On average, the steam whistle was in operation 325 hours a year and consumed around twenty tons of coal.Īerial view in 1949 showing single fog signal on pointĪlbert N. In 1887, the station’s whistle blew for a record 697 hours, or about eight percent of the time, while in 1904, it sounded for just 189 hours, or just two percent of the time. The number of hours the coal-fired steam whistle was in operation each year varied greatly. The fog signal buildings were placed at a lower elevation nearer the lake and were linked to the dwelling by an elevated walkway. A ten-inch steam whistle was added to the station in 1874, and six years later it was joined by a duplicate whistle for increased reliability. In 1870, a fourth-order Fresnel lens that illuminated an arc of 270° replaced the previous lens, which had an arc of just 180°. This second incarnation was built of yellow brick and consisted of a dwelling with a square tower centered in its lakeward-facing gable end. The stone tower and dwelling didn’t stand up well to the extreme weather of the Upper Peninsula, and in 1865 the Lighthouse Board submitted an estimate for “extensive repairs and renovations.” Congress provided $13,000 on Apfor “repairs and renovations,” but during the following months a completely new lighthouse was constructed on the point. Besides minding the light, Anastasia also raised four young children by herself until her husband returned in 1865. Nelson Truckey was hired as keeper of the lighthouse in 1861, but he went off to fight in the Civil War the following year, leaving his wife Anastasia to operate the lighthouse. A sixth-order Fresnel lens was installed in the tower’s lantern room in 1856, in place of an array of lamps and reflector, and it produced a fixed white light at a focal plane of seventy feet above Lake Superior. A one-and-a-half-story stone dwelling was located nearby for the keeper, and Harvey Moore was hired as the light’s first keeper at an annual salary of $350. The first lighthouse at Marquette was established on the point just north of the harbor in 1853 and consisted of a stone tower that stood twenty-six feet, eight inches tall and tapered from a diameter of ten feet, six inches at its base to six feet, five inches at its octagonal lantern room. Congress provided $5,000 for the lighthouse on September 28, 1850, and all but $25 of this sum was spent in its construction. The early importance of the harbor at Marquette is evidenced by the fact that it was marked by one of just a handful of lighthouses built on Lake Superior before the opening of the Soo Locks in 1855. Lighthouse in 1904 with its twin fog signals on the point The village of New Worcester was established in 1849 to support the mining operations, and the following year the name of the village was changed to Marquette to honor Jacques Marquette, the French Jesuit missionary who had explored the region. The discovery of iron deposits at Teal Lake, just west of Marquette, in 1844, led to the development of the area.
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