Hey, hey, hey, it's Lighthouse Lowdown. Hi, everybody.
I'm Emily. I'm Vince. And this is the Lighthouse
Lowdown. It kind of started before I was ready.
I mean, I'm ready, but... Yeah, I didn't mean
to put my singing... the lighthouse thing in
there, but you know, it's a good start. I was
like, well, it's better now than, than later.
So there's some chaotic energy. The university
of Kansas is about to play a football game, which
we will not watch, but my sister and her boyfriend
are coming over. Yeah. So if you're here in the
background, Jalen Daniels, then that's the quarterback.
Oh, quarterback. Oh, this is football. I was
like, basketball? A quarterback? Sports are not
my forte. But lighthouses are. And I have a history
movie today, which is more to say than the last
episode. Totally did it. Hold on one second.
I'm about to turn those buttons off forever.
I'm going to make all the right ones the intro
and all the left ones the outro. No? Bad, no.
What's we got? What's the buoy? It is the annual
reports from the Lighthouse Board. Oh. So we
talk about these a lot, and a lot of the times
they reference the 1852 one, which was the very
first annual report from the Lighthouse Board.
So it started from the Treasury Department. Obviously,
I need to be facing you directly for my voice
to come through. You can move the microphone.
No, because when I move it, everything changes.
Yeah. Well, if we need a sponsor for microphones,
headsets, audio equipment. Can you imagine if
we just had like a little clip on one? Yeah.
Are those okay, you think? They're okay. They're
not as good. Because this is just, it's also
just, yeah, our temporary setup. Anyway, annual
reports were done from 1852 to 1935. So pretty
significant portion of the lighthouse history
here. The cover page of the very first one. Cool.
And a snip of like, I don't know, it was like
1910 or something. A snip from the middle just
so you can see what it looks like. Group number
three. But it started with the Treasury Department
and from 1852 to 18... 76, so a little over 20
years, the Secretary of the Treasury's annual
finance report included a section on lighthouses.
So the annual report was not its own thing. It
was included in the Treasury's finance report.
It just had its own little chapter. Because there's
so much money being spent on lighthouses. Yeah.
They're like, this is a big one. The first report,
so the one that they published in 1852, had...
all the laws and official instructions for lighthouse
keepers and workers so big one that yeah this
thing was huge it had all of the instructions
for like what keepers would do i mean just everything
and it also had all of the laws for the lighthouse
board and so like all basically everything so
that one was kind of the original um I don't
want to make a bad analogy. It was the original
written longest list of information for the United
States Lighthouse. Yeah. Establishment at the
time? Board, I think, started. And it was published
with the treasurer's annual documents. Yes. And
so this one is really lengthy. When I looked
at the other years, they're about 100 pages.
And this first report was 850 pages. So it was
like extremely long and it had like questions
that inspectors should ask when looking at lighthouses.
So it had stuff for every position to do with
lighthouses and summaries of all the existing
lighthouses. So all the ones they had in 1852,
they wrote like a page on each one of how it
was built and like all kinds of stuff like that.
Relevant letters that were sent back and forth.
like a compilation of everything Lighthouse related
that they had so far. The board just like put
it in that document because it was going to be
published. Right. Here we are a couple years
later still referencing it. It's there forever.
I would kill for a physical copy of that first
1852 one. A physical copy? Like a printed modern
copy? Yeah, like a printed modern copy. Not like
the original. That, the original I would never
touch. I think that's, it wouldn't be any fun.
I don't think you'd have to kill for it. I think
you could probably find it and buy it. I tried.
Print it. No? No. It's, I could print it off
of Google if I wanted to sacrifice, you know,
400 something pages front and back. Vince is
enjoying his coffee. It's the first time having,
what did you say? First time having a normal
coffee in a long time. Yeah, just black. Well,
it's not black, but. it was black and then we
added drip coffee in a long time usually i have
espresso drinks yeah look out for me over here
bocat is now on the table everything is chaos
don't worry he's moving on welcome to the show
welcome to the show that's how we live so each
report so they did this every year and each report
was a detailed summary from the chairman of the
board of improvements being made and new lighthouses
being built so the chairman of the lighthouse
board would write these reports based on what
he received from like superintendents and stuff.
Okay. So the board's reports included the annual
reports of the superintendents of each lighthouse
district, which usually contained an overview
of like the conditions of all the lighthouses
in each district improvements they needed and
any new lighthouses that had been formed in that
year. And then the district also included, um,
any supplies they needed. and that included light
vessels, buoys, oil lamps. So, like, anytime
a lighthouse needed anything at any new point,
it was included in the annual report. Well, don't
you think there was some reconciliation between,
you know, the keepers and the assistant keepers
would write these requests, like, we need new
oil house, we need, you know, an upgraded lens,
the locals are telling us this, the shipmen are
telling us this, and then you get... to the regional
director the regional manager what's the superintendent
yeah thank you and then whatever makes it into
the annual report is like oh yeah we made it
our request was heard yeah i actually think oh
where did i see this not everything like you're
saying not everything made it into the annual
report it was like the ones that they wanted
like to push forward to get money for were the
ones that were reported so they cut out a lot
of extra if somebody requested to a new oil house
or whatever but they didn't think it would get
approved then they wouldn't post it in the annual
report that's crazy so you can imagine that probably
rubbed a lot of people the wrong way be like
what we didn't make it into the report like no
that's a shame Occasionally, the reports included
drawings of lighthouses or light ships, and the
1876 report included maps of each district with
the location of every single lighthouse of the
time. Oh, that's cool. 1876. I don't know why
that one specifically. I think there was one
other year that they also did that, but it was
later on, which probably got even crazier. Think
about early 1900s, how many lighthouses there
were. Crazy. Yeah. I'd like to see some of those
maps. Yeah. I'd look into it. You can find scans
of most of the annual reports on like Google
and there's some other website. I can't remember
what it's called. I think I linked the 1852 one
in our notes. They're probably on the USLHS website.
Yeah. Yeah, I did. So if you want to see the
big one, it's down there. 1877 through 1903,
the treasury published a separate report, which
had much of the same details as before. And so
that is when we started having our own annual
reports that were separated from the finance
department. 1877. Yeah. Okay. Cool. What kind
of pictures I have here? Okay. I have more screenshots.
