These repairs, however, were not made, as the point on which the lighthouse stood had steadily grown to the south, leaving the light over a mile inland.
The plaster had fallen off the outside of the tower, the lantern room was leaky, and the dwelling needed a cistern and a new floor for its kitchen. By 1869, the station was in desperate need of repairs. Sherman Wheeler was hired as the first keeper of the light at an annual salary of $350, and he moved into a five-room, one-and-a-half-story, brick dwelling that measured thirty-four by nineteen-and-a-half-feet and had an attached kitchen. In 1856, a fifth-order Fresnel lens replaced the array of lamps and reflectors, and the characteristic of the light was changed to fixed white varied every ninety seconds by a red flash. A forty-five-foot-tall, rubblestone tower, which tapered from a diameter of twelve feet at its base to six feet, four inches at its octagonal cast-iron lantern room, was completed that year and, at the opening of navigation in 1853, started displaying a fixed white light produced by seven lamps set in fourteen-inch reflectors. On September 28, 1850, Congress appropriated $5,000 for a lighthouse at Ottawa Point, and work on the thirty-acre site commenced in 1852, after it had been acquired from Daniel S. The “s” was later dropped to get Ottawa, and finally the name was change to Tawas, something a bit closer to the chief’s name.Ĭrew from Ottawa Point Life Saving Station, established in 1876, with original lighthouse in background Early map makers, added an extra “t,” to form the name Ottawas. The point and bay were named after Chief O-ta-was, the leader of a tribe of the Saginaw band of Chippewas. To find out more about our accomplishments, visit the "GLLKA Chronology" page.Lengthy Tawas Point, formerly known as Ottawa Point, lies near the northern entrance to Saginaw Bay and also forms the protected anchorage in Tawas Bay. We also work to support other lighthouse groups throughout the Great Lakes and across the nation.
In 2004, we received the deed to the Cheboygan River Front Range Light, and fundraising for the restoration of that lighthouse is underway. Helena Island light station to be in deplorable condition, the group set its sights on adopting and restoring the abandoned relic. With a mission statement calling for "the preservation of lighthouses, the stories of those who kept them, and developing a new generation of preservationists", the Association's second President Dick Moehl realized the group needed to find a lighthouse to restore in order to fully bring its mission to reality.įinding the abandoned 1873 St. Originally consisting of an informal gathering of retired lighthouse keepers, their families and friends, the Great Lakes Lighthouse Keepers Association (GLLKA) was officially incorporated as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in 1983, making it one of the nation's longest-lived lighthouse preservation groups.
0 kommentar(er)
