[inspirational music]
- This program is brought to you
by the combined resources
of the Wisconsin Historical Society
and PBS Wisconsin.
[waves crashing]
[delicate piano]
[seagulls calling]
- Brendon Baillod: Lighthouses occupy that sort of wistful part of our imagination.
- Kevin Osgood: There's a mystique about them.
There's an aura about them.
- Neil Howk: A magical place.
- Narrator: Soaring towers.
Rugged landscapes.
Wisconsin lighthouses stand watch
over Lake Michigan and Lake Superior.
- Kevin Osgood: The Great Lakes are inland seas.
They are massive.
- Monumental beacons.
Shining light on a bygone era.
From the first people to venture the lakes
to the dedicated keepers willing to risk their all.
- Neil Howk: The aspect of danger.
The aspect of sacrifice.
- Ken Wardius: People depended on them day in and day out.
- Icons of Wisconsin's rich maritime past.
- Cathy Green: Lighthouses are inseparable
from the history of the state
- Brendon Baillod: Without lighthouses,
Wisconsin doesn't happen.
- Marvelous construction.
Breathtaking views.
- Barb Wardius: They're really something to behold.
- Kevin Osgood: There's nothing else like them.
- Wisconsin Lighthouses.
[waves breaking]
?
- Announcer: Funding for Wisconsin Lighthouses
is provided by
the David L. and Rita E. Nelson Family Fund,
Dr. Henry Anderson and Shirley Levine,
the Ruth St. John and John Dunham West Foundation,
Jan Botz and Tom Lippert,
the Dwight and Linda Davis Foundation,
A.C.V. and Mary Elston Family,
Slater Family Fund,
Barb and Mike Madden,
Obrodovich Family Foundation,
The Great Lakes Foundation,
Ruder Ware,
the Fund for Lake Michigan,
Trust Point,
Wisconsin Coastal Management Program,
and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
donors to the Focus Fund for Wisconsin Programs,
and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.
[waves brushing shore]
[pensive piano music]
- Narrator: The crashing waters of Lake Michigan
surround a small, forested island
with steep dolomite cliffs.
Deep within the rustic landscape
lives a pioneer of Wisconsin's maritime history.
- Tina Jacoby: You're walking through the woods on the trail.
You come right over that last crest,
and you see this picture-perfect lighthouse standing there.
It's pretty amazing to see.
?
- The Pottawatomie Lighthouse,
located at the tip of the Door County Peninsula on Rock Island.
Built in 1836 and then replaced 20 years later
with the existing structure seen today:
a 41-foot tower with attached keeper's quarters.
- Tina Jacoby: As it stands today,
the house is set up around 1910.
So, you can kind of picture the lighthouse keepers at that point
living there.
As you're walking through the house,
you get to see the kitchen, the parlor, the bedrooms.
You kind of feel like you're at home, which is kind of fun.
And then, the best part is going up to the lantern room.
- A view of the water reaching beyond the horizon.
A summer day.
Whitecaps flashing on the surface.
?
An idyllic location,
home to Pottawatomie Lighthouse.
Chosen not for its grand view but for its utter necessity.
- Mark Kuehn: It was a matter of life and death.
[waves breaking, ominous music]
[ring-billed gull makes high-pitched squeals]
- Ted Karamanski: Well, it'd be a big mistake
to underestimate the Great Lakes.
[waves blast lighthouse]
- Cathy Green: These are just as treacherous as the oceans.
- Brendon Baillod: Violent storms blow up, and, you know,
if you don't run for your life, you're gonna be in trouble.
- Surging waters and rocky formations
make the Great Lakes
a perilous force of nature.
- Katrina Phillips: Unless you've been there
or you've lived there,
you don't really understand
the power that these lakes have.
[strings and percussion build in intensity]
- Cathy Green: It's estimated that there are
well over 6,000 shipwrecks in the Great Lakes
- Brendon Baillod: The Great Lakes
are really a nautical graveyard
compared to anyplace else in the world.
[intense strings and percussion]
[bubbles in water column]
[waves brushing shore]
- A tiny, secluded island in that nautical graveyard
would become pivotal to the story of Wisconsin
and home to the state's very first lighthouse,
Pottawatomie.
- Kevin Osgood: In the early 1800s,
before Wisconsin was even a state,
the stone that was coming out of the quarries here,
the lumber that was coming out of the forest,
all of that needed to go other places on the Great Lakes
for the construction of cities.
The schooners
moving the stone and timber around the Great Lakes
would have to go through Death's Door.
- Death's Door Passage is a narrow channel
of shallow waters and strong currents
between the mainland peninsula of Door County
and Washington Island.
A notorious waterway that lived up to its ominous name.
[foreboding strings]
- Kevin Osgood: The shipping industry was losing too many ships,
and it was costing 'em money.
So, it was critical to get a lighthouse built
in this particular location.
- Tina Jacoby: In 1834,
the mariners had requested and petitioned
the federal government
to build the Pottawatomie Lighthouse on Rock Island
that would mark the safe passage.
That safe passage became known as "Rock Island Passage."
- Situated just northeast of Washington Island,
the deep waters off Rock Island
held the potential for a safe route around Death's Door.
However, in the early 1800s,
this region was still considered America's frontier.
Building Pottawatomie Lighthouse
would be a venture into the unknown.
[dire piano music]
- Ted Karamanski: This was a time when
there was absolutely no charts of Lake Michigan.
- Kevin Osgood: Captains had to navigate without the lighthouses.
And they're carrying the materials to these remote places
to build lighthouses.
It was absolutely no easy task.
- Tina Jacoby: The stones were quarried from the island itself.
They would haul them up to the site.
They used wood from the island.
And just with manpower,
they put that lighthouse together.
- Kevin Osgood: That human spirit of just pushing forward
and knocking down the darkness and moving ahead.
[fast, tense piano]
[water lapping shore]
[pensive music]
- Inaugurated in 1836,
Pottawatomie Lighthouse was a trailblazer.
The very first lighthouse on all of Lake Michigan.