These are like, the other ones were scans and
these are like photos or like, you know exact
scans yeah very the organization of the lighthouse
service so this one just shows like the the district
the inspector for the district the superintendent
and the chief clerk so like you can see in this
year specifically the names of the people who
worked there which i think was interesting because
when we mention a superintendent or an inspector
or whatever it's like in passing like we never
give any screen time to the people who Well,
there's so many. Yeah, exactly. And I'm sure
it changed every year. So it's interesting to
see the list of the real people, the people behind.
It is. And anytime you have an organization,
I don't think these are volunteers necessarily,
but where people volunteer themselves for a position
or elect to take a position of service, where
it's probably a lot of work. Yes. Can you imagine
going to all of the lighthouses? in a year and
doing an inspection and then having to do it
all over again just reading the requests from
all the lighthouses in a year because they're
going to appeal year over year as we've learned
for these needs that they have and then you have
to determine based on well they've appealed 18
times now uh this year maybe we do have the money
for this yeah maybe i will put this in the annual
report and even then the annual report is just
a bid to congress to give people money so it's
like you have to decide what's going to get a
chance to go in front of Congress and not like
pick the ones that actually will get money. So
shut down the government. Yeah. And another screenshot
I have up here shows the efficiency pendants
that were given out. I can't remember what year
this was. I feel like it was later, like 1910s
sometime. Okay. But we, Oh, 19, 1913. Woo. Data
located. Uh, they, have the efficiency pendants
on here and i remember when we covered uniforms
housekeeper uniforms and i mentioned that you
could get an efficiency pendant and only like
i think very few i mean well here let's look
right here there's one per district would get
an efficiency pendant and so it was like a really
cool thing to have so anyway i just thought it
was cool that they had the efficiency pendants
listed out in this thing too. So there's basically
everything you can think of. Lighthouse related
shows up in the annual reports, which is really
cool and makes sense. The efficiency, where else
would you see? Like if you got an efficiency,
you know, I think we need to bring back some
of that. I think our government needs some efficiency
pendants to be hung out and it can only be one
per year. Please help them. Well, like I remember
I went to, uh, I've never been. Military whatsoever.
But I went to a basketball camp once at the Air
Force Academy in Colorado Springs, which is a
military academy. They graduate as officers,
but they study engineering and technology and
aerospace. It's a really difficult college to
be selected for. And then you go into a minimum
of like four years of service after you graduate.
So everyone there is a student. They're called
cadets. And they came through our rooms with
the white glove inspection. So while we were
staying there as just regular middle and high
school basketball players, they would inspect
our rooms. And they were pretty easy on us. But
the point was that when they are cadets, they
have these white glove inspections from the upperclassmen
and from the staff. And it's like if there's
any dust on any surface, you turn the whole room
over, you clean the whole room. I heard the Navy
SEALs do a similar process, probably the whole
Navy, probably all of the military has these
standards for cleanliness and orderly of like
their own space. And I think that probably plays
into how they behave. Interesting. I don't know.
So the point is to go back to an efficiency award
for lighthouse keeping. It's so interesting to
me because it was housed as a military, as a
government institution. Some of those same aspects
are showing up here where it's like, it actually
is important that you keep things orderly. Your
own house, maybe not so much, but like you're
in charge of this structure and keeping it clean
is like one of the biggest parts of being a lighthouse
keeper. Painting and cleaning and moving and
fixing. And the lens, no soot. And this was during
a time when everything was flame. So you just
had ash on it. Like you had to be really vigilant.
Crazy. Good for them. I know. 1904, the Department
of Commerce and Labor took over the reports before
the Lighthouse Board was ended in 1910. And after
this, it was called the Annual Report of the
Commissioner of Lighthouses to the Secretary
of Commerce. So they changed the name. So if
you look up the Annual Reports of the Lighthouse
Board, it ends in 1910. But there are still annual
reports until 1935. And it's because it technically...
is no longer for the lighthouse board so it changed
names if you look it up by title so they reframed
it to go to commerce which kind of does make
sense but especially later on yeah so we saw
a lot less detail in these reports they kind
of cut out all the extras stuff basically just
did appropriations for improvements and any changes
they made so it would say this lighthouse confirmed
got five thousand dollars for congress for bubble
law so yeah cut out off cut off a lot of the
fat that's too bad we probably lost a lot of
documentation because of that process i know
i'm sure it was still made but not reported in
the same way so yeah i think so too so that was
until 1935 and that was the end of annual reports
so um i guess because all the lighthouses ended
up under the coast guard in 1939 they probably
have their own system for what they did and we
talked about like light lists and things so i
don't know not sure what exactly happened after
that if it was a structured change to something
similar or if it's they just lost the whole annual
report and started doing separate stuff and to
be clear that the coast guard took over all of
the honestly commonwealth but all the government
owned lighthouses all the Not private aids for
navigation. Yeah, and private I don't think was
very common anyway. But like an official aid
of navigation. Yeah. Something funded by the
government. All the ATONs. Yes. What was aid
to navigation? ATON. And some of, yes, ATON.
Aid to navigation? Yeah, A2N, ATON. Oh. Well.
So many lighthouses that were not included. The
records, you can clearly see a difference when
we look at the history of any lighthouse, of
what you can find. And one of the great reasons
that we like to do United States lighthouses,
because we're here, but also because they have
records like these. Really great documentation.
Really good. And then private aids are harder
to find any information. And then foreign, not
to the United States. That's really difficult.
Now we're stretching. But one of my upcoming
lighthouses is going to be outside of the U .S.
And I'm pretty excited about it. We had a friend
go there and send us a picture. So that's all
I'm going to say. I have some sources also. Oh,
yeah? Yeah. I bet mine are better. We'll see.
Okay, moving on to our lighthouse. And I want
to apologize because this is on Lake Michigan
again. Hey. There's so many. So then if I'm like,
oh, this one's cool, it just happens to be on
Lake Michigan. More likely than not, it's either
in Michigan or it's in Maine. There's a lot of
lighthouses in Michigan. Anything else is like,
oh, nice. So anyway, going back to Lake Michigan.
