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The lantern room that was originally installed in 1891 on the top of the first Devils Island Lighthouse in Wisconsin’s Apostle Islands was recently found to be the original lantern room that is still in use at the once endangered Crisp Point Lighthouse near Paradise in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
The discovery was made during recent renovations at the lighthouse and confirmed in documents that were recently uncovered by Rick Brockway, president of the Crisp Point Historical Society, from the collection of research documents gathered by late Don Ross, the former president of the group.
This past summer, while trying to discover how water was getting into the lantern room, the steel panels from inside the lantern room were uncovered for restoration. It was then discovered, after they dried out, that the outer panels were clearly stenciled with the words “Devils Isld,” and numbers on each panel so that the disassembled panels could apparently be correctly matched up after they were removed from the Devils Island Lighthouse to be reassembled elsewhere.
The 1891 Devils Island Lighthouse wooden frame tower, which was first lighted on September 30th of that year, was meant to be a temporary tower, but it stood in service for ten years until the current Devils Island Lighthouse tower was completed and first lighted on September 20, 1901.
However, most likely the Devils Island 1891 lantern room was originally scheduled to be put into storage for use at a location to be determined later and not necessarily at Crisp Point, especially since the lantern sat somewhere, unused for nearly three years. With money for the building of the entire Crisp Point Lighthouse Station in short supply, a letter from the Lansing H. Beach, the Light-House Engineer to the Light-House Board, confirms that the lantern room as well as the Fresnel lens from the 1891 Devils Island Light structure in Wisconsin would both be installed at Crisp Point Lighthouse The letter read in part, “I have to acknowledge the receipt of the Board’s letter of June 3, 1903, stating that the Board had decided that the characteristic of the light at Crisp Point, Mich., would be fixed white with flashing red, and would respectfully invite the Board’s attention to my letter of Jan. 12, 1903 transmitting plans and estimate of cost from the construction of the station, in which it was stated that it was proposed to utilize a lantern and lens from stock in hand. This lantern and lens were the ones formerly in use at Devils Islands, and the lens is for a fixed light. To provide a light flashing red as stated in the Board’s letter, will require at least revolving flash panels, clock-work, new pedestal, and a slight additional cost in the construction of the tower over that proposed. As will be seen by reference to my letter of March 17, 1903, it is impossible with the funds at hand, to build all the necessary or desirable adjuncts to the station, and some are necessarily omitted, to be built with funds later. “
The Light-House Engineer later also requested, in order to save money, that the crew of the Crisp Point Life-Saving Station be used to help unload supplies and assist in the building of the light station.
Crisp Point Lighthouse was deactivated in 1947. However, the whereabouts of the Crisp Point lens remained a mystery, especially since documents could not be located as to what happened to it. At the summer 2002 Crisp Point Lighthouse Conference a former Coast Guardsman, who was in charge of the demolition of the buildings at Crisp Point Light Station, said that the 4th order lens was still in the tower when his crew left. About that same time, Don Ross came across a photo of pieces of a lens that someone had given to him and one piece of glass. The photo of the pieces of glass was published in the group’s June 2003 newsletter.
After Don Ross passed away, a large container with a number of lens pieces that had been in Don’s possession was passed on to Rick Brockway. Other people later confirmed that these lens pieces were found in the sand in the area of the lighthouse when the group first started their efforts to save the lighthouse from topping into Lake Superior. They were saved and packed away and forgotten by most.
In 2006, after some lengthy negotiations, primarily by Crisp Point member Inge Spaulding, the group acquired, on a long term loan, a 4th order Fresnel lens from the Museum Ship Valley Camp in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan to be used for display at Crisp Point Lighthouse. The folks at the Museum Ship Valley Camp had no idea where the lens, which had been in their possession for years, had come from. But, the lens was in bad condition and it was missing some sections.
In the autumn of 2012 the Crisp Point Historical Society sent the lens to Kurt Fosburg, a certified lampist, to be restored. They also sent Fosburg the various pieces of the lens that had originally been found in the sand at Crisp Point. Fosburg was able to use those pieces in almost fully restoring the lens, which makes it highly probable that this lens is the original 4th order Fresnel lens that was installed in Crisp Point Lighthouse in 1904 and was previously used in the 1891 Devils Island Lighthouse in Wisconsin.
Interestingly this 4th lens was made in 1890 by Sautter, Lemonnier & Co. and may be one of the last lighthouse lenses produced under the direction of Paul Lemonnier, who retired and left the company that year when his shares were purchased by Henri Harlé and the firm was renamed Sautter & Harlé.
This story appeared in the
Jan/Feb 2014 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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