Remaining in operation until 1988.
- Tina Jacoby: The Pottawatomie name
comes from the Native Americans
that were living in the area.
Pottawatomie means "keepers of the fire."
The mariners would connect with that light
as they were going through the passage
and relying on that to be there every night.
- Waiting just on the horizon
was a golden era of Wisconsin's maritime history.
- Kevin Osgood: Pottawatomie Lighthouse
lit a way to growth and development.
It would provide that beacon into the future,
for the entire state of Wisconsin.
[plucky guitar and banjo]
- Brendon Baillod: Lighthouses had opened up the state for settlement,
and people began to bring their families west.
You had to come by boat.
There was no other way.
- Ted Karamanski: Schooners were literally
the covered wagons of the Great Lakes frontier.
- The Great Lakes were the superhighways of the past.
Forming one of the highest concentrations of lighthouses
anywhere in the world.
- Brendon Baillod: In the 1800s,
the volume of vessel traffic on the Great Lakes
was easily 20, 30 times what it is today.
[waves lapping gently]
- Most Wisconsin lighthouses
began service between 1850 and 1900.
From Lake Michigan's Southport Lighthouse
in bustling Kenosha
to Wisconsin's northernmost point --
Devils Island Lighthouse on Lake Superior.
These beacons lit the way for mariners
for nearly 150 years.
Burning brightly due to a technological leap
in the 19th century.
- Ken Wardius: Fresnel lenses revolutionized lighthouses
throughout the world.
Engineering marvels.
- Barb Wardius: It's a series of polished glass prisms
that bend and refract the light
in and then out onto the body of water.
- The Fresnel lens projected further and brighter
than ever before.
The powerful beam was instrumental
in the creation of an integrated network of lighthouses
along Lake Michigan,
linking them like a chain.
- Mark Kuehn: All lighthouses on Lake Michigan
are all within sight of each other.
Each beam crosses over,
so you never lose sight of a lighthouse
as you're coming down the lake.
- Tasked with keeping this innovation working smoothly
was the lighthouse keeper --
an employee of the United States Lighthouse Service.
- Barb Wardius: Early lighthouse keepers were called "wickies."
- Ken Wardius: They trimmed a wick in the lantern
to keep the flame the right height
so that it would burn evenly and brightly.
- The wick and lantern were fueled by oil,
which the keeper repeatedly carried to the top of the tower
in buckets.
A counterweight mechanism would then rotate the Fresnel lens
around the burning wick.
- Barb Wardius: It was a giant cuckoo clock mechanism
that would have to be wound every three to four hours.
So, you would never get a full night's sleep.
- Mark Kuehn: You were busy all day long.
You just weren't working at night.
The lens had to be spotless to the touch of a glove.
They would have to record the weather.
They'd have to record ship passings.
And then do any kind of maintenance
on the house or the grounds.
- Tina Jacoby: The lighthouse keepers had
an ingrained sense of service
because that's what it was.
It was the lighthouse service.
They were in service to the federal government
and to keep the mariners safe.
- The keeper and the mariner shared a sacred trust --
the light would remain steadfast in its duty.
Beacons of hope in a raging storm.
And treasured works of art decorating the shoreline.
- Bob Mackreth: The leading American historian of lighthouses
in the 20th century,
F. Ross Holland, wrote,
"Nation's largest and finest collection
"of historic lighthouses is contained within
the boundaries of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore."
Absolutely.
- Off Wisconsin's north shore in Lake Superior
lies a group of islands adorned with otherworldly beauty.
The Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.
Twenty-one islands, eight lighthouses
surrounded by deep forests and natural wonders.
- Neil Howk: The Apostle Islands, they are remote.
You are definitely away from the hubbub of everyday life.
- Brendon Baillod: They're not little port town lighthouses, right?
They tend to have to be tall.
They have to be, you know, pretty conspicuous
because they have to be seen from a distance.
- Punctuating the horizon,
the Apostle Islands lighthouses
historically guided large vessels
along the shipping lanes of Lake Superior.
Today, they keep watch over a public treasure.
- Neil Howk: The best place to view the islands from
is the top of a lighthouse tower.
Places like Devils Island and Raspberry Island
and the north end of Outer Island,
those give us a look at what perhaps
northern Wisconsin looked like 300 years ago.
A pristine area.
On someplace like Raspberry Island,
you can easily be the only person that's on that island,
surrounded by acres of wilderness.
[gentle waves]
?
- In the late 1800s, a keeper named Francis Jacker
lived alone at Raspberry Island Lighthouse.
- Bob Mackreth: He liked it.
I mean, it gave him plenty of time
to pursue his artistic interests.
He was a talented artist.
He was a composer.
- Jacker, a German immigrant,
married an Ojibwe woman named "Ikwesens,"
who later went by "Catherine."
A committed partner,
Catherine stayed back on the mainland with their sons,
while Jacker lived on Raspberry Island
to tend the light.
- Bob Mackreth: He also wrote articles on Ojibwe folklore
that were published in anthropological journals
over in Germany.
He was absolutely a Renaissance man.
But the one thing he wasn't very good at was operating a boat.
[thunder crashing]
- Neil Howk: In September of 1887, a storm blew up.
And he had left the boat tied up to the dock.
He hadn't put it away in the boathouse.
So, he jumped out of bed, runs down to the dock,
and he jumps into the boat
with the intention of sailing it to the boathouse.
The problem is that
he got pushed a little bit too far offshore.
- Bob Mackreth: He loses control of the boat.
Next thing you know, he's washed up on the beach at Oak Island.
- Neil Howk: The wind wrapped around
and it swamped the boat on the beach
and filled it up with sand.
It was unusable.
- Marooned on nearby Oak Island,
Jacker was surrounded by an uninhabited,
densely wooded no-man's land.
- Bob Mackreth: So, he's out there all by himself,
wet and cold in his jammies.
- Neil Howk: He had no shoes. He had no shirt.
He had no food. He was in a pickle.
- The storm raged for three days.
- Neil Howk: Meanwhile, his wife and one of his sons
made an unexpected visit to Raspberry Island
to see their father.