1852, and this is how I got our history buoy.
The superintendent of lights on the Great Lakes
recommended the construction of three new lighthouses,
two on Lake Superior and one on Point Betsy.
To mark the entrance of the Manitou Passage from
the south. So I pulled up. Map. My map. And so
you can see Point Betsy Lighthouse down here.
That little outcropping into the lake is Point
Betsy. I did a little zoom up over here so you
can see that it's. I like that. It's beachy.
Like large. I mean. Not compared to the outlet.
There's a body of water on one side, a body of
water on the other side. So it's like this little
passageway. It's an isthmus. Yeah. And then where
these two islands are, just north of the point,
between that and the mainland is Manitou Passage.
Okay. So I think there was a lot of activity
going through there. They wanted to mark it.
Makes sense. Okay. So this lighthouse of our
day is Point Betsy. Point Betsy. Okay. Am I thinking
of another one we've covered that was another
patty? Yeah, I keep almost saying it. Now I can't
remember. Point. Oh, no. There was some. I was
looking at the restaurants nearby. Yeah. But
Point Betsy. Okay. Point Betsy. Yeah. 1853. Oh,
and also I wanted to point out on this map that
there is a golf course. Oh, boy. Where is this?
Michigan, you said? It's right there. Yeah. Let's
look at it for our honeymoon. Oh, excuse me.
No. Yes. Because I told Vince that maybe we should
just for our honeymoon, just go ahead and go
to Maine and just like look at all over Maine.
And he said, no. So interesting that you would
say that Michigan is a different story. Separate
point. If you think that our honeymoon should
be a golfing and lighthouse trip, go ahead and
like this video. No, not golf. Thank you. Our
honeymoon's not even going to be a lighthouse
trip, so I don't even want to hear anything about
golf. I'll golf with you once. A glimpse into
our life. Last week at my bachelor party, it
was fantastic. We took a trip to Colorado. We
played two excellent golf courses, had a great
time. Bear Dance, the golf club at Bear Dance,
and Fossil Trace near Golden. It was expensive.
It was really fun, though. And on our two lighthouse
trips so far, The first to North Carolina to
the Outer Banks. I got to play at Nags Head Golf
Links. Lost nine balls and nine holes. It was
awesome. It was very challenging. We were not
ready. And then Cape Cod. Got to play Highland
Links. The oldest links course in the United
States. Has a lighthouse on it. So you were just
wanting to keep that tradition going. Yeah, I'll
golf with you once. Just putting it out there.
Yeah, if we're going to stick to tradition. I
golf once, and that's it. So you've got to choose
wisely. She's a chipper and putter. I'm a chipper
and putter, and I've resigned to that fact that
I'll never play a full game of golf. It's just
going to be, like, occasionally, it's really
the middle part I skip. You just need lessons.
I've tried that already. No, you need lessons.
I need more lessons? Yes. Lessons and practice.
I got worse with the lessons, so. I can't imagine.
All the golfers listening know that you just
need new golf clubs. No. That solves all the
problems. Incorrect. And moving on. Thank you
for pointing out the golf course. You're welcome.
Near Point Betsy. Bonita. I think that's what
I keep almost saying. Bonita. Out in San Francisco.
Your lighthouse that you covered. Good episode.
Okay, 1853, Congress appropriated $5 ,000. And
while a contract was awarded the year after that,
the lighthouse wasn't completed until 1858. And
this was because the construction company that
bid the cheapest for this lighthouse was selected.
Also was given the responsibility of building
North Point, Grand River, La Pointe, Rock Harbor,
Portage River, Grand Island, Point Iroquois.
Eagle River, Round Island, and Menasha all around
the same time. They were booked. They were booked
solid. They had done a bulk offering. Yeah, I'm
not sure exactly what happened there. I'm sure
they just were like, just send the low bid to
everything. No, I mean, if you can offer as a
package, you can say, well, we can do it for
less if you give us so much because they're a
smaller percentage. Like wholesale. Yeah, like
wholesale of building of lighthouses. This is
a Costco lighthouse. So that's kind of why it
took an extra four years to build this lighthouse.
And also, naturally, because of the area, a lot
of the lighthouses were in remote places. Like
this one, at the time, was just in the middle
of absolutely nowhere. So that meant a long lead
time on construction of our lighthouses. 1850s?
Yeah. 1858 she was completed. Point Betsy was
a circular 37 -foot yellow brick tower connected
by a strange passageway. I mean, it's... Let's
see. Oh, there's a photo. It's almost two stories.
The passageway is almost two stories tall. So
we got... Let's take a moment because this photo
is really cool. First off... Wait. The passageway
connects to a two -story dwelling. That was the
last of my bullet points. Oh, sorry to interrupt
you. Go ahead. Well, sorry. Sorry. Sorry. I'm
sorry. Oh, no. All right. We have an image of
black and white image of Point Betsy Light, Frankfurt,
Michigan. So this is. Yes. So that's written
by hand, which I always love. I do, too. And
because of the contrast, it's written in what
looks like pine trees. Yeah. To the left of the
lighthouse footprint. So cool. Three gentlemen,
it appears, standing in front. Kind of a barn
shaped. housing unit it is and you'll see it
later they they really enunciate the barnness
later it almost looks like the lighthouse is
a silo oh that's cool next to the barn structure
you're right it's like a barn with a silo connected
someone's gonna be offended by that they're gonna
be like no no that's not it it's not it you're
missing the point it's nice okay accept it but
the it looks nice the connecting enclosure is
definitely on the second floor Yes. And then
there's an opening down below. Yeah, like a door
you can walk in straight into the passageway
instead of going through the house. This house
isn't still there, is it? Because that would
be a great Zillow find. Have this lighthouse
built into your house. It's so integral that
it's... I feel like, yes. I feel like it's still
there. Well, you said light yellow also? Yeah.
