poe, is one of three Great Lakes towers built from the same plans. It replaced the smaller 1840 harbor light. The conical brick tower rises 113 feet from a limestone foundation. The Third Order Fresnel lens was made by Henri LePaute of Paris. Patrick Garrity, the keeper of the harbor light, lit the lamp for the first time for the opening of the 1871 navigation season. Garrity served here until 1885 when he became keeper of the Harbor Range Lights. His wife, Mary, sons Thomas, Patrick and John, and daughter Anna all served as light keepers in this area. In 1890 a steam operated fog signal manufactured by Variety Iron Works of Cleveland, Ohio, was installed. The light was automated in 1970 by the U.S. Coast Guard.

The light station is really beautiful, and has been maintained very well. The keeper's quarters are still standing and have been turned into a museum.
The light station was built on a peninsula, so the light can be seen from the water on in many directions!
It was exciting to see the first Poe lighthouse- I hope I have a chance to visit again!
A little farther north we were able to visit the Forty Mile Point Lighthouse.
According to the historical marker:

During the late 1800s, the U.S. Lighthouse Board created a system of coastal lights along Lake Huron's Michigan shore so that mariners would always be within sight of at least one. With a light south of Forty Mile Point on the Presque Isle Peninsula and one one to the north at Cheboygan, and eighteen mile stretch of shoreline remained unlighted and dangerous. In 1890 the board recommended that a light be built at Forty Mile Point. The light was completed in 1896, and Xavier Rains served as the first keeper, The lighthouse was transferred to Presque Isle County in 1998, but the Coast Guard retained ownership of its Fresnal lens. The site was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

I think the design of this lighthouse is extremely cool! The tower is built between 2 complete living spaces, so both the keeper and the assistant had their own "houses", which included multiple bedrooms, kitchen, living room. Best of all, each "house" also had a skylight, so the keepers could check the status of the light without leaving the comfort (and warmth) of their homes... how handy is that?
This light was built on a very beautiful part of the lake, though it can also be a very dangerous section of the lake. As another historical marker reads:

Lake Huron
Graveyard of Ships
Named by seventeenth century French explores La Mer Douce the sweet or freshwater sea, Lake Huron is the second largest of the five Great Lakes. It has over 3,800 miles of shoreline and contains 30,000 islands, among them Manitoulin, the world's largest freshwater island. Violent storms on the "sweet sea" have made it dangerous for ships. As of 2006, 1,200 wrecks had been recorded. During the Big Blow of 1905, twenty-seven wooden vessels were lost. One of these, the steamer Joseph S. Fay, ran aground. A portion of its hull rests on the beach approximately 200 feet north of the Forty Mile Lighthouse. The Great Storm of 1913 was responsible for sinking many modern ships.

The sand was full of snow and ice, so I didn't attempt the walk out to the wreck... although my curiosity has been piqued so now I'm desperate to visit again when the weather has warmed a bit!
And last, but certainly not least, we saw Old Presque Isle Lighthouse. The marker reads:

Presque Isle Harbor is one of Lake Huron's safest harbors of refuge. Its name comes from the peninsula which, translating from the French, is "almost an Island." Indians and Frenchmen portaged across the peninsula to avoid several miles of open lake. When vessels came to the harbor in increasing numbers, Congress in 1838 appropriated $5,000 for a lighthouse. Jerimiah Moors of Detroit in 1840 completed this lighthouse, which today is one of the oldest surviving lighthouses on the Great Lakes. Pat Garrity, the last keeper of this lighthouse, was appointed by President Lincoln. Four of Garrity's children, raised in the keeper's house, became lighthouse keepers. In 1870, a new lighthouse to the north was completed along with two range lights for the entrance to the harbor.

The Old Lighthouse is not accessible in the winter (i.e. the road out to the light is never plowed), so the best shot I could get of the light was from across the harbor.
You have to look pretty closely, but across all that ice and frigid water is a very old lighthouse! Again, since this is one of the oldest surviving lighthouses in the state, I'm looking forward to visiting it someday...
But I'll definitely have to wait until things thaw a bit!
And while lighthouse visiting might not be the first thing you think to do on a winter afternoon, our little jaunt along Lake Huron certainly showed how fun it could be!!
Thanks for visiting my blog- I hope you have a great rest of your day!