It's a real fluke
because she only did this, like, once or twice a year.
And they get there, and there's nobody there.
- With a darkened tower looming over her,
Catherine had no time
to contemplate her husband's disappearance.
She knew she had to act fast.
- Bob Mackreth: She took charge.
She went up the tower stairs
and figured out how to light the lamp.
Even there, in the dire distress
of thinking her husband is lost somewhere on the lake,
her first thought is really,
"We need to get the light going again
for the safety of the mariners."
- Neil Howk: By day three, Francis is figuring out
that if he was going to be seen,
he needed to get to a different part of the island.
- Jacker bound up his feet,
bushwacked across the island,
and tied what was left of the sail high in a tree.
Desperate, alone...
Jacker's last bit of hope was fluttering in the storm.
[thunder roars]
But in that dark, tempest night,
hope prevailed.
Jacker's signal was spotted.
?
Taken back to Raspberry Island,
the warm glow of the lighthouse welcomed the ragged Jacker home.
Waiting for him with open arms,
the ever-vigilant Catherine.
[tender piano]
- Neil Howk: Must have been a magical moment.
A really lucky break.
The lighthouse keepers were out there
in order to prevent accidents.
Catherine, she understood the importance of the light,
and she did what she could
in order to, you know, to make it right.
- Bob Mackreth: I think that shows the level of dedication
that was fostered in the culture.
The keepers and their families,
the wife came in, stepped in, and says,
"That's my responsibility,"
even right there with the prospect of, suddenly, widowhood.
So, it's a reason I admire these people.
- Entrusted to protect a treasure,
Wisconsin lighthouse keepers
would soon build a legacy
of stewardship,
pride,
and family.
I'm a volunteer here at PBS
IWisconsin. Taking just a quick
program. And you know, the
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>> Well, thank you James. I'm
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hTelevision and I am so excited
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choose the copy of the show that
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joining us, but now we need you
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volunteer here at PBS Wisconsin,
something James just said about.
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[peaceful, flowing piano]
- Narrator: Intricate layers of sandstone. [bird calling]
Rough pine and birch trees blanket rocky bays.
Sea caves smoothed by centuries of rippling waters.
- Barb Wardius: Sand Island is on the western edge of the Apostles.
So, it's way out there.
If the weather conditions aren't right, you aren't landing.
And if you need to get off the island, you're not getting off.
The lake is the boss, definitely.
- Bob Mackreth: The lighthouse at Sand Island
was there primarily to give warning to ships
to stay off the Apostles.
- Built in 1881, the Sand Island Lighthouse
stands on a red jagged shoreline.
Walled in by a fortress of stone.
- Bob Mackreth: Sand Island Lighthouse
was fashioned from the fabric of the island.
It's a beautiful building,
which was built from the rock where it sits.
And I can't think of a more intimate way or profound way
that a building can be connected to its environment.
- Made of brownstone
in the style of Norman Gothic architecture,
Sand Island Lighthouse provided a picturesque setting
for a keeper's quiet life of solitude.
[evocative harp]
- Bob Mackreth: The second keeper at Sand Island
I find an interesting fellow for a number of reasons.
His name was Emmanuel Luick.
He came there for the 1892 season,
and then stayed 28 years
until the lighthouse was automated in 1920.
- Barb Wardius: Mr. Luick enjoyed lighthouse keeping.
- Bob Mackreth: Loved it; he thrived in the lighthouse life.
He spent his first couple of years
out at Sand Island all by himself.
Then, in 1896,
he married a young woman named Ella Gertrude Richardson.
She was from Providence, Rhode Island.
- Ella was 16 years old
when she married the 29-year-old Emmanuel.
Joining him to live at Sand Island.
- Bob Mackreth: She was enraptured
by his promises to live in a lighthouse.
And I'm sure it sounded very romantic.
- Neil Howk: Being in a beautiful setting,
in a lovely building, it's great.
But solitude can be a double-edged sword.
- Bob Mackreth: Guess what?
She was bored out of her skull.
?
- Barb Wardius: All lighthouse keepers
were required to keep a daily log book,
and it was supposed to be one line
of what the weather was,
ships that had passed.
Perhaps what they did that day,
if there was painting or gardening going on.
- Bob Mackreth: Ella, on the other hand,
used it basically as a personal diary.
We have a very complete picture
of the Luicks' marriage falling apart.
- In one entry, Ella wrote,
"Mr. Luick hasn't anything to do,
and so he can help me do nothing."
- Barb Wardius: But again, she was 16 years old.
She just found lighthouse life very lonely.
- After ten years, Ella moved on.
Heading back east,
she became a nurse and later remarried.
Leaving behind Sand Island Lighthouse and Emmanuel Luick.
- Bob Mackreth: Emmanuel is not Mr. Charm. [chuckles]
It appears he was hard to get along with.
He went through assistant keepers at a fairly rapid clip.
And he didn't have a really good reputation.
But on the other hand,
he was an incredibly talented photographer.
that Luick took.
They'd been sitting in a barn.
And this would be the first time
anyone had eyes on those photos in decades.
- Neil Howk: Several hundred images.
Some of the images are from the lighthouse on Sand Island
and what it was like to be a lighthouse keeper.
- Bob Mackreth: Excellent shots of the lighthouse and the surroundings,
which are quite artistic.
- Luick also explored nearby communities.
Capturing photos of neighborhoods,
family farms,
and fishermen repairing their nets.
He meticulously documented life along Lake Superior.
- Bob Mackreth: He had a very good eye
for catching a personality.
And they are so sharp and vivid.
- Luick was able to evoke a sense of beauty
and convey emotion in a single image.
Capturing vibrant lives,
inhabiting a rich world from a bygone era.
- Bob Mackreth: They provided excellent detail
about what daily life was like
around the turn of the 20th century.
- Through his photography,
Emmanuel Luick preserved a moment in time
in a unique and personal way.
- Bob Mackreth: This man definitely was an artist.
Life is not all black and white.
There are shades of gray.
