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N- Narrator: On a sliver of land njust outside Green Bay
stand the ruins nof a long-abandoned lighthouse.
Hard to imagine now -- but once upon a time,
this empty land was a home.
A home for two Wisconsin boys named Cletus and Ralph Weber.
Their father, assistant keeper Andrew Weber,
and mother, Alice,
moved into Long Tail Point Lighthouse in 1910.
NThey found the sturdy clapboard house with attached tower
an ideal spot to raise a family.
The Weber family --
Cletus, Ralph, and baby sister Adris --
lived in Green Bay
but spent their summer months on Long Tail Point.
The Webers lived in the 1859 Lighthouse,
but the remains of the old lighthouse
built over a decade earlier
still lay scattered about the island,
making it a fitting home for adventures.
NIn 1980, Cletus and Ralph Weber, now adults,
Nreminisced about their childhood adventures at Long Tail Point.
- Cletus Weber: Born in Green Bay, 1913,
and moved out to the lighthouse when I was three weeks old.
- Ralph Weber: My dad was a lighthouse keeper at Long Tail.
I was born in 1915.
- Though only youngsters, Ralph and Cletus pitched in
to keep the lighthouse grounds running.
- Ralph Weber: Like, we had a typical day is I had my work to do,
take care of the crab boxes, and help Mother in her garden.
Whatever we could do, we were obligated to do.
- But when the work was done, the boys would escape
into the island's 434-acre wonderland...
- Cletus Weber: Go swimming, fool around, follow deer, hunt ducks...
We went swimming maybe five, six times a day.
There was nobody around to bother us.
Just the two of us.
- Summers spent wandering the beach, catching fireflies,
digging for arrowheads.
And of course...
fishing.
- Cletus Weber: We ate fish till it come out of our ears!
- For these brothers, Long Tail Point
made for an idyllic childhood.
An experience they would carry with them for a lifetime.
Both brothers would grow up to have long careers on the water,
Cletus as a Sea Scout,
and Ralph as a captain.
The lighthouse that was home nto the Webers no longer stands.
Reeds and bulrushes have reclaimed the island.
All that remains is the long-abandoned stone tower --
a silent monument to the families
who worked and played in its shadow.
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