Washington Harbor

The end of week three is approaching. My replacement boat operator, Jill, has spent the past week at the Rock, scraping and painting and scraping and painting, along with Jeff and Scott. This was Scotts second week as crew leader. Reports are that he keeps everyone working hard, as evidenced by the fact that all objectives for each week were met, and the teams still had almost two full days to enjoy Barnum Island.  Crew Leader Scott, Cameraman Jeff, and Boat Captain Jill Jill is also a veteran, working her fifth year at the lighthouse, but also as the boat operator that originally brought the Rock Hopper out for its first season on the Island. She’s going to do the same this year, but in reverse - bringing it back to Grand Portage at the conclusion of next week. However, this will be her first time ferrying volunteers out to the lighthouse. Hopefully this relatively calm weather holds. It’s obvious she has experience working in the field on environmental projects for the EPA, so...

  “But there was another sound on the lake, the steam whistle of a ship in the fog. And you can imagine his shock, when he saw from his vantage point at the top of the Lighthouse, the mast of a steamship moving through the fog at full speed. Continuing to Sound the Foghorn, (Rock of Ages lighthouse keeper) Soldenski fully expected the ship to steer away, but the minutes passed, and its fate was sealed. He heard the sound of grinding metal, as the Steamship George M. Cox, passengers just sitting down for their evening meal, dragged herself over the reef. Distress whistles cut through the still air with a piercing chill. Quickly Soldenski prepared his own motor launch and headed out into the fog towards the wreck.” Each Saturday the Crew Leader fulfills a commitment to the Park Service on the part of ROALPS to present the history of the Rock of Ages Lighthouse and the Preservation Society to park goers as part of the Rangers Interpretive Talk series. In that presentation, reference...

Unlike the volunteers living and working at the rock, the boat operator does not work all day long in a sometimes cold and humid tower, traipse up and down up to nine flights of stairs or listen to wind howling, waves crashing. We also don’t catch the beautiful sunrises and sunsets from on high or have a 360-degree view of the night sky. The boat operator, when not operating the boat to transport folks to and from Windigo and the Rock, plays Uber, waiting for a service call from the light, if any. So the days those volunteers work at that lighthouse, we do odd jobs. Some defined - like painting the outside of the headquarters cabin - and lots of jobs we think up ourselves. Performing boat repairs like wiring or sealing small holes in the roof left by the Park Service when they removed equipment in the past, or re-anchoring hand holds. Cleaning this, organizing that. Sitting on the rocks, observing boat traffic, working the row boat to visit neighbors. You know…odd jobs. One of those ...

  The S.S. AMERICA departing Duluth in 1909 “Soon after clearing the dock in Washington Harbor, Captain Smith turned command of AMERICA over to First Mate John Wick, with Fred Nelson at the wheel, and retired to his cabin behind the bridge. Five minutes later AMERICA thudded over a reef, bumping four times and tearing a small hole through its single bottom below the engine room on the starboard side.”  Thom Holden, in S.S. America - A Diver’s Vision of the Past, Stephen B. Daniel and Thom Holden, February, 2001 Much has been written about the sinking of the steamer AMERICA, a 165 foot passenger and package freighter that served communities up and down the north and south shores of western Lake Superior for 26 years early in the 19th century. Lying in only five feet of water at her bow, she can still be seen by slowly passing through the North Gap, between Thompson Island and Isle Royale, at the southwest end of Isle Royale. That gap is just across the inlet to Washington Harbo...

There are two choices for getting to and from the best volunteer experience on the lakes. By passenger ferry boat, from Grand Portage, Minnesota, or by air from Grand Marais, Minnesota, or from Hancock, Michigan. The boat takes two hours to get to Windigo ranger station dock, and the float plane about 45 minutes from either Houghton or Grand Marais. The plane also saves you about 45 minutes of driving to Grand Portage. By air - faster. By sea - reliably.  The crew shift happens on Saturdays. Depending who is coming by what mode of transportation, the Rock Hopper shuttles the departing crew early or mid morning. On this day, we left the cabin around 7:15 a.m. so two of our crew, Josh and Heather, could catch an 8:00 a.m. flight back to Grand Marais. The remaining departing crew member, Kevyn, was scheduled to leave by air at 2:00 p.m., also back to Grand Marais.  The weather in Grand Marais didn’t look promising. Foreflight said 100 feet overcast with 1 mile of visibility....

      A former Cop, an all round building restoration Wizard, his able and experienced Assistant and spouse, and a Psychologist. We’re not sure what the psychologist was enlisted for - perhaps to evaluate the rest of us for competence and sanity. Actually, other than advising folks on how to evaluate and improve their organizations, his experience included maintenance, repair and restoration of apartments. Like team Week Four, this group melded quickly, with humor and enthusiasm. For three of them it was a repeat (multiple) tour. For one, like me, it was all new. The Cop was the leader, who portrayed himself as a drill sergeant, but wasn’t. Having retired several years ago, he was very happy to be cooped up in a conical building with three others tiling and tearing out old wood, and following the lead of the Wizard. Certainly less complicated than life on the streets in blue. And it was his fourth year of doing so. The psychologist claimed he was there just to provide fee...

Everything indicates sturdy precaution against mighty winds and great waters, for Lake Superior is of almost oceanic caliber and might, and the majority of the north shore fishers are norsemen, driven by homesickness and hereditary industrial instincts to seek in the interior of the New World, conditions of labor, climate, and scenery as nearly like those of the fatherland as may be found so far away.” Caryl B. Storrs, Minneapolis Tribune, 1916 Painting by Howard Sivertson “So ya came all da way from Corny, huh,” said Captain Stan Sivertson, the large man leaning over the bridge of the large passenger boat Winona, which had just tied up across from our small sailboat at the Grand Portage National Monument dock. I was a kid then. What I remember of Stan is huge hands and big arms (no doubt the result of hauling in thousands of nets and tens of thousands of pounds of fish) - just a big guy. Yet, he didn’t fit the mold of what I imagined an old salt of a sea captain to be. Instead, he...

The mission of the Rock of Ages Lighthouse Preservation Society, in part, is t o establish, support and promote efforts in the preservation and restoration of the Rock of Ages Lighthouse. I had a chance to briefly tour the inside of the object of that mission recently.  My normal visit to the Rock consists of getting to the dock (not incidental), holding on to the dock while people and things are loaded/off-loaded, and sometimes hanging around when conditions are perfect and there's someone available to monitor and fend off the Hopper. This is the view from the back of the Hopper looking up at the lighthouse. The stairway up to the lighthouse is not incidental, either: One this day conditions were perfect. What I found when I toured the lighthouse was: Lots of work done. Lots of work to yet be done. A very wet and humid environment, coming from being closed up those many intervening months. Spectacular views. Rustic living conditions for the volunteer crew. Remnants of h...

Barnum Island  “The fishing families were represented by first generation Scandinavian immigrants who came to America in search of a dream. The cottage families came mostly from the “new money” well to do, who earned their wealth in the grain, and mining industries. These two groups with different backgrounds of heritage, language and wealth learned the lessons of dependency  generated by the isolated, harsh and unpredictable environs of Lake Superior and Isle Royale.” David C. Barnum in his introductory letter to the Isle Royale Original Families Association, 2002 Since the boat operator for the Rock of Ages Lighthouse Preservation Society spends most of his or her time standing by on Barnum Island, and since I was aware of the Barnum and Sivertson families in visits as a child, I looked forward to learning more about Washington Harbor history.  Beyond the Rock of Ages lighthouse and its surrounding hazards of reefs and rocks lie several welcome islands at the mouth ...