- Shades of gray, in a world full of color,
resided inside the Wisconsin lighthouse.
- Neil Howk: What is a lighthouse?
Well, on the one hand, it's the light,
and it's all of the aspects
that go into keeping the light lit.
But it was also a home.
People lived there.
- Linda Faust: Our Great Lakes lighthouses,
most of them were really family homes.
You can really see that
as you walk through the lighthouse.
- A bedroom adorned with childhood memories.
Lighthouse-issued chinaware
still waiting on the dinner table
for the keeper and their kin.
Family homes brimming with the presence of the past.
- Linda Faust: A lot of people think, "Oh, it was a easy life,"
but it was a difficult life.
The families were actually farmers.
When you think about growing your own food,
canning it, storing it, and preparing it,
they had to be self-sufficient.
- Barb Wardius: Mom's taking care of the kids.
There's the cooking, the cleaning, the sewing.
It was constant work, which amazes me.
- Linda Faust: People had to survive and fight the elements.
All of those things are true,
but not all of them were in isolation.
? LOOKIN' FOR A BETTER PLACE TO
Especially up here in Door County.
[hopeful, reflective cello]
- Life at the lighthouse was a family affair.
No truer than in Door County.
[energetic violin, bird calling]
Often referred to as the "Cape Cod of the Midwest,"
Wisconsin's eastern peninsula
is notable for its scenic shoreline,
towering bluffs,
and 11 historic lighthouses.
- Kevin Osgood: Door County has the largest concentration of lighthouses
per mile of shoreline than anywhere else in the United States.
- Beacons such as Sherwood Point,
Baileys Harbor Upper Range,
and Pottawatomie
all served as homes to generations of families.
Today, in Peninsula State Park,
people flock to the popular Eagle Bluff Lighthouse.
Built in 1868 to light up busy Strawberry Channel,
the lighthouse sits 76 feet high upon the bluff.
There, visitors walk in the footsteps
of Eagle Bluff's most memorable inhabitants,
the Duclon family.
- Linda Faust: The Duclons, William and Julia, lived here,
but they weren't alone.
They had seven sons!
- The family of nine moved to Eagle Bluff Lighthouse
in 1883.
Keeper William Duclon, a veteran of the Union Army,
oversaw its daily operation.
His sons pitched in,
helping to maintain the buildings,
grow food, and assist in rescues.
A tightly-run operation,
the family was awarded several commendations
for the best-looking lighthouse grounds
in the Great Lakes area.
- Linda Faust: The home today,
it still looks pretty much how it looked
when our Duclon family was living here.
It was full of life and full of laughter,
full of music.
- The music room was the heart of the Duclon home.
[phonograph starting up, old-timey piano]
- Linda Faust: When they move here to Eagle Bluff,
William surprised the family with a piano.
Julia grew up playing piano.
And she wanted a piano for her seven boys.
All seven boys learned how to play piano.
They also played violin, cello, bass fiddle,
accordion, harmonica, and guitar.
They were extremely talented.
- The Duclon boys took their talents on the road,
performing around Door County in dance halls and at weddings.
They also played in some rough venues,
holding their own in the occasional fight,
even brawling once with the sons of a rival lighthouse family
over a group of young ladies.
- Linda Faust: One of the Duclon boys
threw the first punch.
[joyful chortle]
A big scandal back then!
- At Eagle Bluff, the family bond
was tied to their love of music.
Opening their home to entertain anyone who would come.
- Linda Faust: People were living in little log cabins
or little shanties by the water if they were fishermen.
So, to your neighbors, this place was a mansion.
And, of course, they were all interested in this home.
- At times, 40 people would huddle together
for a potluck and a musical melody.
- Linda Faust: For the Duclons,
the piano was an important piece in their lives; it was.
It connected them, really, with the rest of the families
living in the area.
This was quite the party house back in the day!
- The sound of the piano filled the air at Eagle Bluff
for decades.
Bringing friends and neighbors together at the lighthouse.
[warm, uplifting strings]
- Linda Faust: The Duclon family was here for 35 years.
This was a gathering place for these communities.
- Though not Door County's oldest or tallest lighthouse,
Eagle Bluff was perhaps the liveliest --
thanks to the spirited Duclons;
their family home still welcoming people today.
- Ken Wardius: We call the lighthouse "the heart."
But the soul of the lighthouse
are the people that tended it,
the families that spent decades of their lives
making sure that mariners out on the lake were safe.
Dedicated, hardworking people.
?
- On the eastern edge of the Door Peninsula,
a trek across a limestone causeway
leads to the nearly nine-acre island in Lake Michigan.
The tiny isle is home to a giant
among the Door County beacons,
and one of Wisconsin's most celebrated:
Cana Island Lighthouse.
- Kevin Osgood: It's one of the jewels of the Door County lighthouses.
- Ken Wardius: Cana Island is iconic.
It has the tall white tower.
It's got the attached house next to it.
It stands for security.
It stands for safety.
- Barb Wardius: Cana is a beautiful lighthouse.
- Surrounded by shallow reefs and rugged shoreline,
Cana Island Lighthouse
has stood as a sentinel over Lake Michigan
for more than 150 years.
A witness to daring rescues and numerous shipwrecks
along the lake's dangerous shoals.
- Kevin Osgood: Probably the most memorable shipwreck at Cana Island
would be the Bartelme in 1928.
The Bartelme was a steamer loaded with coal
that ran aground
just a few hundred yards from the Cana Island Lighthouse.
- Stuck in shallow water and thick fog,
everyone on the ship was brought safely back to shore.
The ship itself was damaged beyond repair
and would remain there for nearly two years
as it was cut into scrap.
Though salvaged long ago,
the Bartelme still makes her presence known today.
- Kevin Osgood: Depending on how the waves are coming in,
you can still find some coal on the beach
from the wreck of the Bartelme.
?
- Cana Island Lighthouse
was constructed to be a titan
among the Door County lighthouses.
Its tower reaches 89 feet into the sky,
with its walls nearly 4 feet thick at the base.
