Joel, Cathy, Pete, Linda and Will accompanied captain Jimmy for an afternoon trip to the island via Bear, Manitou Transit’s new landing craft. Linda writes: “Quite a trip out to the island yesterday! The good news is that all the buildings look great–we got a bunch of lawns mowed….did a quick survey of the buildings. […]
Vice President Cathy Allchin and board member Phil von Voigtlander were recently profiled in an article about our National Register designation. We’ve made great strides in restoring the buildings, but access remains an issue….whether a mooring, dock or something else, we maintain commitment to public access. https://www.leelanaunews.com/news/south-fox-complex-national-register
Fog can set in quickly out on the big lake and the Schooner Monguagon went aground off South Fox Island on May 18,1881 in the midst of a thick fog. It wouldn’t be until 1895 that the island fog signal building was authorized and built. The Monguagon was more fortunate than some, as she got […]
Cheri LaFlamme Szcodronski, Owner & Architectural Historian at Firefly Preservation Consulting, LLC., has been engaged to complete the National Register Nomination for the station.
Late season teams included MSU Extension Hops expert Rob Sirrine and his son, Waylon, who tagged and collected specimens from six hops plants. He’ll perform DNA and chemical analysis to help understand the era in which the plantings were done and the varieties present. The final team, led by Phil von Voigtlander, delivered a pre-constructed barrier, equal in height to stone thrown up during the 2019 winter, which was installed in an attempt to protect the Boathouse doors from further damage.
Our first all-woman volunteer lightkeeper team made the news!
August saw a number of visits to the island including a delivery of building materials via Nahma, the National Park Service landing craft. This was coordinated with the arrival of the second YouthWork team, lead by Bill Watson. His team framed and sided the storage barn, painted, removed stone from the boathouse area, rebuilt benches at the fire ring and cleared around buildings.
Thank you to Joerg Rothenberger who volunteers his boat Lightkeeper and much of his summer transporting teams to the island. He is assisted by co-captain Phil von Voigtlander. Image 1: Lightkeeper at Anchor Image 2: Joerg & Lightkeeper
On July 21, leader Rick McGee led the first YouthWork team of the season to the island. His team re-planked a picnic table, sorted and relocated materials from the Boathouse to the Fog Signal Building, built storage racks, repaired the hasp on the Fog Signal Door, cleared the building site for the storage shed and built a cobble path to facilitate material delivery.