Interesting. Very cool. The picture that I've
pulled up, I believe it's been painted, but I'm
not 100 % sure. It looks like plain white to
me because you don't see any brick. I'm pretty
sure I saw a picture of it with obvious brick,
but I don't know. I don't have it. Well, in this
photo, and like we say a lot of times, beautiful
construction. They did a great job. Really good
job. Aesthetically. For the low bid, yeah. For
the low bid. They did some aesthetic. when normally
the low bid does not. Yeah, low bid was better
back then. Yeah. So they have five rows of brick
directly underneath the decagonal, which we've
talked about before, remember? Ten sides. We've
learned exactly ten sides. Decagonal lantern
room, which these rows of brick gradually increase
in diameter to support the gallery. So you can
just see it's like... You know, we talked recently
about, I can't remember which one, the lighthouse
that tapers out like quickly. But this one is
like a stepped taper. Yeah. Cool. It is nice.
Wow. You're gesturing so much with my hands,
I keep touching my microphone. Boom, boom, boom.
They got a fourth order Fresnel lens that produced
a fixed white light 53 feet above the lake. So
it's like on sand dunes, which we will find is
problematic as per usual. I wonder when they...
We're like, okay, we can't build on sand dunes
anymore. Or we need to put down some serious
foundational support if we're going to do that.
I don't know. Because only a year into its service,
the lake began to encroach on the light due to
it being a beachy area. And we'll see lots of
attempts in its history to stop the erosion throughout
its lifetime. It comes up every once in a while.
Too bad. We know that if we ever bought or built
a beach house, it would be like the Bonser Beach
House, which is one street removed from the front.
Did you notice that? No. They describe it in
their offering as like a semi -beach house or
semi -ocean front. Oh, because you have to walk
through. Yeah. But if you look at, and they have,
of course, drone views and everything. Across
the street is the beach. Yeah. So as we learned,
this is at the Outer Banks. Yeah. You know, the
erosion is going to keep moving things. And so.
They're in a good spot. We saw some houses on
stilts that were like in the water. Yeah. And
those are gone now. Oh. Yeah. I follow Cape Hatteras
National Seashore. Damn. And they often, often
are posting like, don't use the beach today.
There's wood everywhere. Another house went down.
Like it's. Remember that middle area? Yeah. I
can't remember what it was called, but almost
all of those that we saw are gone. It was near
where we stopped for burgers on the way down
there. Yeah. Anyways, the point is, if you buy
a beach house, according to us here in Kansas,
you should build it not so close to the sand.
Yeah, just letting you know. So keep that in
mind, building your beach houses. You tell your
construction crew that they can't build too close.
I wonder what proportion. It's probably not an
insignificant proportion of our listeners are
beach house people. Yeah, or beach people. Or
people that will be beach house people. Actually,
you can see that on our website. Not our listeners,
but you and I can see on our. Oh, where they're
from. Where the people are listening from. And
there's a high concentration around like the
northeast. Let's go. And on the Great Lakes.
Nice. Hell yeah. That's great. Thanks, y 'all.
Also. Australia has a strangely high number of
listeners, which I don't think we've covered
in an Australian lighthouse. Not in my memory.
Not yet. Not yet. We haven't. Gold Coast. I bet
you there's some lighthouses. Gold Coast? I think
that's what it's called. I don't know anything.
Yeah. I'm going to not look it up and just go
with it. Pretty sure there's a Gold Coast. You
tentatively reach for your phone like, I can
answer this. I'm going to take a gamble. Gold
Coast is where a lot of the establishments are
in Australia. Oh, now he's looking. Like a lot
of the larger structures. So you're just making
a statement and then fact checking. Yes. Okay.
Gold Coast. Let's see what the internet says.
Okay. Gold Coast is a city in Australia. I'm
an idiot. Okay. It's a major coastal city, a
tourist destination in Queensland, Australia.
Located south of Brisbane. Known for its beaches,
theme parks, surfing spots, and lush hinterland.
Which is a fun word. But I bet you there's lighthouses
there because there's a beach there. There's
got to be. Anyways. Where there's a beach, there's
a lighthouse. Australians, we hear you. Yes,
thank you for listening. And eventually we'll
get around to your country. But it's hard. U
.S. focused. Moving on. First, three keepers
stayed less than a year. It was pretty secluded,
so I understand why this happened. A lot of lighthouses.
But the fourth keeper, Alonzo Slyfield, served
here for over 20 years. So he stuck around for
a long time. Cool. He was also a doctor and a
coroner as well as a lighthouse keeper. Which
meant that he was often called away from the
lighthouse for other duties, which I have never
heard of, that you can have more than one job
along with your lighthouse keeping duties. But
remember, doctors back in the day were like...
Few and far in between. Well, but yeah. Or not
practiced. And so powerful. And so rare. Trying
to figure out what you were going to say. No,
they're like, you know, they had a little leather
bag. Yeah, yeah. Doctors were super well thought
of. And very mobile. It wasn't like, I mean.
They weren't hospitals in the same way. Yeah.
Oh, that's interesting. Yeah. And, you know,
if he's the coroner too, you think like, you
know, his patient dies, he just turns around,
puts on a different hat. Switches briefcases.
I know what happened here. In 1876, a life -saving
station was built just south of the lighthouse.
And Slyfield felt that it was easier for him
to leave the lighthouse because of this, because
he was no longer having to be the only person
who would save people in shipwrecks or people
in boats and stuff. So he often left the lighthouse
in his son's hands. And Thomas Matthews, who
was keeper of the life -saving station that was
built, wrote in his log in 1880, quote, duty
compels me to note on this journal this very
bad way Point Betsy light has been kept this
spring. I do not wish to do A .J. Slyfield any
injury, but the light has been neglected so much
and my crew so often passing remarks upon the
light that I am obliged to make note of it. Oh,
my gosh. Oh, boy. This morning, the patrol see
that the light did not revolve and was burning
very dim. Time, 3 .30 a .m. Watched it until
near 5 o 'clock and the weather being hazy and
many vessels and steamers passing. Surfman went
to the lighthouse, woke up some boys who were
sleeping there who got up and fixed and put the
light in running order. The keeper is in the
habit of leaving boys at the light in charge.
End quote. So he just blasted this guy. And shortly
following this, like... A few months. Edwin Fitzgerald.
