Lightkeeper Content Added

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We recently added content to the website highlighting the station’s head keepers and many of their assistants. The new South Fox Lightkeepers page can be reached from a link on the “History” page.

Research found a number of previously unknown photos plus the identify of those shown in this iconic 1939 photo: Keeper Will Green, the dog Trenoli and Assistant James Brotherson.

Green & Brotherson 1939

Newly discovered data (thanks to the online archives of Grand Traverse Lighthouse) disclosed Keeper Peter Timmer served until 1953, when a medical leave prompted his retirement and Allen Cain was promoted. A number of lighthouse sites show Cain taking charge in 1948.

Another research finding is that the red brick building typically referred to as the “Assistant Keepers’ Quarters” housed the Head Keepers in the large apartment starting in the McCormick era (1915-1921). Assistants typically either lived in the “old lighthouse” or in one of the two smaller apartments. The final Keeper, Allen Cain, was an exception. For whatever reason, he chose to remain in the old lighthouse where he’d lived for a number of years even though his promotion entitled him to the newer, more spacious quarters.

Links to oral histories and known online articles about our keepers have been included.

We continue to learn. If you have information or photos about the two lights and her keepers, please get in touch with us.

Discover South Fox Island!

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If you are interested in booking a private charter to the South Fox Island Light Station, email southfoxisland@gmail.org with subject “TRIP”. We are working with Manitou Transit in Leland, MI to finalize details. Each trip will last approximately five hours (1.5 hours out, 2 hours on island, 1.5 hours return). All visitors must be members of FILA (http://southfoxlighthouse.org/membership). Scheduling is always weather-dependent and at the captain’s discretion.

U.S.L.H.S. Passport Club Announces South Fox Stamp

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Today’s Stamp Flashes announced the newly created South Fox Light Station stamp:

Stamp Flashes is the official newsletter of the U.S. Lighthouse Society Passport Club.  Information on sites participating in the lighthouse stamp program can be found at:  https://uslhs.org/passports

Milwaukee Connections Continue

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The North Point Lighthouse Museum is featuring Box 739 in their July 10 lecture about the lighthouse library system presented by a professor of Victorian literature.

https://northpointlighthouse.org/lecture-series

Box 739 started its life with a visit to Eagle Bluff, WI from August 1, 1898 to May 26, 1899. It came to the east side of the lake also, including South Fox Island. A log kept track of where it’d been making sure recipients got new material. There were over 700 of these boxes circulating nationally by 1893.

Some of the authors remain familiar including James Fenimore Cooper, Robert Lewis Stevenson, and Daniel Defoe. Others are less well-known, Bayard Taylor’s “At Home and Abroad: A Sketch-book of Life, Scenery, and Men” is available on Google Books if you’d care to read part of it:

https://books.google.com/books?id=LuiBEI4LhBsC&pg=PP13&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=1#v=onepage&q&f=false

While fiction was the most popular, there were also biographies and books on history and science.

In a day before radio or telephone, these were an important source of entertainment and enlightenment at remote lighthouses.

Coverage in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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An article based on local diver and photographer Chris Roxburgh was featured in the May 2, 2024 Milwaukee Sentinel with great images from around the island.

He has additional photos on his facebook site: https://www.facebook.com/ChrisRoxburghDiver.

Keeper’s Log Cover Story: Sanibel Class Lights

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An article that highlighted the South Fox “new light” was the cover story for the Winter 2024 edition of the United States Lighthouse Society’s publication “The Keeper’s Log.” The story describes these onshore skeletal lights that were used on the East, West and Gulf Coasts as well as the Great Lakes.

Skeletals were a relatively low-cost way to build taller towers versus traditional masonry. They were lighter in weight, another advantage over traditional masonry, especially in coastal zones where foundations could be problematic. They could also be moved, a factor when a number of lights had succumbed to changes in shorelines else become obsolete by changes in shipping needs.  The “Sanibel class” had a square pyramidal design.

There are a lot of interesting stories about these 17 “sister” lights.

The schooner carrying the ironwork for the initial two lights in 1884 went aground on a shoal a few miles short of arrival in SW Florida. Clearly the light was needed! (Fortunately, two lighthouse tenders rushed to the scene and salvaged the majority of the parts.)

