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| Sturgeon Point Lighthouse | Seeing The Light |
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Historical Information
The station's fixed white Third and a Half Order lens, had previously been installed in the lighthouse at Oswego, New York until a characteristic change at that station rendered the lens obsolete. The lens had been carefully crated and shipped to Detroit, where it had been in storage for some time. The District Lampist arrived at Sturgeon Point, and after supervising the movement of the lens segments into the lantern, assembled the glass gem on a cast iron pedestal designed to place the "Sweet spot" of the lens at the required elevation in the lantern.
For reasons that we have as yet been unable to determine, Silverthorn was removed from his position as Keeper on August 19, 1873, and Noah T Farr selected as Acting Keeper of the station, appearing on payroll listings for the station for the first time on October 14. While Farr was promoted to full Keeper status in September 1875, his stay at Sturgeon Point was not long-lived, as he resigned from Lighthouse service on May 18 1876, with John Pasque appointed to replace him.
By virtue of its location on the flat, sandy beach on the Point, the light station was at the mercy of the action of the pounding waves, and by 1885 it was found that the shoreline had encroached to within forty feet of the tower foundation. Fearing that continued erosion might compromise the tower's integrity, the Detroit Depot dispatched a work crew to Sturgeon Point in 1886 to erect a system of shore protection. Radiating in front of the station, five timber cribs, each 350 feet in length and 8 feet wide were erected, and a log breakwater erected along the shoreline to prevent further undermining.
In the early days of the US lighthouse service, lard and sperm oil ware used for fueling the lamps. Relatively non-volatile, the oil was stored in special rooms in lighthouse cellars or in the dwelling itself. With a change to the significantly more volatile kerosene, a number of devastating dwelling fires were experienced, and beginning late in the 1880's the Lighthouse Board began building separate oil storage buildings at all US light stations. To this end, the metalwork for a sheet iron oil storage building was delivered at the Detroit depot in 1892, and loaded on the lighthouse tender AMARANTH late that year. A work crew arrived at the station the following spring, erected the oil storage structure and installed a below ground cistern by the dwelling. The downspouts from the dwelling roof were equipped with diverters, allowing runoff from the roof to flow directly into the cistern or to be diverted onto the ground. On completion of the installation, the pump at the sink in the dwelling kitchen was re-plumbed so as to draw its water from the cistern. In practice, the keepers kept the diverters closed so when rain came they would allow the rainwater to clean the roof for a period of time before opening the diverters to allow the water to enter the cistern. While to our twenty-first century sensibilities, the practice of drinking and cooking with water that had run from the roof sounds disgusting, it was a commonplace practice at light stations in the late 1800's.
With the Coast Guard's complete assumption of responsibility for the nation's aids to navigation in 1939, and the running of electrical power out to Sturgeon Point, the light was electrified through the installation of an incandescent bulb in the lens that same year. While Coast Guardsmen continued to tend the light for a few years thereafter, the station's importance waned, and it appears that the last crew left the Sturgeon Point station in 1941. No longer inhabited, the wooden structures of the Life Saving station deteriorated rapidly, and constituting an attractive nuisance, were subsequently destroyed. The lighthouse dwelling and tower were vandalized, however their sturdy brick construction limited the damages to windows, doors and interior walls and woodwork. The Alcona Historical Society obtained a lease to the lighthouse structures in 1982, and began an intensive three-year volunteer restoration project. The dwelling now serves as a maritime museum, and is open to the public seven days a week from Memorial Day to mid September. The grounds are open to the public all year.
Leaving most of the camera gear hidden in some scrub bushes, we gingerly made our way out into the water to capture the image seen in the upper right, the rocks making the way uncomfortable to our bare feet. We then toured the building, which has been completely restored in a very tasteful manner, giving the appearance that the keeper had just left some of the rooms ahead of us. Unfortunately, the tower was not open to the public, as it is still used as an active aid to navigation. Interestingly, we could see no remaining signs of the shore protection cribs and piers that were installed in the 1880's.
Returning to our truck, I realized that my glasses were
missing, and retracing our steps through the grounds, we found them
lying beneath the bush where we had left the photo equipment earlier. |
By July, an agreement had been reached
with local landowner John Sabin for the purchase 60.2 acres of land on
the Point, and title papers had been filed with the US District
Attorney. After plans and specifications for the station were drawn up
and approved on July 6 1868, arrangements were made to begin
construction on the opening of the 1869 navigation season.
