The lighthouse tour

After leaving Calumet, we headed on to see our first lighthouse.  Lake Superior is the site of numerous lighthouses and light stations, and we can’t even begin to see them all.  What I did not realize is that there are some that have been sold to private parties and some of the ones we saw are operating as bed and breakfasts.  They also offer tours of them, but we didn’t do that. 

The first one we visited was the Sand Hills Lighthouse Inn, about 25 miles from where we started out this morning (Friday, Sept. 25.  Yep, we’re still on the same day.)  The Sand Hills Lighthouse is the largest lighthouse built on the Great Lakes.  It was built in 1917 and housed three lightkeepers and their families.  It remained active until 1939 when the Coast Guard took it over and automated it.  It was also used as a training site during World War II, housing 200 men. 

This lighthouse isn't what I expect when I'm thinking of a lighthouse, but it was still very cool to see.

 

The current innkeepers purchased the lighthouse in 1961.  It was boarded up for 31 years and then in 1992 they began renovations, and welcomed their first guests in 1995. 

We drove a bit further and went to the Eagle Harbor Light Station, the most visited and photographed one in the Keweenaw.  This one is more in keeping with what I envision for a lighthouse, a round tower, rather than the square one we saw at Sand Hills. 

 

The Eagle Harbor Light Station is beautifully kept up and quite the showpiece of a lighthouse.

Roads were almost non-existent, and water was the means to bring settlers and supplies in, as well as to ship out copper and logs.  Lake Superior can have a nasty disposition and the ships needed navigational assistance.  In 1851 the first Eagle Harbor Lighthouse was established with a wooden tower and a sperm oil lamp.  It was built at a cost of $4,000 but was poorly constructed and quickly deteriorated so a second one was built of brick in 1871 at a cost of $14,000.  The tower is 44-feet high and painted white on one side so the freighters could see it and red on the other, making it quite colorful.  After being served by 21 keepers in its first 129 years, it became fully automated in 1980.

The grounds house a number of artifacts as well as a couple of museums.

In a typical season 50-100 “salties” (ocean-going ships that also come onto the lakes) pass the point, traversing the entire length of the St. Lawrence Seaway from the Atlantic Ocean, carrying a variety of cargoes between Duluth/Superior and the rest of the world.  Ships that are westbound are usually no more than five miles from the shore while ships that are eastbound are usually at least 12 miles offshore.  Typically about 35 million metric tons (lighter than a U.S. ton) passes this way with about 50-53 percent of it being iron ore, 30 percent of it being coal, grain using being between 8–10 percent and other cargo measuring 8–10 percent.  About 80 percent of the cargo is for domestic trade.

Eagle Harbor is open to the public and we climbed up the stairs to the bedrooms above that are set up as a museum with old beds and baby carriages. 

 

Going up the narrow staircase could be a hardship on those who are claustrophobic.

These rooms at the top looked so small.

While the Keweenaw Historical Society operates the history museum, the station is still operated  by the Coast Guard and they come twice a year to perform maintenance. 

 

Before we reached our next lighthouse we saw a sign ... the beginning of  U.S. 41.  If we followed it 1,990 miles we could get to Miami, Florida.  Maybe that's a ride to do sometime.

The Copper Harbor Lighthouse next on our list to see.  It was among the first beacons on Lake Superior.  It’s now automated and mounted on a steel tower, and the light can be seen as far away as 12-1/2 miles.

The original Copper Harbor Lighthouse was built in 1848 and replaced by the present structure in the 1860s.

So you can get a taste of what life in a lighthouse was like back then, the current Copper Harbor Lighthouse is set up as an 1847-era lighthouse and light keeper’s home, totally restored and furnished in a 150-year-old way to look as though the keeper still lives there.  It’s across the little bay and requires a boat ride to get to it.  There were no boats, and we didn’t see a posted schedule, so we continued down the road.

Honeycrisp apples are my current favorites.

Along the way we stopped at a roadside stand and I made a haul, Honeycrisp apples and pears.  The pears weren’t that good, but the apples were heaven.  We bought about five and I started to eat one.  After the first bite, I went back and got another six.  Yum, yum.  Yep, this photo shows I’ve already eaten two of them.

The colors still aren't quite there. 

While the colors still aren’t at their peak, they are a-changing, and I’m taking a photo here and there.  They’ll get there, but I’ll be long gone.