Huh? What? Alonzo wrote a letter to the board
to retire and requested his son, Edwin, replace
him, which was like, at this time, it was very
unorthodox to be like, hey, I'm retiring, and
also here's who I want to be the next keeper.
It's like, you're not in a position to suggest
who's going to be the next keeper. It's usually,
obviously, there's a selection process that goes
on, but they accepted it. even though this was
one of the boys that allegedly was neglecting
the light. Boys to men. Yeah, and I didn't see
any reports about Edwin being a bad lighthouse
keeper. So, I mean, it's not the kid's fault.
I thought his name was Alonzo. Alonzo was the
dad who retired. Yeah, Edwin was the next guy.
Cool. Good names. Oh, I forgot to look this up.
1873, a concrete apron was poured around the
lighthouse to protect it. As a construction guy,
do you know what an apron is? Well. I mean, I
know what I can assume what an apron. I mean,
either like I want to use the word skirting because
that's similar to apron, but either like a small
pad that's adjacent to the actual base of the
tower. That's what I would guess. Or it could
be a small retaining wall, you know, a vertical
concrete. I'm seeing that it's basically just
a short concrete pad around a structure. So like.
Just a couple of feet at most. Kind of add to
the footings. Yeah, just extend it out a little
bit, probably. I wonder, I don't know, this is
maybe dumb to say, but I don't know the history
of when rebar was introduced. Because rebar between
existing and new concrete, you can help to transfer
some of the load, but you have to drill into
the existing concrete and insert that rebar.
Where do we see that? I feel like we talked about
that a long time ago. Rebar? About like drilling
into the existing. Oh, you know what it was?
It was the one that kept having a bunch of additions.
It was our house rental, Jarbo. That's what I
was thinking of. For the, yeah, we had a set
of stairs. We had this sheisty little house.
And anyways. It wasn't so bad now in hindsight,
but the stairs began to sink into the earth and
they were separate. Pulled away from the house
and everything. And at the time it was, we had
the ice storm of the decade and Emily was on
her little scooter and it was the only, only
real entrance and exit to the house. Yeah. So
I was fighting our, fighting. Landlord. I was
writing letters. To the landlord asking for them
to address this. This is very serious. It took
a long time. I mean, it was very expensive. Yes,
and we talked about rebar and concrete. That's
what I was thinking of. I was like, what lighthouse
should we talk about? Well, it was just a house,
not a lighthouse. That's so funny. Anyway, 1880,
the annual report of the Lighthouse Board wrote,
quote, this is one of the most important lights
on Lake Michigan, which they say about all of
them, so I'm like. Relax. The present light has
never given satisfaction. The tower was built
by contract in 1858 and the work was miserably
done. Lopid hits once again. Slaps. Dang, we're
looking at it like, yeah, this looks good. Wait,
I'm not finished yet. Oh, oh, oh. A new tower
with sufficient height to put the focal plane
100 feet above the lake should be built and the
fourth order lens should be replaced by a third
order. An appropriation of $40 ,000 is recommended
for this work. End quote. They're really sprucing
it up. They're really wanting some sprucing.
That's a lot of ask. That's twice the focal plane
it has right now. So, like, the lighthouse itself
is 37 feet. And the focal plane, I think, was
54. So, like, you're more than doubling the height
of the lighthouse and asking for a million -dollar
Fresnel lens. From France. Right? They all came
from France at the time, which is no small order,
as they say. An order. It's a third order. That's
actually a good one. No small order. Anyways,
that's really interesting. Also, we kind of,
at this time in history, don't they know that
a higher focal plane is actually not the answer?
Well, it can not be the answer, but like. In
this case, I think it probably would have been
the answer. I guess it depends on weather, right?
Because I think of Triangle Island most often
because it was one of my early ones. 100 feet
is not that high. We're talking yours was, what,
300 feet or something? Because it was an island,
yeah. But what is the Cape Hatteras, for example?
It's a tall one. 200? 217, I think. Somewhere
around there. I was going to guess 220. 200,
220. Anyways, somewhere in there. So like, I
don't know. So they proposed a 100 -foot focal
plane, a third -order lens near the existing
location? Like replacing this lighthouse, yeah.
So I don't know if they would have redone the
lighthouse or demoed or put it in a new location.
Personally, I would have gone with new location
if erosion is causing a problem. But you don't
want to change things too much for mariners,
especially when it's marking. Like a well -used
passageway. Yeah. But they actually repeated
this request for nine years without being appropriated
in anything. And so they decided what they really
needed was a faster light flash and a fog signal.
I'm like, if you tried to get a taller lighthouse
before you put in a fog signal, put in a fog
signal. That's interesting. Yeah. Also, like,
let's just make it as true. Like that's going
to make it safer out here. Yeah. But I think,
so I don't know exactly. There's some confusion
about what's happening here because like I said,
it started with a solid white light, a fixed
white light. Yes. And now it's saying they need
a faster flash pattern. So it's saying. Any flash
pattern would be faster. Yeah, right. It said
they went from a 90 second gap between flashes.
and changed it to a 10 -second flash. So at some
point, they changed it from fixed flashing, very,
very slow flash. So I understand wanting to change
that, but I don't think it would have taken me
nine years to change my mind. Yeah, 90 seconds
is like, eh, no one needs this. You're going
to be passed by the time it flashes again. Well,
and like... So to make this change, let's for
those who may not know, they're going to change.
I forget what it's called, but it's the component
that's actually around the lens that's rotating.
Probably sometimes it's like the panels that
are either colored glass, clear glass or their
blanks. Right. Where it's like a solid. Yeah.
Or. The lens itself. That's right. The lens itself,
those panels, or sometimes there's a blocking
object that rotates depending on when and where.
Maybe it was never fixed, White. I don't know.
The information is contradicting, and I've seen
a picture of the lens, and it has bullseyes,
so they wouldn't use bullseyes for a fixed lens.
I think they can. I mean, they can, but if you're
wanting them to see... a constant powerful light,
you wouldn't be directing it into beams. You'd
want it to be bright around. I mean, bullseyes
are usually for a rotating lens that has a focused
beam that passes like a flashing light. Yeah.