Built from Milwaukee Cream City brick,
the lighthouse stood firm on the exposed island
while repeatedly put to the test
by fierce and unpredictable storms.
- Barb Wardius: Ten years into the life of the lighthouse,
they noticed it was weathering
much faster than was anticipated.
In the early 1900s, they put the metal cladding around it
to protect it.
And it's still there today, so it worked.
- The powerful structure remains a distinctive landmark
along the Door Peninsula,
making it one of the area's most popular attractions.
Its historic and scenic appeal
calling visitors to take a journey back through time.
- Kevin Osgood: Cana is a special place,
and if you walk out there, then you feel it.
- Barb Wardius: People go inside
and realize this is a piece of history.
- At the base of the tower,
a doorway beckons into the past.
A climb up the spiral staircase.
Step by step,
102 cast-iron stairs
stretch toward the top of the tower.
- Kevin Osgood: Feel that ache in your calves
as you climb those steps in the lighthouse,
and think about what those lighthouse keepers had to do
to keep that lamp lit.
Wow!
- Marching upward,
the open stairwell allows air to flow through the tower.
Portholes mark the progress of the ascent.
Waiting above, a treasure of Wisconsin's maritime history.
you can look up and see the Fresnel lens.
It's still there today.
- Still in operation, the Fresnel lens at Cana Island
is one of a select few
to remain lit in all the Great Lakes.
- Kevin Osgood: The fact that it is still a navigation beacon today
speaks volumes about it.
It's well over 150 years old and still guiding ships.
- Barb Wardius: It's phenomenal.
- Finally, step outside onto the gallery deck.
A breathtaking panoramic view
of Lake Michigan and the Door Peninsula awaits.
[thoughtful strings and horns]
- Kevin Osgood: You look at that vastness of Lake Michigan
from the top of the tower
and imagine it's at night, and it's a dark, moonless night.
And the only light you see is this one.
- Ken Wardius: You see the light.
You have a sense of, "We're going to be okay."
The lighthouse is a beacon to history.
It's a monument
to bravery, to stability, to security.
If you close your eyes
and you dream about this perfect lighthouse --
Cana Island is, to me, that place.
[crickets chirping]
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>> Well, hello, I'm Kerman Eckes
Wisconsin. And now is the at PBS
for you to call and become aned,
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>> No, no, it's not. Barb
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>> I'm a member of6.
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[MUSIC]nk you.
[playful, rhythmic strings]
- Ken Wardius: The thing that strikes me about Wisconsin lighthouses is
the variety.
Different sizes, shapes, colors.
There's a lot of really unique lighthouses.
[bird calling]
- Narrator: Stationed in quaint port towns.
On breakwaters marking harbors,
like Kewaunee
and Sturgeon Bay.
And along the shoreline
like the state's tallest lighthouse,
Rawley Point, at 113 feet.
These aids to navigation are connected
to a legacy of travel along the Great Lakes.
Starting with the earliest travelers to mark the way,
the First Nations people.
- Katrina Phillips: If you think about how people
look at landmarks when you're on the road,
they had landmarks on the lake.
- Kevin Osgood: They would climb trees
and they would cut maybe half the branches off
from the ground up.
Those are known as "lob trees."
Each of those meant something:
either turn left here or turn right there.
Go east, go west, go north.
- Katrina Phillips: These trees are, essentially, their lighthouses.
[fire crackling] - Fires were utilized for travel at night,
often lit on large tree stumps near the shoreline
or placed high on a hilltop.
Mirroring these signal fires,
the region's early lighthouses
were positioned on elevated points.
Their design was short in stature
yet built for function.
Paving the way for a more stylistic approach
to lighthouse architecture on the Great Lakes.
- Barb Wardius: They finally evolved
to the tall brick and metal structures
we know today with Fresnel lenses in them.
[birds chirping]
- Bob Mackreth: Some of them are
magnificent works of the architect's art.
They're beautiful.
- A giant sentinel
stretches 108 feet into the sky.
Its stark white tapered tower,
prominent against the shoreline.
Wind Point Lighthouse,
located near Racine in southeastern Wisconsin.
[warm, mellow melody]
- Ken Wardius: Wind Point really is a gorgeous work of art.
- Barb Wardius: It's strong, it's majestic.
It's very graceful.
It's just simply beautiful.
- Michael Gasperi: Pretty much the defition of picturesque,
Wind Point Lighthouse.
- Built in 1880,
Wind Point's architectural design
is known as the Poe-style lighthouse.
A style attributed to Orlando Metcalfe Poe,
a veteran of the Civil War
who served under General William Shern.
After the war,
Poe was the Chief Engineer
of the Upper Great Lakes Lighthouse District
and oversaw the construction
of numeroubeacons along the Great Lakes.
- Michael Gasperi: What Poe really brought was
a much more substantial, brighter, taller structure
than what had been here before.
- The soaring tower at Wind Point
is indicative of Poe-style lighthouses,
which are recognizable
by their distinct cylinder shapes.
And it h just the right taper
to really make a hundred-foot tower look right.
[playful, dreamy melody]
- Barb Wardius: At Wind Point,
you can stand at the base and look up,
and it just seems to go on forever!
- Near the top of the tower,
an ornate detail accents the base of the balcony.
Corbels, or brackets,
designed in the Florentine-inspired Italianate style.
- Michael Gasperi: They could have just been
straight pieces of triangle,
but they're actuallylightly shaped.
It's unexpectedly simple,
but yet it's beautiful and it has an elegance to it.
- A callback to the Renaissance, a rebirth.
Wind Point Lighthouse
marked a time of progress and hope in America
post-Civil War.
- Barb Wardius: The time that Wind Point
was built in the 1880s and put into service
was a boom time for Wisconsin.
- Brendon Baillod: On the Great Lakes,
there were more vessels per square mile
than any place else in the world.
- Lake Michigan was filled with steamships
and enormous straight-deck freighters.
They were overflowing with a new export:
grain.
- Brendon Baillod: "Prairie Gold," as they called it.
That was where the money was.
