MidwestWeekends.com - Lighthouses

Cruising to a lighthouse

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Many people turn lighthouses into a hobby. In summer, they travel from beacon to beacon, photographing them and collecting stamps in their U.S. Lighthouse Society passports until they've got 60 and can move onto the next passport and, eventually, the "Platinum Circle'' patch awarded after 240 lighthouse visits.

Living in a lighthouse

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Around the Great Lakes, love for lighthouses is unlimited. Often called "America's castles,'' lighthouses are symbols of a more adventurous era, and tourists find them irresistible.

"They work their way up the coast seeing all the lighthouses,'' says Ronda Werner of Michigan's Tawas Point Light. "They bring their lighthouse book and want stamps in their passports, and they're all decked out in their lighthouse shirts and their little lighthouse earrings. It's wonderful so many people have this much passion for our lighthouses.''

Circling Superior

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Of all the Great Lakes, Superior is the drama queen.

It's unpredictable and petulant, throwing tantrums that threaten to swallow any boat that ventures onto its waters. In 1975, it famously swallowed one that itself was called Queen of the Lakes.

Superior loves irony, it seems. The first recorded wreck, in 1816, was called the Invincible.

Dwelling in the past

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0600

When Lake Superior lighthouses had keepers, there was nothing romantic about life there.

The posts were cold, lonely and meagerly furnished on the government dime. The work was physically taxing and repetitive. Through the long nights, keepers had to get up every two hours to wind the mechanism that rotated the lens.

Kayaking the Rossport Islands

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0600

At the top of Lake Superior, there's a dramatic coast lined with rugged cliffs, cobblestone beaches and islands.

It's the home of Parks Canada's new Lake Superior National Marine Conservation Area, created last October to protect the waters between the Sibley Peninsula, east of Thunder Bay, and the Slate Islands, off Terrace Bay.

Lighthouses of the Apostles

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0600

A century ago, in the Apostle Islands, only seven puny shafts of light stood between sailors and catastrophe.

Lake Superior has been called the most dangerous body of water in the world, an inland teakettle in which any tempest can be deadly. Storms gather fury over 200 miles of open water, and heaven help mariners caught between wind and rock � heaven, or a lighthouse keeper with sharp eyes.

The Lighthouse Express

Sun, 22 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0500

Once, passenger trains crisscrossed the state, and lighthouses guided sailors on the Great Lakes.

Trains and lighthouses are beloved relics now, symbols of a simpler past. In the iPod era, they seem antique, like Grandpa's buggy or Grandma's butter churn.

But don't relegate them to history's dustbin just yet.

5 great/Wisconsin lighthouses

Sun, 28 May 2006 00:00:00 -0500

Lucky Wisconsin � it has not one Great Lake, but two.

That means it's got lots of scenic coastline, lined with cliffs, beaches, islands � and lighthouses.

To many, lighthouses are irresistibly romantic. In a harsh environment, they were outposts of civilization, and their keepers often became heroes, saving the lives of shipwrecked sailors.