I'm curious about that. Cause I would argue that
it does make it brighter on certain lines. So
I agree with you where it could be utilized to
move, but also a bullseye does amplify the range
of that light, even if it were to be fixed. So
in some ways, even if it weren't a rotating light,
you still may order bullseye lenses for each
component of the lens or panels. But yeah, but
if you were never... If you're never going to
rotate. But if it was originally designed to
not rotate, then I'm guessing they're going to
add panels, not add a whole rotating component.
Because what it takes to rotate a fourth or third
order lens, it's not a small mechanical component
to add to a lighthouse that exists. I don't know.
I'm on coffee, so my brain is like, what if we
talked about everything? I'm not sure exactly
what happened with the lens because looking at
it now, it has bullseyes. It's a flashing lens,
so I don't know if it was never fixed to begin
with or if they just had a lens with bullseyes.
I don't know. I also don't know. I have pictures
of it later, so get excited. 1891 to 92, a steam
fog signal was installed in a fog building 120
feet north of the lighthouse. And a new, oh,
here we go. A new fourth order lens was added
that reduced the flash from 90 seconds to 10
seconds. So it must have been fixed and something
going on. And then they added the bullseye lens
for no lens. I'm sure I'm missing a very important
and relevant piece of information. But if I was
in charge of changing this and it's going to
be fourth order and fourth order, I would just
install some blocking. You know what I'm talking
about? Yeah. I wish I knew what it was called.
It's like a cylinder with sections. It's like
there's metal sheets that cover the lens occasionally.
And so then when it comes to a gap in this metal
sheeting, it looks like a flash. Right. And the
inside of the metal sheet is typically reflective.
Yeah. So that it's... amplifies the light through
anyways cool we'll leave them to their guess
we'll never know i know new image so the picture
i pulled up was an oil house and the fog signal
building cute that they built so it's pretty
cute and these are more current photos so obviously
they've repainted and they're still standing
today so and there's some snow never forget michigan
is cold no i always forget about it until i'm
looking at photos and half of them are just like
icy snowy i'm like whoa forget that not a lot
of lighthouses are tropical yeah that's a lot
of them are very wintry especially in michigan
these additions added an assistant keeper position
to the lighthouse so the dwelling got an additional
six rooms i was like wow i'm assuming they mean
like One of the rooms is a kitchen. One is a
living room. Yeah. You know. Not six bedrooms.
It's not like six bedrooms. But this allowed
them to split the Keeper's dwelling into two
apartments for the now two Keeper's families.
Picture of that. And this is where I was saying
that they start to lean a little heavy into the.
The farm. Yes. They really enunciated. What is
this? What is it called? Gamble roof? Gable.
I think it's Gable. But yeah, it's the. Breaking
peaks. Like three large peaks on the truss that
make up the roof. A gable roof is a normal house
roof. I'm going to find it. You got me. Barn
type roof? I don't know. I know it starts with
a G. Please. Gambril. What? G -A -M -B -R -E
-L. Okay. Gambril. I didn't know that word. And
now we do. So it's got, you know, very traditional
American barn look to it. Yes, like that two
different angles of rooftop. Pretty fun. Very
deep roof. Lots of roof space. Well, yeah, and
they're usually occupied. So whether it was a
hay storage or in this case bedrooms and whatnot,
you know, a lot of structures in America are
built with roofs that are just like attics. So
it's just for insulation. These are occupied.
This is random, but if I looked at this picture...
What? If I looked at this picture and didn't
know anything, I would say that it was AI. Because
there's this one tiny building in the middle
that has an exceptionally long doorway. I don't
know what is happening here. And then there's
a chimney that goes... Way too tall for the house
it's attached to. It's like twice the height
of the house it's attached to. Yeah, why would
they do that? Do you think that's the steam?
No, because the steam... Yeah, I don't know.
But, yeah. It's like... Yeah, you're right. That
little outhouse or whatever it is looks like
it's inserted between the buildings. Yes. Like,
what if we threw one more in the distance? Yeah,
it's just fun. And then... It's like all the
perception's off. Yeah, there's a man for scale
on the right side, I think, near a doorway. And
that chimney is absurdly tall. It's very tall.
I understand if it's like smoking, you want to
like keep it away. You know, you don't want a
high clearance above the living spaces, but yeah,
I don't know. And maybe there's a stack effect.
Like, you know, we design stacks these days.
So you have to have a certain height for the
air to pull and then it starts to pull a consistent
flow. I don't know. Maybe they knew that back
then. But yeah, it definitely looks like a botched
AI photo. Moving on. 1890, the apron was broken
out and a ring of concrete was inserted underneath
the tower to stabilize it after a lot of beachy
erosion. And a curved revetment was constructed
at the water's edge to absorb the energy of the
waves crashing against the beach. And this was
built using leftover materials for repairs at
Spectacle Reef Lighthouse. That's a cool name.
We haven't talked about Spectacle Reef. I think
Spectacle Reef. Has a lot of the same aspects
of standard rock. Like that same secludedness.
We'll have to cover that one. That makes sense.
I've heard about it a lot because it's tied into
a bunch of other lighthouses. Our friend who
studied civil engineering taught us about revetment
stone. Oh, yeah. Riprap. That's right. Comes
around. 1899, the dwelling and tower were painted
white with red roofs as a better day mark for
passing mariners during the day. In 1920, Keeper
Danielson to the Bureau of Public Roads begged
for some improvements to be made on the rough
wagon path that ran between the lighthouse and
the highway. So there was a highway. And then
you had to exit onto basically like a dirt, rocky,
you know, like beach path. And so he was like,
please turn this into a paved road. Like we're
dying out here. They were ignored for years.
So after a few years, the keepers and the life
-saving station, the men who worked there, did
it themselves with the help of the community,
finishing a serviceable road in 1924. Wow. So
they just took matters into their own hands.
And it was like a lot. It was a long road. It
wasn't just like a little thing. It was like
miles. People don't do that anymore. No. No one
would be like, well, I guess we'll just do it
ourselves. Yeah. With the help of our local friends.
Our local friends. It just feels like maybe things
get taken care of a little easier, maybe, because
there's so many people. Yeah, must have been
a joint interest of the locals. I don't know.