The Waackaack, NJ light (built by a Detroit firm) detoured to the 1893 Columbian Exposition (shown behind the Viking Ship which was also a popular attraction at the fair) before making its way to its ultimate home.

Only one of the lights succumbed to nature: Chandeleur Island, built on a barrier island off New Orleans, had been undermined by prior storms and finally succumbed during Hurricane Katrina.

Sanibel Island’s Light lost a leg during 2022’s Hurricane Ian. The storm washed away surrounding buildings. The leg has since been repaired.

These were sturdy lights.

And, of course, there’s the South Fox Island skeletal. Installed in 1905 on Sapelo Island, GA, it was relocated in 1933/34. The editor kindly featured a number of our images.

Many thanks to members Barb Falkenhagen, David Lightner, and Steve Webb for photos and Karen Wells for writing & researching the article.

 

 

 

 

South Fox YouTube Channel

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Our YouTube channel has expanded! We’ve recently added content from presentations, photos, videos, Facebook posts and articles from our archives.

Here’s some of what’s available:

Presentations covering restoration progress

Scenic and seasonal photos from volunteers over the years such as these sunset photos

Natural history

Documentation of keepers including the station’s Native American keepers 

 

Additional topics include station history, buildings, shipwrecks and related lighthouses. Check us out https://www.youtube.com/@southfox9428

Where appropriate, we’ve included related 3rd party content into our playlists. If you know of something we’ve missed that’s worth sharing, please let us know.

 

 

 

 

Discover South Fox Island Light Station

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Join us for an informal introduction to the South Fox Island Light Station and learn about our upcoming season!

Date: Wednesday, April 10

Time: 6:00 p.m.

Location: Maritime Heritage Alliance Building One (Ed Brown Building)

13268 S. West Bay Shore Drive, Traverse City–across from the Discovery Pier.

Questions: Southfoxisland@gmail.com

Update: The event presentation is available for viewing on youtube:

An unknown twin!

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In researching the Assistant Keeper’s porches, we searched for whether similar porches were built elsewhere in this period.

In fact, we found two instances where almost identical porches were used. One was as part of an addition to the Chicago Pierhead Rear Range housing in 1911. The keeper’s quarters itself is quite different, though the alterations and additions done that year included the porch and balcony shown below.

Even more interesting is to discover a twin Keeper’s Quarters built in 1911 in Sheboygan, WI. While now updated and modified, it continues in use by the U.S. Coast Guard!

Front and rear elevations from the original 1911 plans.

Photo credits: 

Current photo courtesy U.S. Coast Guard Sheboygan Facebook page

Archival drawings: National Archives images digitized by U.S. Lighthouse Society (uslhs.org)

Phil von Voigtlander Retires

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Phil von Voigtlander recently retired from the Board.

As a Great Lakes sailor, Phil first visited South Fox Island in the 1970s and periodically for several decades thereafter. In his own words, “It was in 2001 that everything changed. Going ashore at the light station, I was struck by the deterioration of the buildings and overgrowth covering the sidewalks and impinging on the buildings. I was thinking someone ought to do something to save this historic treasure.” That began a more than two decade commitment.

Phil helped FILA in a wide range of ways, from helping with the original incorporation, captaining boats, assessing & managing projects, engaging volunteers, establishing the camper-keeper program, giving generously of time and money, involving young people in the project (Boy Scouts, Inland Seas, Youth Works), giving presentations, fundraising, and more beyond. Here’s a small sampling of his many contributions:

The boathouse prior to Phil’s involvement. He was instrumental in organizing volunteers to save it, personally bringing many of the materials to shore via dinghy, helped with roofing and repair, removed stone….

One of Phil’s achievements was securing roofs on buildings. In addition to the boathouse, he helped coordinate repairs to the Assistant Keepers roof (twice), worked on getting a new cedar shingle roof for the workshop, was involved in numerous repairs to the oil house roof, and saw metal over-roofs installed on the Fog Signal and Lighthouse. These would have been significant projects anywhere; making them happen on a remote island was huge.

Phil, in blue, helping push the newly acquired outhouse up the hill. This was one of many “how are we going to do this” projects.

Phil didn’t just do island work; a lot work was done behind the scenes. Here he’s shown helping build window covers in his shop.

Many thanks, Phil!