2 Aug
Today we took another cruise, this time to Raspberry Island to visit the lighthouse there. Yesterday we passed by it but today we were able to stop and see it.
Picture from yesterday - the weather was much better
Another picture from yesterday. The fog signal building is the brick structure on the right
The forecast was for rain but they did not cancel the cruise which we were glad. The boat today was much smaller than yesterday's huge catamaran.
We only had 22 on board today and that included two tent camping folks that were being dropped off for a four night stay on Oak Island.
Our two tent campers preparing to hop off the boat on Oak Island
The boat returns on Saturday to pick them up. They had to carry in everything they needed and carry out everything they brought including their trash.
We departed Oak Island and we could see the weather in the distance. It was headed our way for sure and seemed to move fairly quickly. As we arrived at Raspberry Island the weather started to turn nasty.
The 20 of us made it up the 76 steps from the dock and headed into the fog signal building. There we briefed by two National Park Service rangers about the history of the Raspberry Island Lighthouse.
One of our NPS Rangers in costume of the late 1800's lightkeeper
Our group in the fog signal building
The Raspberry Island Lighthouse was built and first lit in 1863 and served as a beacon for steam ships traveling the west channel of the Apostle Islands. The building we were in, the fog signal building, was added in 1903 and that created a need for more staff. So in 1906 the original lighthouse was remodeled into a duplex. The south side of the lighthouse building was where the head lighthouse keeper and his family lived. The north side of the duplex was actually two "apartments", one for each of his assistants.
How the lighthouse looked back then
Inside the fog signal building there were two steam generators that sounded the fog horn. The generators have been removed from the building and it is now primarily a power distribution building.
A bank of 6-volt lead-acid batteries that are charged by solar panels.
A generator and solar converter panels that help to provide the power
The briefing from the National Park service Rangers was interesting, but considering the impending weather they should have allowed us to tour the lighthouse building first. By the time they finished with their presentation (~45 minutes) the weather was upon us with limited visibility, lightning, winds and heavy rain. The lightning was what prevented us from climbing the lighthouse.
So we made a dash for the lighthouse building in a torrential downpour and there we were able to tour the lower and uppers floors.
The kitchen area
Wood-fired stove
Kitchen sink with a hand pump connected to a cistern that captured rain water
A small pantry
The living room complete with working hand crank Victrola
One of three the upstairs bedrooms
The second of three upstairs bedrooms
The third bedroom was not furnished, but led into the staircase that went up into the light tower, the area we could not go due to lightning. They did let Doreen go up a few stairs for a photo-op:
One of the few lighthouses ever built with wooden stairs
The light itself went through various fuel types including different types of oil, kerosene and finally was electrified and automated in 1947.
In 2002 and 2003 there was an extensive project to reinforce the shoreline and the shore was eroding and the lighthouse would have eventually fell into the lake.
You can see the shoreline here before it was reinforced
How the shoreline looks today.
That concluded the lighthouse tour. It would have been much nicer if the weather would have cooperated, but at least we got to visit today.
People coming down the stairs to get back on the boat
The storms passing by
Tomorrow we will pull chocks and head west and north, passing by Duluth on our way to an area east of Hibbing Minnesota, our next stop.
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