Pretty cool. The lighthouse was electrified in
1921, and in 1937, the life -saving station was
decommissioned. And by this point, they had three
keepers at the lighthouse, so two assistants
and one principal. So the lighthouse service
wanted to use... this life -saving station as
additional housing for all the keepers who are
now smashed into like the duplex which i don't
think was like super uncomfortable but obviously
they could always use more room they're all the
time yeah but they just decided to improve the
dwelling that already existed instead so the
life -saving station was sold in 1945 and still
stands today oh that's cool picture of that as
well wow someone's private home it's so yeah
it's private so i'm not A hundred percent. I'm
not sure if you can go and actually look at it
or if it's, maybe they'll give you a tour. I
don't know. Super cool. You know, this reminds
me of another life -saving station. I think it
was that we saw the Outer Banks. We went, it
was kind of the furthest place we drove to kind
of inland. We went over a huge bridge and then
we went to a lighthouse. Is it Roanoke Marshes?
Yeah. It was, yeah, kind of, it was for the.
um the bay or whatever it's called the cove that's
the ocean yeah but remember the building on the
pier looked very similar yeah the central high
tower uh we couldn't go inside i think it was
closed when we were there yes it was closed like
five minutes before we walked over i was like
why is there nobody here it's because everybody
was leaving But I wonder if that was a repeated
design or if it's just by happenstance it looks
so similar. I think the life -saving stations
always looked very similar. We talked about that,
our history buoy, a couple episodes ago. We talked
about the structure that was built. And usually
it had this center watch tower. And then the
rest of it's... I don't know. That would make
for a really cool... Reading space. Well, yeah,
but I was thinking like a really cool studio
build. Like the one that we had seen, I think
it was used as a museum. So maybe it had been
changed, but there was no internal walls. So
the stair tower was in the middle of the room
and then the entire room was open. That'd be
really cool. That would be cool. Yeah, you could
do a lot of stuff with these kind of houses,
but hopefully it's... You got to keep it original.
Yeah. Shortly after this, the boathouse for the
lighthouse collapsed from shifting sands. And
in 1940, a protective wall was built using sheet
pilings. Oh, yeah. Photo of that. Nice little,
you can see some snow, some ice buildup. Dang,
it's close to the water. I know. It's so close.
You can just see it. I mean, all this is sand.
So it's just, I mean, it is just a breadth away
from. tipping over, or at least having some serious
structural strain on the actual tower part of
the lighthouse. But it's very pretty. This station
is really nice looking. 1983, the Coast Guard
automated Point Betsy and Sherwood Point Lighthouse,
which were the last two manned lighthouses on
the Great Lakes. Oh, cool. So the Coast Guard
personnel continued to live at the station until
the heating system gave out in the dwelling in
1996. So it's a long time of it just being housing
for the Coast Guard. That's crazy. I was born
in 95. I know it puts into perspective like the
lifetime of a lighthouse is so long ago. Yeah.
I know it was the history of Bowie, not. directly
related to the lighthouse but we're talking about
the 1800s like 1805 i think yeah 1850 you know
the date i saw and then now someone in the coast
guard was living here past the time that i was
born yeah it is crazy it's a long story but it
would have been cool to be alive if you cared
about lighthouses so many ifs you know but It
would have been cool to be alive earlier than
this. Oh, yeah. You could care about them. Traveling
in history. Yeah. Have your hands in there. That's
kind of fun. That's what's fun about traveling
to lighthouses now, or that they would never
make sense today. Yeah. No one would ever build
a lighthouse today, practically. But there was
a time when that was the practical pinnacle of
technology. Yeah. And so that was what, obviously,
that's what everyone did. So when we travel and
we see these places, you can kind of step into
them, climb the tower, be a part of it. When
we talk about 1996, the closest thing I think
of is the Lighthouse Act, which is early 2000s.
2000, exactly. 2000. So there was, in the 90s,
some of the records we saw, I'm thinking of Absecon
Lighthouse specifically. Lighthouses were really
not in vogue. There wasn't as many restorations
going on. Well, and people were like, oh, they're
decrepit, let's tear it down. No, wait, there
has to be a group that cares a lot about it.
that forms and then takes over the lighthouse.
Otherwise, they just fall down. So, I'm glad
we have some great photos. Yeah. It's really
nice. Agree. 2004, the title of the lighthouse
was transferred to Benzie County, which I assume
is the city that it's in. Probably. Or, you know,
the county. We immediately leased it to the friends
of Point Betsy Lighthouse, which was formed in
2002. They renovated the outside of the lighthouse
for $1 million in 2006. That's crazy. Like we
just talked about. That's like $12 million today.
We just talked about, what's the lighthouse we
just did? Which one? Not Chris Point. Bonita?
No, the one that we just. My brain is not working
today. Avery Point. Yeah. Good Lord. We just
recorded this four days ago. Well, it's been
a long four days. Planning a wedding. So we were
just talking about how that one that they renovated
it for $500 ,000. Yeah. Modern day. And we were
like, oh, that seems like a lot, but also not
a lot at all. Well, one million dollars for doing
the outside of the lighthouse in 2006. But they
reverted the colors back to its original black
lantern room, green trim and doors and bright
red cedar shingled roof. That's cool. So they
went back to our natural beginning colors. I
mean, after the yellow brick section. In 2008,
the Fog Signal building was restored, followed
by the interior of the lighthouse. So went back
and did a double whammy. And the group was awarded
the Governor's Award for Historic Preservation
for all of the work they did. No kidding. It
was done so well and so historically accurate
that they got an award for it. That's awesome.
On top of all of that, they also located the
original Fourth Order lens, which was at the
Sleeping Bear Point Coast Guard Station slash
Maritime Museum. and return it to the lighthouse
to display, which you can go see today. Inside?
Yeah. Cool. So this is where I was like, it definitely
has bullseyes and they're all touching. It's
so cute. Yeah. Like little cells separating.
I wonder what the cost of that would be. To buy
it now? Gosh, I don't even know. Because that's
pretty dope. So particular and also very like
specified, you know, like who's making Fresnel
lenses. Well, they've always been high -precision
glass. Yeah. Very expensive. Very specific uses.