Work began with the excavation and
erection of the tower foundation. Consisting of cut limestone blocks,
the foundation stood sixteen feet in diameter; seven feet six inched in
height, with the upper three feet exposed above grade. Atop this
foundation, a team of masons erected the cream city brick tower.
Standing sixteen feet in diameter at its base with its massive walls
four feet six inches in thickness, the walls tapered gracefully to a
diameter of ten feet at their uppermost, at which point they had
narrowed to a thickness of eighteen inches. Supported by ten gracefully
curved corbels, a copper-clad gallery was installed and encircled by an
iron safety railing.
Plans for the two-story dwelling called
for a kitchen, pantry and storeroom on the first floor, and a sitting
room and three bedrooms on the second floor. The dwelling was attached
to the tower by an eleven-foot long covered passageway to provide the
Keeper access to the tower without having to leave the warmth of the
building during inclement weather. A cast iron door at the tower end of
the passageway was installed to stem the spread of a possible fire
between the two structures.
By the end of July, the exterior of the
dwelling was complete, and the tower completed to the point that it was
ready to receive the lantern. The decagonal cast iron lantern was
erected at the center of the gallery, and covered with a tapered iron
roof with ventilator ball, standing seventy feet nine inches above grade
level. A lightning rod atop the ventilator ball was attached to a copper
cable, which lead down the outside of the brickwork to a ground stake
driven alongside the foundation. A spiral cast iron staircase with three
landings wound its way within the tower to a hatchway through the
keepers could gain access to the lantern.
Perley Silverthorn, a
fisherman and owner of property close to the new station who had been
living in the area since 1854 was appointed as the station's first
Keeper. However, after Silverthorn, his wife Caroline and their four
children failed to report for duty at the station until November 19, it
was deemed too late in the season to exhibit the Light. Thus, on January
2, 1870 an official Notice To Mariners was posted announcing that the
new Light would be lighted on the opening of navigation that spring.
Construction began on a Life-Saving
station at the south of the Lighthouse reservation soon after Pasque's
arrival. On completion of the new station, Perley Silverthorn again made
an appearance at Sturgeon Point, after managing to arrange his
appointment as Keeper of the new Life Saving station. While Silverthorne's
annual pay as keeper of the Life Saving Station was half of the $400 he
earned as a Light keeper, he likely found the new position a great deal
more challenging, as he was now responsible for seven cantankerous
surfmen and living the Service's motto of "You have to go out, but
you don't have to come back." John Pasque accepted a transfer to
the higher paying position of Acting Keeper at Stannard Rock in Lake
Superior on June 6, 1882, and Louis Cardy Sr. was transferred-in from
Skillagallee, where he had hired into lighthouse service as Second
Assistant just two months earlier.
For unspecified reasons, the station's
lens was damaged in 1887, and sent to the lighthouse Depot at Staten
Island for repair over the winter. Apparently damaged beyond repair, a
new lens was sent to Sturgeon Point, and placed into service on the
opening of the 1888 navigation season. While the cribs and breakwater
installed in 1885 were still in good condition, the decision was made to
augment them with two additional cribs to provide further protection.
With the lowest bid for the work submitted at $1,050.70, Eleventh
District Engineer Major Samuel M. Mansfield felt the bid was excessive,
and decided to have the work done under the supervision of one of the
District's construction foremen. After hiring the needed labor and
purchasing materials on the open market, the work was completed in 1888
for a total of $734.59, representing a thirty percent reduction from the
original low bid.
Rapid advancements in the application
of acetylene for lighthouse illumination at the turn of the twentieth
century, coupled with the invention of the sun valve, afforded the
Lighthouse Service the opportunity to experiment with automating a
number of Lights around the Great Lakes. In 1907, the Charity Island
Light was thus automated, and Sturgeon Point followed in 1913. With the
installation of the acetylene equipment, the characteristic of the light
was also changed from fixed white to flashing white every 3 seconds.
Keeper Cardy also passed away in 1913, making him the last full-time
Keeper to be assigned to the station. It is possible that the need to
find a Keeper to replace Cardy may have served as the District's primary
motivating factor in its automation of Sturgeon Point. With automation,
responsibility for maintenance of the light was turned over to the Coast
Guardsmen at the Life Saving station.
Reference
Sources