God is light, ancient script says, and in Him is no darkness at all. It might be that our light was never build on the Light that never fails. Perhaps we only wanted light for ourselves. We became so routine and used to our role in life that we left the light untended, without sufficient fuel, until it was too dim to make a difference. I wonder if part of the problem might be that we never realized that our light was fading. What does this imply about faith? It’s possible that those (us?) who were once lightbringers are now shadows of what we once were. I know of people who were once lights who, for whatever reason, no longer shed the light they once did. And should his light go out … I don’t want to torture this metaphor, but you see where I’m going. He is steward over a light that lives literally depend upon. He must, however, look to the needs of those he may never meet. My understanding is that the life of a lighthouse keeper and his family is a solitary one. That’s as close as I’d ever come to being an actual lighthouse keeper. The light has long since been decommissioned, but you live in the tender’s house, manage the gift shop, answer questions, do maintenance, all that. Michigan has more lighthouses than any other state, but what sets this one apart, at least among the lighthouses around Traverse City, is that it has a keeper program, during which you sign up for a time slot and actually serve as a keeper. This lighthouse was built in 1870, and warned seamen of the dangerous shoals extended out into Grand Traverse Bay.
LIFE AS A LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER TV
Actually, we came away feeling that Michigan was a state we could easily vacation in … the Pure Michigan commercials on TV are a great representation of the beauties of our neighbors to the north (and for this Southern boy, I’m glad to be open-minded enough to consider life above the Mason-Dixon Line as actually liveable!) We visited the Mission Point Lighthouse during the wedding. Teresa and I found Traverse City to be absolutely delightful, a quaint storybook town. Kathleen’s home is Traverse City, Michigan, and that’s where the wedding took place.
Some years back, male child Jeremy married the love of his life, Kathleen Fleet. A lighthouse lends itself to all sorts of symbolism.) There is the practicality of the light as a warning of dangerous shoals and reefs, but also as a beacon to come home to safe harbor. I am intrigued by lighthouses (and if you look at the icon at the bottom of this blog, you might’ve suspected as much. Public interest in Split Rock continued to grow.If you’re on a mobile phone, click here to subscribe. In 1935 a new access road to the station was built, and in 1942 a gift shop opened. To handle the growing demand, visiting hours were established and a safety fence was erected along the cliff's edge.
The Lighthouse Service required the keepers to escort any visitor to the lighthouse. This gave Split Rock Lighthouse five times as many visitors as any other station in the service. By 1938, Keeper Franklin Covell estimated nearly 100,000 visitors to the site. By the early 1930s about 5,000 people visited the lighthouse each year. The keepers and their families weren’t the only ones to take advantage of the new roadway. By the 1930s, the keepers and their families lived at the station year-round, the children boarding buses for school in Beaver Bay and Two Harbors and supplies arriving more steadily by road. The Lake Superior International Highway was built near the lighthouse in 1924, finally making the lighthouse accessible by land. An extended spur of the rail system allowed the keepers to push the carload of supplies right to the oil house and storage barns where the supplies were stored until used. The elevated railway, completed in 1916, hauled supplies on a flat car up the hill from the dock where the tenders were moored. In 1915, the Lighthouse Service began construction on a tramway at the southern end of the station. They needed a new method that didn't require calm weather, a rarity on stormy Lake Superior. However, delays due to wind and waves made it hard for the tenders to use the hoist and derrick system without causing further delay to their schedules. Lighthouse Service had a long history of supplying remote stations.Īt Split Rock, they adapted the steam-powered hoist and derrick used for raising construction supplies and instead used it to hoist freight from the tenders, or supply boats. Although the station was one of the most isolated on the Great Lakes when it was commissioned in 1910, the U.S.
0 kommentar(er)