Almost all grain that was being consumed on the East Coast
was coming out of Wisconsin.
Lighthouses were just essential to protect those investments.
- Wind Point was chosen for its strategic location
between Milwaukee and Chicago.
The rapidly developing region
was attracting more than just commerce.
It was welcoming scores of new residents.
- Brendon Baillod: Lake Michigan was an early target
for immigrants from Europe.
- Albert Muchka: You had ships full of immigrants
coming from Buffalo, New York.
They arrived on paddlewheel ships and steamers.
You know, the immigrant story of the late 19th century.
They would come to Wisconsin.
- Seeking freedom and opportunity,
the journey to Wisconsin was challenging.
After a harrowing trip across the Atlantic,
many immigrants still had to brave
the crowded and dangerous Great Lakes.
- Brendon Baillod: With that volume of vessel density,
you're going to have accidents.
- Ted Karamanski: Some ships didn't make it.
- Ships like the Phoenix,
considered one of the worst disasters on the Great Lakes.
[flames burning] About 200 Dutch immigrants
lost their lives
when the Phoenix sank off Sheboygan in 1847.
[blowing ship horn]
But for the many immigrants who did find safe passage,
a lighthouse meant reassurance in a new land.
- Albert Muchka: The lighthouse was that feeling of safety.
[uplifting piano]
- Ted Karamanski: When you saw the lighthouse
at Manitowoc or Sheboygan,
you had reached your destination,
and there had to be a sigh of relief.
- Albert Muchka: The idea that the ship captain
knew where he was going.
In a storm, you knew there was land here.
And as an immigrant coming in on one of those boats,
being afraid and having the crews then tell you,
"Don't worry, the shore's over there.
See the light."
- Waiting on the shoreline outside Racine,
Wind Point Light.
Classic Old World design in a new world.
- Barb Wardius: Your first glimpse is this majestic tower
leading you to your new home.
I think it would stop your heart
just because you think, "I'm finally here.
I've made it."
[waves crashing against the shore]
[tender piano, water current]
- In nearby Milwaukee,
on a wooded bluff 107 feet above Lake Michigan,
sits the city's famed Lake Park.
A hundred and thirty-eight acres
of winding paths, deep ravines,
and panoramic views of the water.
The park's centerpiece: a beacon like no other --
North Point Lighthouse.
- Ken Wardius: North Point Lighthouse
is actually a compilation
of parts of three different lighthouses.
- Originally constructed in 1855,
severe erosion to the bluff it stood on
jeopardized the brick structure.
In 1888, a new cast-iron tower was built a hundred feet inland,
with the lantern of the original lighthouse placed on top.
But by the turn of the 20th century,
North Point needed yet another upgrade.
- Mark Kuehn: What do you do when you design a park?
You plant trees.
Well, by 1911, the treeline's too high.
You can't see the lighthouse anymore.
- The solution was a third tower
built in the same location,
with the previous tower and lantern
fitted on top of it.
- Ken Wardius: If you look at the current lighthouse
at North Point today,
there's actually a seam in the middle
that differentiates the new base,
which has circular windows,
from the top half,
which has rectangular windows from the tower built in 1888.
- The unconventional history of North Point Lighthouse
made it a fitting home
for its most famous resident.
A keeper who would challenge the social norms of her era.
A keeper named Georgia Stebbins.
- Mark Kuehn: In 1873, Georgia was living in New York.
She gave birth to two daughters,
but she lost them in childbirth and illness.
Then, she was informed that she had tuberculosis.
The doctor said, "The only chance you have
"is to get out of New York
and get some fresh air."
- Georgia Stebbins' father was the lighthouse keeper
at North Point in Milwaukee.
The fresh breeze off Lake Michigan
was just what the doctor ordered.
- Mark Kuehn: She decided that she would go out there
to recuperate and hopefully get better.
Her husband, Lemuel, who was a watchmaker,
she left him back in New York.
She didn't realize how long she was gonna be out there.
- Barb Wardius: Just for someone to leave your home state
where you were born and where you know everything,
and to come alone to the wild, wild West
that was Wisconsin even then.
[chuckling] I can't imagine!
- In Milwaukee, Georgia Stebbins' aging father
was declining in health.
The family feared
he was unable to continue his duty to the lighthouse,
risking his job and their livelihood.
Georgia stepped up and took over
as the unofficial keeper at North Point Light.
- Barb Wardius: She freely was willing to learn
all the trade of the lighthouse-keeping duties,
and she just stepped in, and she just did it.
- Mark Kuehn: She was active,
she had to climb stairs, she was outside, she was busy.
In those days, you're talking
long Victorian dresses, petticoats, button-up shoes.
- Barb Wardius: I'm picturing her holding up the skirt,
and then, having some fuel in her other hand
to go up the stairs and tend to her light.
Don't forget Georgia had tuberculosis.
Just her will must have propelled her up those stairs.
- Georgia Stebbins's health improved.
Reinvigorated, she embarked on a new life for herself
at North Point Lighthouse.
She had found her purpose.
- Ken Wardius: She took the job seriously.
Did the job exemplary
and was just a dedicated person.
Steadfast, like the lighthouse itself.
- Mark Kuehn: There was times
when she would see a ship that ran aground below the bluffs.
She would go down there, get out in a rowboat,
and row out and rescue the crew.
- Barb Wardius: The lighthouse and tending to it
seemed to be her life.
She was always here, always on duty.
- Committed to North Point Lighthouse,
Georgia Stebbins built her life around it,
rarely leaving its grounds,
even with her responsibilities growing
as she welcomed a son, Albert.
- Mark Kuehn: Her son was born at the lighthouse.
She gave birth at home
because she had to keep up her duties.
There was no such thing as maternity leave in those days.
You just gave birth and got right back to work.
- With her beloved bullmastiff, Tappan, by her side,
Georgia raised her son alone at the lighthouse.
- Barb Wardius: She was just a really, really strong woman.
Georgia Stebbins was definitely a portrait of dedication.
- In 1881, her dedication paid off.
