“The recipe for a Lake Superior lighthouse keeper was relatively simple: to a job requiring twenty-four hour a day dedication, add periods of intense hard labor, sprinkle in stretches of mind-numbing boredom, toss in some of the most desolate and inhospitable locations found anywhere and stir in a large portion of the most treacherous waters to be found anywhere on the face of the Earth.” Only the best-trained and most reliable persons were chosen as lighthouse keepers. Living on an isolated island with no assurance of frequent contact with the mainland asked a lot of the hardy residents who dedicated their lives to the safety of ships and passengers on the water. Who were these hardy and dedicated souls who gave up so much to ensure the safety of people they neither knew nor would ever meet? While the careful and consistent operation of the lighthouse was essential to Great Lakes shipping, without the devoted efforts of those assigned to keep the lighthouse in operation, it is certain the number of accidents and deaths would have increased each year. ![]() From its inception until 1943, when the lighthouse became fully automated, the island was populated by persons who committed themselves to making sure the lamp remained lit through the best and the worst of times. ![]() ![]() The construction of the lighthouse on Michigan Island in 1856 brought with it the need for a staff to maintain the landscape, lighthouse, the lamp, and associated outbuildings.
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