The colorful leaves are hard to see after the sun goes down, but the clouds add some colors for a brief moment before darkness descends until morning.
Moments Before Darkness
Picture of the Day for October 10, 2015
The Great Chicago Fire, burned from October 8 to October 10, 1871, and destroyed thousands of buildings, killed an estimated 300 people but a more deadly fire also happened on that October 8 further north in Wisconsin. The town of Peshtigo was wiped out by a firestorm with a wall of flames a mile high and five miles wide traveling at 100 miles per hours which was hot enough to turn sand into glass. With over 1,875 square miles consumed by the fire that caused the most deaths by fire in United States history, with estimated deaths of around 1,500 people, possibly as many as 2,500. An accurate death toll has never been determined because local records were destroyed in the fire.
Very little survived the fire, but Father Pernin grabbed the tabernacle from St. Mary’s Church and pushed the wagon into the river as he spent six hours in the water. The next day the priest didn’t know what became of the tabernacle until a parishioner, who also survived, told him to follow him.
“I hurried with him to that part of the river into which I had pushed as far as possible my wagon containing the wooden tabernacle,” Father Pernin wrote. “This wagon had been blown over on its side by the storm; whilst the tabernacle itself had been caught up by the wind and cast on one of the logs floating on the water. Everything in the immediate vicinity of this spot had been blackened or charred by the flames; logs, trunks, boxes, nothing had escaped, yet, strange to say, there rose the tabernacle, intact in its snowy whiteness, presenting a wonderful contrast to the grimy blackness of the surrounding objects.” Father Pernin left the tabernacle where it had been found for two days, “so as to give all an opportunity of seeing it . . . The Catholics generally regarded the fact as a miracle, and it was spoken of near and far, attracting great attention.”
Peshtigo Fire Survivor
Picture of the Day for October 9, 2015
As the autumn colors begin showing on the trees, the flowers are slowly disappearing with only a few varieties still blooming in the shortening days but they add some contrasting colors from asters and clematis. And with over 300 species of clematis, there is a range color displayed like these pink ones.
Displaying a Bit of Pink
Picture of the Day for October 8, 2015
In the fall, this fifty foot waterfall is a gentle curtain of water compared to springtime or the icy column in the winter time.
Munising Falls
Picture of the Day for October 7, 2015
On a sunny October day, a flock of sheep are grazing on the green grass before it freezes as the colors of fall marches towards the white of winter. And like many families, there is a ‘black sheep’ in the flock which sticks out among the rest of the group. Black sheep in the past were used as marker sheep, often one black per hundred head, to give the sheepherder a quick estimate count if all the sheep were present and not lost.
Black Sheep in the Flock
Picture of the Day for October 6, 2015
Landscapes can change in a very short distance and it is interesting how one beach may be all sand and around the bend it is solid rocks or small rocks. And if there are small rocks on the beach, there has to be at least one “pretty” rock that hops into your pocket although sometime that pretty one may be elusive when a wave takes it out of your reach.
A Pretty Rock
Picture of the Day for October 5, 2015
This old lighthouse seems a tad bit weathered and worn out. The Grand Island East Channel Lighthouse has seen a lot of seasons even though its service years were few. The ‘schoolhouse’ style lighthouse was built out of wood instead of brick or stone, but stood proudly in it white coat of paint and first displayed its light in 1868. But being close to the water edge was a maintenance nightmare and the foundation was in constant danger of being undermined. The tower was stuck by lightning in 1891 and the lighthouse was becoming expensive to maintain.
The poor old lighthouse was last lit in 1908 after two range lights were constructed in the town of Munising since the old lighthouse wasn’t visible to Lake Superior traffic with its location at the southernmost point of the island and the light remained completely invisible to vessels entering through the eastern passage until they were almost abreast of the light itself.
A hundred years ago, the lighthouse was sold to a consortium of 20 individuals. The white paint soon turned to a driftwood gray, but thousands of tourists taking the Picture Rocks cruises, photograph this lighthouse which is no longer in it glory days but still has it own unique charm.
Faded From Glory Days
Picture of the Day for October 4, 2015
Every sunset and sunrise is different, although some days they may be very similar without much variation or color, but then other days the light reflects off the clouds to give an red, orange, purple or pink glow to the sky.
A Pink Reflection
Picture of the Day for October 3, 2015
In a window near the top of a old building, a pigeon watches the two-legged critters invading its sanctuary on the coast of Lake Superior.
The Watch Bird
Picture of the Day for October 2, 2015
The Seul Choix Point Lighthouse took its name from the point called Seul Choix Point, named by French sailors, who found that the protected bay formed by the point was their “only choice” for shelter along that stretch of northern Lake Michigan’s shoreline along the 75 mile stretch, from the Straits of Mackinac to today’s Manistique. The French pronunciation is “Sel-Shwa”, while locally the name is spoken as “Sis-Shwa”.
Seul Choix’s lighthouse, consisting of a stone foundation, brick tower, and metal lantern room, measures seventy-eight feet nine inches from base to ventilator ball, and its third-order Fresnel lens was placed in operation on August 15, 1895 exhibited a fixed red light, varied by a red flash every fifteen seconds, and its beacon was visible for thirteen miles. (A temporary fourth-order light was placed in service on April 15, 1892. The Fresnel lens was replaced in 1972 with a modern rotating airport-type Aerobeacon and the station was automated and abandoned in 1973.)
The lighthouse and keeper house are open to the public, operated by the Gulliver Historical Society, including being able to climb the tower which gives you a good view of the huge limestone shoal which reaches out and cuts through the clear water to almost 100 yards from shore. The shoal plus the land mass of the point itself, which slopes down into the waters of Lake Michigan for nearly three miles, adds up to a very dangerous area for navigators.
Seul Choix Point Lighthouse
A short video showing a 360 view from top of the lighthouse. Some window reflections are in the pictures since I wasn’t sitting up on top of the red ball above the light but was in the lantern room.