The Sand Island lighthouse consists of an octagonal tower and attached two-story dwelling, all built from brown sandstone cut from the promontory on which it stands. Visitors to the lighthouse today can still see marks on the rock ledges in front of the lighthouse that were made in the process of quarrying. The lighthouse was built to a standard Gothic Revival design already used at several light stations in Wisconsin and Michigan. The lighthouses previously built at McGulpin Point, Eagle Harbor, and White River, along with the St. Clair Flats Canal beacon (no longer standing), follow the same plan, while the Chambers Island lighthouse is a “mirror twin” to the Sand Island structure, with the same design reversed right to left. Unlike these others, which were made out of brick, the Sand Island lighthouse is constructed of brown sandstone, quarried from the ledge where it sits.[4] Subsequently, additional stone excavated at Sand Island was transported to Passage Island near Isle Royale where it was used to construct an additional mirror twin lighthouse.[5]
Evidence of quarrying on the ledge in front of the Sand Island Lighthouse, seen from the tower.
History
In 1871, the Lighthouse Board asked Congress for funds to construct a lighthouse on Sand Island to guide ships toward the Raspberry Island Light and mark the western edge of the Apostle Islands, noting,
Incoming from Duluth the Raspberry Island light is not visible until abreast of Sand Island, and there being no coast light in this distance of 80 miles, causes much distress and danger to the increasing commerce of the west end of Lake Superior. An appropriation of $18,000 for the building of this station is recommended. [6]
However, Congress rejected this and several subsequent requests until finally appropriating funds for the lighthouse in 1880. Construction began on June 6, 1881, when a crew under the direction of Superintendent Lewis Lederle began clearing the heavily wooded area, excavating a site for the foundation and basement, and cutting stone from the shoreline ledges for use as building material. The structure, comprising a 26-by-30-foot (7.9 by 9.1 m) two-story dwelling, a 44-foot-tall (13 m) tower, and a small lean-to summer kitchen at the rear, would be finished by the end of that summer. As the lighthouse neared completion, a fixed white Fourth Order Fresnel lens was placed in the lantern room, and the light was displayed for the first time on September 25, 1881. [7] Charles Lederle, nephew of the construction superintendent, was appointed acting Keeper, and was confirmed as permanent Keeper the following year. [8]
Lederle’s tenure at the lighthouse was distinguished by his heroic rescue of the crew of the Canadian steamer Prussia, which caught fire about ten miles off Sand Island on Sept. 12, 1885. Rowing the light station boat into heavy seas, Lederle was able to reach one of the ship’s lifeboats which was being blown toward the open lake by the gale. Transferring all seven men aboard to his own boat, Lederle brought them safely back to land. The Prussia’s captain and officers later sent Lederle a letter of thanks stating that had he not come to their aid, “ ...the yawl boat and crew… would most likely have been lost as there was a heavy sea running against the southeast and they were unable to pull up against it [9])
Another noteworthy event took place on July 15, 1884, when Lederle’s wife Marguerite gave birth at the lighthouse. According to the local newspaper, “Lightkeeper Lederle of Sand Island rejoices over the arrival of an assistant lightkeeper who arrived Tuesday evening."[10]
When Lederle’s children reached school age, he arranged for a transfer to the position of Keeper at the Two Harbors Light in Minnesota. Emmanuel Luick, the first assistant at the Outer Island Lighthouse, at the opposite end of the archipelago, was offered the position of Keeper at the Sand Island Light, and arrived there on April 1, 1892, to put the lighthouse in operation for the season.
Luick was single during his first few years at the lighthouse, but in February 1896, he married 16-year-old Ella Richardson in Providence, Rhode Island.[11] From then on, in a departure from usual practice, Ella would often fill in the day’s entries in the light station’s logbook instead of her husband. In contrast to the terse accounts of weather and station upkeep typically found in these journals, Ella treated the logbook more like a personal diary, detailing each days’ events in her life. Her log entries provide a valuable source of information on daily life at the light station during that era.[12]
These daily journals also show that Ella was frequently left on her own for several days at a time to tend the light while her husband went to the mainland to get mail and supplies. They also detail an episode in 1901 when Emmanuel Luick fell ill and was incapacitated for three weeks at the end of the shipping season. During that time, 22-year-old Ella took on the responsibilities both of caring for her sick husband during the day and tending the lamp through the night, then finally completing the numerous chores involved in closing the lighthouse for the winter. [13]
Perhaps in response to this episode, the Lighthouse Service authorized an Assistant Keeper position at the start of the following year. Luick went through fifteen assistants in his subsequent years at the lighthouse, and on two occasions, Ella was appointed as acting Assistant Keeper during the interim period after one of them left, briefly receiving a salary for her work until a man could be found for the job.[14]
Ella Luick would not remain at the lighthouse through her husband’s entire tenure as Keeper. On May 9, 1905, she boarded a steamer for nearby Bayfield and never returned to the island or her husband again. The couple’s divorce became final in 1906, and census records show that Ella returned to her native Rhode Island where she embarked on a new career in nursing, and eventually remarried.[15]
In 1911, Luick, now 44, married 23-year-old Harriet Oramill Buck, a native of Iron River, Wisconsin. Oramill, as she was known, eventually gave birth to four children, including one who was born at the lighthouse, but only two of her children survived infancy. Oramill’s life on the island was very different from that of Luick’s first wife: with an Assistant Keeper already assigned to the station, she was never asked to tend the lamp, nor left at the station alone. [16] Over the course of his time as Keeper, Luick went through fifteen assistants, with the longest tenure being only two years. In 1921, the Lighthouse Service automated the tower, and Luick was reassigned to the Grand Marais Light in Minnesota.[17]
In 1933, the automated light was dismantled, and the Lighthouse Service constructed a 50-foot (15m) steel tower in front of the lighthouse. The automated light was placed on top until 1985, when the light was placed back in the lighthouse and the tower was removed.[18]
Getting there
National Park Service volunteers provide guided tours of the lighthouse during the summer season, usually between the hours of 12:00 and 4:00 pm. There is no scheduled boat service to Sand Island, but located two miles from the mainland, the island is a popular destination for boaters and kayakers who are prepared for the challenges of Lake Superior. The nearest dock on the island is at the East Bay campground, about two miles away by trail.[19]
↑ Draft Historic Structure Report/Cultural Landscape Report, Sand Island Light Station US National Park Service, Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, 2011.
↑ Sand Island Light Station Cultural Landscape Report - Historic Structure Report, prepared for the National Park Service by Andrews & Anderson Architects PC, Golden, Colorado, 2011; “St. Clair Flats Canal Upper Lighthouse” https://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=847.
Havighurst, Walter (1943) The Long Ships Passing: The Story of the Great Lakes, Macmillan Publishers.
Oleszewski, Wes, Great Lakes Lighthouses, American and Canadian: A Comprehensive Directory/Guide to Great Lakes Lighthouses, (Gwinn, Michigan: Avery Color Studios, Inc., 1998) ISBN0-932212-98-0.
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