After seven years of serving in an unofficial capacity,
the U.S. Lighthouse Service
named her the official head keeper
of North Point Lighthouse.
- Ken Wardius: For a woman in that era,
it was not common at all
to have the official head keeper title.
Officially, she was head keeper for more than 20 years,
but with helping her father,
she was here for almost three decades.
- Mark Kuehn: It was amazing.
She retired before women had the right to vote.
- Georgia Stebbins retired in 1907
as the longest-serving lighthouse keeper
in North Point's history.
- Barb Wardius: She was a woman definitely before her time
working in a man's world,
running the entire show for all these years
as a lighthouse keeper.
[pensive piano, crickets chirping]
[slow, tranquil piano]
- Ken Wardius: It's important for people to know
the stories of the people
that ran these lighthouses, for many times, decades.
They had pride in their job.
They had pride in their families.
They had pride being a lighthouse keeper.
[wind blowing]
- Though beginning in the 1920s,
the winds of change
started to descend upon the role of the lighthouse keeper.
- Ken Wardius: In their wildest dreams, they had no idea
what the future might bring with technology.
- The innovation of electric-powered beacons,
followed by radar and radio communication,
would transform the state's maritime landscape forever.
- Neil Howk: Over the years, the advances of technology
allowed the lighthouse service to automate the lights
and did away with the need for having keepers.
- Ken Wardius: These advances in technology
really put the lighthouse keepers and the lighthouses
out of business.
The 1940s and '50s would have been the time
when most lighthouses were starting to be phased out.
?
- Often abandoned,
lighthouses quickly fell into disrepair.
- Ken Wardius: There are many lighthouses
that do not have a happy ending.
Some lighthouses were intentionally demolished,
never to return again.
The Racine Reef Lighthouse
was a unique light on the Great Lakes.
One of a kind.
Victorian style.
Gorgeous.
Gone.
- Today, very few lighthouses remain in operation.
Their sweeping beams replaced by flashing LED lights,
new cost-effective steel-framed towers,
and GPS navigation.
Often reduced to lonely landmarks,
lighthouses remain in various stages of ruin
in a test against time.
- Kevin Osgood: Preserving a 150-year-old lighthouse
has its challenges.
- Ken Wardius: Lighthouse preservation today
is a difficult job.
It takes tremendous resources --
people, time, money --
to refurbish a light that has not been in good repair
for, many times, decades.
[ripping tape off]
- In 2006, the sound of pounding hammers and buzzing saws
reverberated throughout
a tranquil island in Lake Superior.
Wind, weather, and time
had all taken their toll on Raspberry Island Lighthouse
in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.
- Neil Howk: Anybody who owns a house
knows just how much maintenance
goes into keeping a house livable.
We had to refinish the floors, fix all the plaster walls,
fix the windows, fix the doors, put a new roof on,
refurnish the kitchen.
- From painters to plasterers,
over 50 different types of tradespeople
plied their talents to this complex and exacting project.
A rehab a hundred years in the making.
- Bob Krumenaker: Raspberry's been gradually falling down.
The last time it had a major renovation, a lot of work done,
was 1906.
- A federal grant awarded to the National Park Service
assured that Raspberry Island Lighthouse would not go extinct.
- Bob Krumenaker: These places don't just survive on their own,
they require, in this case, legislation,
they require committed people,
they require a fair amount
of public money and private money --
and the dedication of hundreds of people.
- After two years of hard work and dedication...
- Tour Guide: Welcome to Raspberry Island!
- Raspberry Island Lighthouse was ready for its grand reopening.
- Bob Krumenaker: Okay, three, two, one, cut!
- Crowd: Yay! [cheers and applause]
- Bob Krumenaker: Raspberry in a lot of ways
is the showcase of the Apostle Islands.
It's not the biggest lighthouse.
It's not the most dramatic setting,
but it has a human side of it,
I think, that really resonates with people.
[uplifting synthesizer]
- Today, boatloads of visitors still ferry across Lake Superior
to explore Raspberry Island.
- Tour Guide: Welcome to Raspberry!
- The quaint charm of the lighthouse
drawing them in.
- Neil Howk: The white building, the red roof,
the blue sky, the blue water.
It's just a beautiful location.
- Ken Wardius: It's one of the best-restored lighthouses in the state.
It's gorgeous.
- Barb Wardius: You walk in the lighthouse.
It's like you've been transferred back in time
to the 1920s.
- The lighthouse is preserved and curated
to reflect the year 1924.
Chosen to honor Raspberry's keeper, Lee Benton,
who kept vivid notes
detailing his family's life at the lighthouse in the 1920s.
A roadmap outlining Raspberry's rich history.
- Neil Howk: We reestablished the dining room,
dining room chairs, dining room table, pictures for the walls,
the sewing machine that Lee Benton used to use.
- Tour Guide: This is the keeper of this light.
- Neil Howk: The fun part about taking people on tours
is a lot of the older folks,
it kind of reminds them of what they saw
when they went to visit their grandmother growing up.
Just reminds them of their youth.
- Even outside, the lighthouse grounds
are authentic to the past.
- Fred Schlichting: We have a vegetable garden.
We also have flower gardens.
They're in the exact same location
and are the exact same species
that were here back in the '20s.
- Barb Wardius: When Lee Benton and his family were there,
they would have taken great pride
in keeping the grounds and the home neat and tidy.
- Ken Wardius: They were working every single day
at some sort of maintenance, painting, cleaning.
- Their hard work would not be in vain.
The pride of place the Bentons imbued in Raspberry
is a legacy that continues today.
- Barb Wardius: Raspberry Island is a tribute
to the keepers that came before.
They were stewards of the light, the tower, the home.
So, I think they would be pleased to know that
it's been well taken care of, it's been restored,
and company is welcome 'cause there's something to see.
- Given a new purpose, a second life,
lighthouses themselves
have now become keepers of history.
- Ken Wardius: It's important to preserve
that maritime legacy and heritage.
It gives you a connection to the history, the people.
Really takes you back in time.
?
