The predicted snow overnight has me dreaming of summer on a lake that isn’t frozen. The historic lighthouse on Raspberry Island sees visitors during the summer by boats.
Visiting a Lighthouse
Picture of the Day for November 23, 2018
Today I was trying to finish up some outside work, like pruning the raspberry canes, since it was above freezing, but a trip to Raspberry Island in the summer to see the lighthouse would have been more exciting.
Raspberry Island
Picture of the Day for September 14, 2018
A boat trip on Lake Superior would have felt nice today with the cooler temperatures coming from the water surface to provide some relief from the warm day. Raspberry Island Lighthouse was ready for use by the end of 1862 but when more lighthouse assistant keepers were stationed on the island, the Lighthouse Service remodeled the building from the ground up in 1906 using parts of the older structure.
Raspberry Island Lighthouse
Picture of the Day for July 20, 2014
The light from the Raspberry Island Lighthouse tower’s fifth-order, fixed lens was exhibited for the first time on July 20, 1863, shining its beacon on the Lake Superior waters in the Apostle Islands.
When built in 1862, Raspberry Island Lighthouse was a two-story, rectangular dwelling with a square tower rising from the center of its pitched roof for the single lighthouse keeper and his family.
As the workload increased with the addition of a fog horn, the old lighthouse was greatly expanded in 1906 and converted into a double dwelling with room for two families and an unmarried assistant. The head keeper occupied the first and second stories on the south side of the lighthouse, what was essentially a three-bedroom dwelling, while the first assistant had the ground floor on the north side and the second assistant three rooms in the upper floor.
Raspberry Island Lighthouse
Picture of the Day for October 4, 2013
In the middle of the Civil War, Raspberry Island Lighthouse’s fifth-order, fixed lens was exhibited for the first time on July 20, 1863 as part of the lighthouse system guiding sailors in the Apostle Islands area.
Isolated on an island may seem appealing to some but it also presented some hazards too. Light-keeper Francis Jacker was almost dismissed when his light was out on September 13, 1887. A westerly gale forced Keeper Jacker to move the station’s sailboat from the dock to a safe anchorage near the eastern end of the island. He was unable to haul the boat up to the boathouse due to the the dilapidated condition of the boatways and in the darkness, Keeper Jacker sailed beyond the end of the island.
Unable to fight the gale back, he drifted over to Oak Island, where his boat was heavily damaged. On the desolate island without food or fire and only scantily dressed, Jacker finally was able to hail a passing Native American after nearly three days.
The light was out the night of the 13th, but fortunately Keeper Jacker’s family had arrived for a visit on the 14th and displayed the light for two nights until his return. Lighthouse officials reinstated the position of assistant keeper, which had been abolished at Raspberry Island in 1882, after this incident and Keeper Francis Jacker was not discharged due to the credible reason for the outage.
Raspberry Island Lighthouse
