2INW0922HD In Wisconsin 110421 Lighthouse Docent
Wisconsin Public Television
Transcript: In Wisconsin 922
Air Date: April 21, 2011

Patty Loew:
Looking to be inspired to write poetry? We’ve got the place. Wisconsin’s oldest lighthouse still stands as a beacon on a bluff nearly 160 feet above Lake Michigan. Today, it’s on the National Register of Historic Places. One man made it his mission to open the lighthouse doors to the public. It’s a doorway to Wisconsin’s rich maritime past in Door County. 

Tim Sweet:
Rock Island might be one of Wisconsin’s best-kept secrets. 

Patty Loew:
Located on the state’s northeastern most tip, Rock Island rests at the very edge of Door County. 

Tim Sweet:
You have to want to get her in the first place. 

-Good morning. Welcome to Rock Island. 

Because it’s a couple ferry boat rides and a mile and quarter hike to get here. 

Patty Loew:
Here is Pottawatomie Point.  And getting to this point was an uphill journey for Tim Sweet. 

Tim Sweet:
Come right in, please. 

Patty Loew:
He used to head the group called Friends of Rock Island that took this rundown lighthouse nestled in the dolomite bluffs and made it a destination. 

Tim Sweet:
It’s on an island. It’s on top of a 110-foot cliff. It marks the Rock Island passage. I mean, that just has-- to me, that just has a cool sound to it. 

Patty Loew:
But in 1945, the beacon was automated and the lighthouse abandoned, except for a colony of bats in the attic and snakes in the basement. 

Tim Sweet:
It was unoccupied for 58 years.  And imagine your own house not having anybody living in it, or really doing a whole lot to maintain it. You can imagine that it’s going to require a lot to bring a place like that back. 

Patty Loew:
A lot to bring it back was an understatement. 

Tim Sweet:
There were some times when, you know, I’d look back and think, boy, this isn’t all that easy. We’ve been working on restoring the light since ‘99, when we first got the lantern put back in place.  And everything else fell into place over the course of the next few years, so that by 2004 we were ready to open the place up to tours. 

Patty Loew:
But there was one problem. 

Randy Holm:
With the budgets the way they are now, there would be no way that we could hire the staff to be able to afford to have that open. 

Patty Loew:
So the Friends of Rock Island formed a partnership with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, which runs Rock Island State Park, to create a live-in museum. 

Randy Holm:
Now we have a program where volunteers are able to come and live in the lighthouse, take care of the lighthouse, do the cleaning, give the tours and stuff in exchange for the free bed and breakfast. 

Patty Loew:
No electricity, no phone and no indoor plumbing. This week, it’s Tim and Julie Sweet’s home away from home as guest docents or lighthouse tour guides. 

Randy Holm:
It’s really a win/win situation. The docents that come up, they get a memorable experience. And the park gets to have people living in a lighthouse and giving the history. 

Patty Loew:
The lantern room is up three flights of stairs, straight up, but it’s well worth the climb. 

Tim Sweet:
Watch your head here and when we go in through the opening. 

Patty Loew:
It’s the crown jewel atop the lighthouse. 
Tim Sweet:
People who look out at the view and say, wow, boy, this is beautiful, what an inspirational view. 

Patty Loew:
Visitors are awestruck as they take in the history and panoramic view, where you can capture a sunrise over Lake Michigan, and a sunset over Green Bay. 

Tim Sweet:
And if you look at those historic photos above the light station too, you’ll see that all these trees were cut down so there wouldn’t be anything to obscure the view down on the water. 

Patty Loew:
The federal government shut down the lighthouse when they automated the light that guides ships through the spellbinding darkness. 

Tim Sweet:
They took the lantern off of the lantern deck. They took the original Fresnel lense and put it in the basement, and then somehow that lense mysteriously disappeared. 

Patty Loew:
It was rebuilt, along with a new fourth order Fresnel reconstructed by a Disney World engineer, all paid for with grants and private funds raised by the Friends of Rock Island. 

Tim Sweet:
These lenses take a relatively small amount of light, and somehow the prisms all work to take that light and concentrate it and shine it through the magnifying lense. 

Man:
That’s the actual lighthouse now. 

Woman:
Oh, okay. 

Patty Loew:
The new tower is solar powered to keep the beacon burning. 

Tim Sweet:
Pretty much takes care of itself. 

Patty Loew:
The tour is done, but the docent’s work is not.  

Julie Sweet:
We’re having chicken alfredo. 

Patty Loew:
Volunteers living in the lighthouse cook their own meals without a refrigerator, without a microwave. And without running water. 

Tim Sweet:
We appreciate having running water at home. 

Randy Holm:
Pumping their own water, having no electricity so you have to use flashlights and stuff, it’s a cool way of living that most modern people don’t get to do. There is no cost. No. The volunteers don’t have to pay anything to stay here. 

Patty Loew:
Well, sort of. 

Randy Holm:
Free sometimes has connotations after you clean the bathroom after 300 people, but it’s a cool program. You can kind of get a sense of what it would have been like to have been a lighthouse keeper on an island out here on Lake Michigan. 

Tim Sweet:
If you look at our flag over here, we’ve got a 1858 replica United States flag. It only has 31 stars on it. This is the site of Wisconsin’s oldest lighthouse.  That dates back to 1836. That’s 12 years before Wisconsin even became a state. 

Patty Loew:
In a way, this island has stood still, etched in that era. And each evening as visitors seemingly fade into the woods, this 900-acre island quickly reverts back to a quiet, natural landscape. 

Randy Holm:
I know some people who come to Rock Island who would rather that we probably weren’t even talking about Rock Island because they’d rather just kind of keep it to themselves. 

Patty Loew:
What they want to keep to themselves are the crystal clear waters and uncut forests, undisturbed since the first Native Americans hunted here. The Pottawatomie Lighthouse is named in their honor. Fittingly, the Pottawatomie refer to themselves as “keepers of the fire.” It’s a flame that now burns in Tim Sweet to preserve this piece of the past. 

Tim Sweet:
Wisconsin really does have a rich maritime history and this is part of it. The best thing about it is being able to share it with other people. 

Patty Loew:
It’s been a long journey to get to this point, and it’s become personal. 
Tim Sweet:
I sometimes actually get choked up when I talk about this place, because it really does mean a lot to me. Rock Island is probably one of my most favorite places. I can’t really think of another place that I’d rather be than a place like this. 

Patty Loew:
The first keeper of the light was a bachelor. David Corbin received just $1 a day, plus food and housing in 1837. Corbin is buried a few hundred feet from the lighthouse in this small cemetery. It has 12 burial sites, and it’s believed seven of those belong to victims of shipwrecks. The lighthouse will open its doors for the season on Memorial Day weekend, and will remain open through Columbus day in October. If you can’t wait, you can get a video tour of the Pottawatomie Lighthouse. Just go to our website, wpt.org. Then click on “In Wisconsin.” 

On the far western side of the state, efforts are underway for two more light stations on Lake Superior to get a make-over. The process would be similar to this restoration that took place at the Raspberry Island lighthouse in 2007, which is part of the Apostles Islands National Lakeshore. Renovations on the two Michigan Island light stations could include cultural landscapes and reconstructed gardens. To watch our full report on the Raspberry Island Lighthouse restoration, just go to wpt.org and click on “In Wisconsin.”