And now that they're not made, really, because
they're not needed. Pretty cool. Very beautiful
picture. 2022, so very recently. The Coast Guard
installed an LED beacon into the lantern room,
so it's officially lit once again. Nice. I have
a current picture here of what it looks like.
And you can see that they've done some more concrete
work on the front. So they've completely removed
the chance for the sand to be displaced in front
of the lighthouse because they covered it all
with concrete. I wonder what those stones are
for. Maybe breaking up waves before they reach
the lighthouse. Could be. Because it's right,
I mean, the water's right there. It is pretty
crazy. Interesting. I have another one that shows
further out. We still have that sheet. The sheet
pilings. Yes. And some groins to break up the
water that comes in. So they're doing a lot of
different methods for stopping ocean power reaching
the lighthouse. Well, and what an investment
it is, too. Not only the modern money, but the
history that's there. You really got to try to
protect it. Yeah, you might as well do everything
to try and give it a chance. Man, it looks gorgeous.
It is beautiful. I really love this. This must
be summertime. Yeah. The water's blue. Grass
and trees are green. Yeah. Nowadays, you can
actually visit the lighthouse 10 to 5, except
Tuesdays and most Sundays. So specific. Oh, that's
so nice. Specific days. Tours are $5, and they
have, looking at pictures online, they have an
excellent gift shop. Lots of merch options. Looks
high quality. And you can spend a night in the
lighthouse for $595 for six guests, two night
minimum. It's a deal. And if you look at their
website, the inside is adorable. Like the way
it's decorated is the way I want my house to
be decorated. You're telling me we could do like
a golf trip there. Yes. Two nights. Two nights,
stay in the lighthouse, play golf. Sold. And
then we fly overseas. Kind of awesome. So they
also keep track of live visitor counts on their
website. So I'm not sure if when you walk in,
you have to like press a button or something,
or if somebody's actually keeping tally, but
it's like their website. It's like, how many
visitors have we had today? And it's like 27.
Interesting. Well, I wonder if it's like, you
know, when they collect payment, it's accounted
for. Oh yeah, probably. Probably automated. But
it's like a tour is $5, but you can go in regardless.
You can just go into the shop. Yeah. Yeah. Or
like visitors on the grounds or whatever. That's
cool. But I love it. I've never seen a live visitor
account kept on a lighthouse website. Even Google
is really interesting because it tracks people's
location. Oh, yeah. So you can look at like,
if I'm going to look at a bar or restaurant,
it'll be like, oh, it's busy right now. Yes.
It's busier than usual. Busier than usual, yeah.
What? And I'm like, oh, no. How do they know
where we all are? Well. They've known for a long
time. Yeah. Easy answer. So. They're also doing
haunted lighthouse tours in October 17 through
18. So when this posts, it's going to be this
coming weekend. Oh, yeah. Go out there. Yeah.
Friday, Saturday and the October 24 and 25. And
they're $15 for a tour. So that's cheap. Go and
check it out. Is there any haunted history here?
Not that I know of. Just like, wouldn't it be
spooky if? I'm sure. I mean, there's got to be
something. going on i'm sure there's some history
we maybe there's a lot of lighthouses that don't
project their yeah they don't want to like and
people died here yeah it's like we don't need
to people people have died at most lighthouses
yeah which is even interesting you know from
painting the lighthouse i mean it'll just be
stuff like that or it's nothing nefarious but
there's a lot of a lot of people drowning right
outside that's not all successful um rescues
and stuff so yeah if you're interested in that
we have several episodes we've covered haunted
histories yeah of lighthouses and and that's
what yours is there's been murder there's been
ghosts there's been accidental deaths drowning
lots of spooky episodes we've covered urns urns
that's not one we've covered can you believe
that we covered a lighthouse yeah and then got
rid of it and now it's something we really should
cover terrible tilly Terrible Tillamook Lighthouse.
That's what you should cover for the next episode.
You know the history. No, I don't remember. That
was years ago. That was three years ago. All
right. Maybe I'll cover Terrible Tillamook. Vince
is going to do something spooky for Halloween,
which his episode will be posted, I think, a
week before Halloween or something. Perfect.
Maybe even less. 27th? I can't remember. Somewhere
in there. Whatever Monday is before Halloween.
Lots of good options. But that's all I have.
Point Betsy Lighthouse. A good full -length episode
for you guys, plus a full -length buoy. I basically
just absolutely destroyed it today. You did.
You crushed it. Like waves on the beach. Crushed
it. Also, what was the county's name one more
time? Is it in your notes? Because how did Point
Betsy get its name? We never talked about that.
It's Benzie County, but Point Betsy, it was the...
There's a long Native American history of how
the point got... betsy it was like derived from
their original name which was like sawfish it
was how they saw fish so i don't know i just
wonder if like benzy was it benzy yeah benzy
county yeah betsy i don't know i think the county
came after the name of the point so could have
been a shared derivation yeah sure or not if
you know you never know let us know yeah anything
else you'd like to add No. Talk about how great
I am. You did really great today. We're over
an hour of current time. I think it'll be about
an hour after editing. Yeah, probably. Because
we were interrupted for a football game at one
point, which is great. That's so good. What else?
I think, honestly, we'll look at, I've been talking
about merch a lot lately. I think we'll be looking
in the new year for merch. Yeah, we're doing
wedding stuff. We made promises we can't keep.
And honestly, seasonally, it'd be more fun to
have spring and summer where people are thinking
about lighthouses more often. I do want a sweatshirt,
though. I think what we'll do is I'll try to
have it prepared around New Year's, and then
hopefully we'll be able to keep some stock going
for you folks who are interested in a couple
of various items. And those are something you
can buy on our website. We'll start a tab, a
page of our website that's for merch, so you
can buy it directly from there through probably
a Shopify link. I don't know. Length. I'm starting
to lose enunciate. That's all I had to say. And
thank you for today's episode. It was really
fun. Yeah, you're welcome. And you can check
out the rest of our episodes available on thelighthouseflowdown
.com. Check out our episode map. And you can
check out our videos, too, in the same place.
And leave us a review. We've gotten a couple
more reviews, and we love to read them. And we
hope you catch us next time on... The lighthouse?
Yeah. Good job.