Ken Wardius: Lighthouses have a connection
to an era that is long gone,
but it's important to keep that history alive.
- Cathy Green: Whether it's individuals or the Park Service,
there are custodians of these lights
who continue to maintain them
for the historic resources they are.
- Neil Howk: Being able to see
this span of a century and a half
of the history of Wisconsin
all encompassed in the buildings.
- Barb Wardius: Those people are gone,
but the stories still remain.
- Stories of courage, duty, and family.
Lighthouses continue to inspire and capture the imagination.
- Mark Kuehn: I think what draws people to lighthouses
is their uniqueness and what they stood for.
They're monumental in a way.
- Bob Mackreth: A lighthouse is a guiding post.
A lighthouse is a beacon to show people the true path.
It's become ingrained in our culture.
- Brendon Baillod: Probably for a hundred years,
that maritime culture was a huge part of our state,
and it molded our character as a people.
- Cathy Green: It's really at the heart
of who we are here in Wisconsin.
- Pillars of strength.
Guardians of history.
The power and appeal of the Wisconsin lighthouse endures.
The spirit of the state
embodied in these iconic structures.
- Ken Wardius: They stand today still
as symbols of dedication, hard work.
They are a beacon of hope.
A beacon of security.
That's the essence of what a lighthouse is.
>> Hi, I'm James Steinbach.
I'm a volunteer here at PBS
Wextraordinary program, which I
because here you are at the end
oto us ask you for money, whichg
isn't just about the money we it
That's why we ask. But it's also
important thing you can do as a
PBS Wisconsin and to share that
about the show you watched, to
watch it. That's really whatd
It's about Wisconsin. We are
because you and I support PBSere
our dollars. We support it withh
our eyeballs. It's all anit with
iSo keep on doing those things..
money, keep on sendingng the
your kids and call us ating with
>> Well thank you James.
here at PBS Wisconsin. And if
yevening, thank you so much.s
thinking about doing, now's the
phones and talk to one of our
forget, when you do join us here
We have some fabulous thank you
these briefly for you right now.
at the $15 a month level, youer
items you can take a copy of one
eLighthouses. The fabulous shown
watching, so you can go through
copy of Wisconsin Lighthouses
the book by Ken and BarbCK OBAMA
back and get some more in-depth
lighthouses. And finally, for
yabsolutely fabulous tote and I
heavyweight canvas tote. But
is the artwork. That's on theut
by artist Sophie Blackall andone
illustration of Cana Island
side, and then on the other side
at night. So absolutelyhthouse
you're into lighthouses. This is
want to add to your collection.
these with a commitment at $25 a
it all starts with you going too
1-(800) 236-3636.aling
were watching, we heard thewe
this is a woman you saw thend
dedicated her life to keeping
What did it say? She stayedhere.
away from the lighthouse. Never
lighthouse. Is that thefrom the
worth knowing and telling these
about Wisconsin folks who youes
have done these extraordinary
that I really value about PBSgs
the celebrities and all theve
music. But the greatest thing is
our friends and the histories
to us something about whereeveal
where we're going as well,s
think that that's something that
Pand encourages you and engages
So give us, give us a call.e.
1>> Thanks, James. And when you
cWisconsin and become a member,S
Let me run through these gifts.
If you call and become a member
have your choice of one of three
ray copy of the program that Blu
fabulous show on Wisconsint
copy of the book that everything
Lighthouses by Ken and Barb
at that $15 a month level isice
Sophie Blackall. with art by
volunteers. They can run through
tinformation for you once again
go back one more time to talk to
So enjoy hearing from Ken
>> Hi, I'm Eric Greiling,
Wisconsin. We're back with Barb
probably the experts one
who are just inspired by thelks
kind of tips do you have forwhat
Wisconsin?ighthouses around
great time to go the Apostlea
Islands has one in the fall RIGHTS.
has one in the spring and in the
that are often open that are not
rest of the year. It's a good
lighthouses are not open to the
>> What kind of guidance do you
state?f the 48 lights in the
them are open to the public and
any kind of form of, you know,
want to go in and really look at
1800s. For example, there's ahe
friends, organizations involved
helpful to check their resources
>> Speaking of resources, in
kinds of additional resources
>> Oh my goodness, we were so
many organizations helping witho
historical societies. There's a
throughout the United States, as
Pepper. Com and LighthouseTerry
information of lighthousesth of
well as the entire country, and
lecture on our University Place
series, which folks can find
o>> We do. That's great. That's
g>> Well, thank you so much for
you for watching. I hope you've
If you want to make a gift tos.
sadvantage of some of our thank
yWisconsin Lighthouses. You can
1-800-236-3636.right now at
next show in just a moment but
to join us at PBS Wisconsin.me
thank you so very much. evening,
And remember, that support.
mfor us to continue to do shows
Don't forget, we have some
volunteers can run through all
the program we just watched,
We have a copy of the book
Weverything is based on.hat
beautiful tote bag with artwork
many ways to thank you when you
But again, it all evening.
sthat step and saying “yes”
I value. And so I'm going to
Thank you again.636.
[MUSIC]
?
- Announcer: Funding for Wisconsin Lighthouses
is provided by
the David L. and Rita E. Nelson Family Fund,
Dr. Henry Anderson and Shirley Levine,
the Ruth St. John and John Dunham West Foundation,
Jan Botz and Tom Lippert,
the Dwight and Linda Davis Foundation,
A.C.V. and Mary Elston Family,
Slater Family Fund,
Barb and Mike Madden,
Obrodovich Family Foundation,
The Great Lakes Foundation,
Ruder Ware,
the Fund for Lake Michigan,
Trust Point,
Wisconsin Coastal Management Program,
and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
donors to the Focus Fund for Wisconsin Programs,
and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.
SEGREGATION. CHANGED.
UNJUST SYSTEMS.
[APPLAUSE] LITTLE CHILDREN WILL ONE DAY
ABLE TO JOIN HANDS WITH LITTLE THANK GOD ALMIGHTY, WE ARE FREE
[LAUGHTER] [LAUGHTER]