Eagle Harbor Light Station

When writing the post about Steve's birthday, I promised you photos of the Eagle Harbor Lighthouse area.  Here we go.

The light station buildings aren't open for the season yet, but you can nose around the grounds anyway.  Eagle Harbor's lighthouse is probably the most photographed lighthouse of the Keweenaw Peninsula.

Once again, there are beautiful views in this area.

This is a working automated lighthouse and a museum/historical complex.  There are some interesting artifacts displayed on the grounds.  The next photo shows a wood-stock anchor retrieved from the waters of Great Sand Bay back in 1968.  Great Sand Bay is where we ate our brownies on Steve's birthday.  

The wood-stock anchor is believed to be from a wooden steamer carrying a load of iron ore that was wrecked in that area in 1894 or from another steamer carrying a cargo of flour which sunk in 1898.  Whatever the case, we do know that it was in the waters of Lake Superior for at least 70 years.  Amazing.

Next, we came upon a riveted bell buoy.  This thing is huge.  It's 8 ft. wide and 13 ft. tall and weighs about 50,000 pounds.  A bell buoy warns approaching vessels of danger, such as the rocky reef near Eagle Harbor.  The bell can be heard when visibility is poor in foggy conditions.

This buoy was donated to the Keweenaw County Historical Society by the U.S. Coast Guard in 1983.

You'll find an iron-stock anchor near the bell buoy.  This anchor weighs about 3,000 lbs. and became entangled in the anchor line of a lake freighter off the eastern side of the Keweenaw Peninsula in 1983.  The freighter dragged the anchor and about 250 ft. of chain all the way to Ashland, Wisconsin, where workers removed about 200 ft. of chain.  The remaining chain and the anchor were finally untangled from the freighter's anchor line in Two Harbors, Minnesota - northeast of Duluth.

The information posted nearby tells us, "The identity of the vessel which originally carried this anchor remains a mystery, but this type of anchor was used from the early 1800's to the early 1900's."

Before leaving the area, we noticed another object on the grounds.  It's a steel roller for snow.

This steel-plated two drum snow roller was actually used to "pank" the snow on the roads of Keweenaw County.  Panking the snow provided a good surface for a horse and sleigh and was probably used from the 1880's until the 1920's or 1930's.

When you look across the harbor from the light station grounds, you can see this.

The tallest building in that photo is the old schoolhouse where we were married.  Happy memories there!

If you would like to learn more about the Eagle Harbor Light Station, click on the following link:

"eagleharborlightstation"

All is well in the Keweenaw.