Our Fall newsletter should be hitting your mailbox soon. A print newsletter has been sent to all current members. If you don’t receive it, did your postal address change in the last year? If so, please contact us at southfoxisland@gmail.com
We value your support and want to keep you informed of the ongoing restoration progress.
Please join us in welcoming Barb Falkenhagen to our Board.
Barb is a dedicated lighthouse volunteer with experience working on multiple offshore lights. She began volunteering with South Fox Island Light Station in 2023 was part of the lantern room restoration team. She also assists in restoring Frankfort’s North Breakwater Light.
Her academic experience includes attending Skive Gymnasium, a Folk School in Skive, Denmark, and Saginaw Valley State University. She and her husband own Don’s Welding, LLC in Saginaw.
A small but dedicated group braved the snow to attend yesterday’s annual meeting. Here’s a link for those of you who missed it or would like a second look.
Please join us November 9 from 1 – 3:30 at the Leland Library for our annual meeting. Public welcome.
Hear about our season and plans for the coming year. Learn about volunteer opportunities and meet some of our team members.
Our newest Board Member Sandra White keeps knocking it out of the stands. She helped open and close the station this season, led the hard-working “Landscaping” team and recently created these engaging shorts. She’s definitely a “Keeper.”
Click here to see our “Engineer” team at work.
The “Carpenter” team’s work can be seen here.
This one features the Opening and “Painting” teams.
This somewhat longer piece is just an enjoyable compilation focusing on place & people rather than projects. The sparkling water, campfires and camaraderie tell the story why this is such a special place to volunteer.
Come visit us to see these and other videos on our YouTube channel.
The antique apple trees continue to do well. They got a minor trim from the closing team this week. While the ideal time to trim is late winter, they seem to survive our delayed pruning. Look at all that fruit!
A number of years ago, curious about what variety they were, we took a sample to Kilchermans Christmas farm, Northport, MI who specialize in heritage apples. They identified it as a Caville Blanc d’Hiver, a rare variety considered to be the classic dessert apple of France. Here’s the explanation they provided us.
Most of the apples will go to the birds and deer this year as our “on island” season ends as the closing team heads home today.
We were covered again in the July 30 Leelanau Enterprise. The article “S. Fox Island continues renovations” features this image of Board Member, Jim Greenwall, of Mishawaka Indiana, landing on the island.
Photo credit: Brian Freiberge
It’s impossible to capture the feeling of having a 360 degree view in the lantern room again. This is truly a milestone project.
The original glass was mostly shot out by the time the DNR enclosed the lighthouse with plywood in the 1980’s. FILA upgraded the plywood in 2006 to protect the lantern room from further damage. A few years back, we inserted Lexan in some of the panels to give light and a tiny view. Over the past two years, the team of Barb, Marty & Tom have carefully removed the astrangals (vertical supports) and top and bottom stops, then cleaned and replaced them. Some were sufficiently damaged that they fashioned temporary wooden stops while taking samples back to to recreate proper metal ones. Almost every screw that had to be removed put up its own unique battle! For now, we’ve used Lexan panels, each custom fit since even though the openings may have been exactly the same back in 1867, they aren’t now. Our eventual goal would be to install original glass but in the interim we’ve made a huge improvement and learned a lot.
Here’s a sample from a couple different directions….
Photos: Barb Falkenhagen (taken from a video)
Many thanks to the lantern room team!
The South Fox Island Light Station restoration project was featured in the Leelanau Enterprise Extra e-newsletter.
This video created by Brian Freiberger captures transport and arrival to the station, glimpses of several buildings and interviews with several volunteers and visitors.
View of the station with spray on the lens. Brian Freiberger photo.
We’re told to expect a print article in the upcoming Leelanau Enterprise later this week.
Just a reminder, a variety of South Fox Island Light Station merchandise is available through our friends at the Shoal Shop.
Proceeds go toward transportation and restoration costs. We have the following items available for purchase.
Or, if you’d like to support the cause directly, you can make a tax deductible donation here.