December 9, 2024 • 38 mins
You probably wouldn't dream of using a lighthouse for bombing target practice...right? Unfortunately, that was the fate of Waugoshance Lighthouse, built in the 1850s and hanging on by a thread today. Efforts to restore the light were abandoned in 2021, leaving this light to fall to into the waiting arms of Lake Michigan.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hi everybody, I'm Emily and I'm Vince and this is the lighthouse lowdown.
(00:13):
Wish people could see our dance moves. We could do video. No. Oh yeah. Nobody wants to see
my facial expressions. I think they do and they do and they would also be seeing me with my coffee
I just made and my work clothes. Also for me sometimes it ruins it knowing what a person
looks like because their face may not match their voice or something. Do you think that would help
(00:38):
our case or hurt our case? Are you saying what are you saying? Who knows? I guess our face is over on
our Instagram anyway so. Oh yeah. Anyway I do have a history buoy today. Buoy. It popped up
during my research for the episode so we can have it. It'll appear a little later. Like a natural buoy.
(01:01):
Nice. Yeah all natural. All natural. I like to put the buoys later. I did that once and it worked.
What do you mean you like doing that? I did it once and it worked. That's what I mean.
I disagree with this concept but I will let you do whatever creative wind takes you. Thanks. Welcome.
So history buoy is sounding. Have you heard of that? No I don't think so. You look like you're
(01:30):
gonna say something. I think I mean I think I've heard of it but I don't I can't recall
what I think it is. Okay it is a method for measuring the depth of a body of water at different
points. Yes. Which is important and it's probably something you heard when you were doing the case in.
No we talked well yes but also we talked about sounding when we talked about
(01:54):
what a knot is. We were talking about nautical. Really? I think a long time ago and then there
was the beginning of the movie King Kong we were talking about. That's right yeah.
Sounding but yes please remind us. Okay it's a pretty short buoy but I have a picture
because usually these measurements are shown as just numbers on a map. It's a good way to determine
(02:18):
if there are shallow areas and stuff but it's also used when a lighthouse would have like a wooden
crib that fit to a shoal so they would carefully measure the area to build a structure off site
that would fit on the shoal when they tow it to site so they don't have to spend all that time on
the ocean when you could just take some measurements do it offshore and then tow it back out there. Yeah.
(02:41):
So I pulled up a picture of what one of those might look like so it would be helpful while
you're sailing to know where the areas of shallow water are and the old way that they used to measure
this which can still be used today but obviously it just takes a lot longer than modern technology
was to attach a weight to a line and then drop it through the water until it hits the ground.
(03:02):
They would mark on the rope where the water line is while it's resting and then take it up and
measure it above water and they would either do this in feet or fathoms and fathoms is just six feet.
So six foot to one fathom. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah this is cool. It's like a topographical map. Yeah.
Reverse. Inverted. The modern way is to use sonar which uses sound waves and then they use the time
(03:29):
that it takes for the wave to return to calculate what the depth is. I wonder if there's data
collection going on out there to build like Garmin for example. Garmin builds fish finders
and also GPS for diving and boats. I wonder if there's a database on soundography. I'm making
(03:52):
that word up. Yeah like where like anytime someone takes a measurement it's like in their database
or something. For example Pokemon Go. Oh my gosh yeah. I saw an article today. Pokemon Go.
I guess this was always the plan. So some people are saying oh this is always the plan. It's not
a secret but to me it was new. They are data mining and they always have been. That was always the
(04:17):
plan. So they got people to walk around in real life with their phones to play this Pokemon game.
Yeah. And they put specific Pokemon interest areas where they didn't have data and that data is being
used for AI and automated driving and AI vehicles and AI machines. Well they need to make their
(04:40):
GPS system better then. But they did it on purpose. They put poor GPS locations there on purpose.
So as you're walking around like a teenager or you're in your car you're not supposed to be but
you're helping to map their new system. So they just sold that for probably hundreds of millions
of dollars. That data collection. Wow. And they made money the whole time on selling in-game data.
(05:05):
Yeah all that. So I wonder if Garmin doesn't have not that that's evil or not that Garmin's evil but
if they don't have some data mining going on with all their technology. Yeah because don't they have
like boat technology for like finding fish and stuff. Okay so that's probably also like sonar
(05:27):
sounding sort of thing. I think it is exactly. Yeah. Cool. Pretty neat stuff. But that's it. They
use that at the lighthouse we're talking about today which is the Wagachance lighthouse. You said
that confidently. Thank you. The Wagachance. I listened to the guy who owns the organization that
owns the lighthouse say it a few times. Nice. So I think that's the best way. Wagachance. That's the
(05:52):
best way to do it. So I don't know if you recognize the name of this lighthouse but we talked about it
very briefly in our old Mackinac Point light episode and this is another listener lighthouse.
So thank you to Travis for leaving a voicemail on our website and suggesting that we cover this
lighthouse. Very good. We love voicemails. They're so goofy and you can tell people are like uh so
(06:18):
yeah hello uh I'm Emily. Do we have one of those buttons where they can go back and redo it or is
it just like you know. Um I'm not sure. Probably not is what I'm guessing. So yeah I guess I've
never left a voicemail on our website so I don't know how it is. Well the yeah the company we work
for um we work at separate divisions but the company uh we have these digital interviews
(06:44):
and I did not get the job after my digital interview but you get like a
one minute to record yourself answering a question that you get one more chance.
It's like so much pressure. So thank you. Is it Travis? Travis. Very good. Yeah we love it. So
we are heading back to Lake Michigan. Sorry to everybody. I. The great lakes. I tend to
(07:07):
cover Lake Michigan and Maine a ton. I don't know what is happening. There's a lot of lighthouses
there. I know but. A lot of them. That doesn't inherently mean. I don't know I think I'm drawn
to Maine lighthouses which is funny because I've never been there. Anyway Vince is just looking at
me. It's on the list. Maine? Yeah but it's. I know we're gonna go northwest and then well
(07:35):
well in many years from now I guess we'll do whatever I want to do. Hey hey hey hey hey
bologna. I'm just kidding. We did what we wanted what I wanted to do this year. And it was great.
So now you plan the next one. We've started a system. I guess. You planned the last one.
I know I'm just poking fun at you. Okay we're in Lake Michigan.
(07:58):
Wagashan's Point ends seven miles out into the lake and it's full of shallow shoals and small
islands. I have a picture from Google Maps. So this north of Sturgeon Bay is where we have
Wagashan's Point and there's also the little disconnected the far one is I think it's the
(08:21):
far one is Wagashan's Island and little bits and very shallow water all around there.
Mackinac City. Yes the little star on there is where our old Mackinac Point is. Hey nice.
So it's on there. $5,000 was appropriated in 1837 for a lighthouse marking this like little
(08:42):
islandy point which was originally planned for being on the mainland. So like still on the
the point you know where it sticks out into the water but not on one of the islands. However they
did a survey as they do before they decided to build a lighthouse and it showed that the light
would be better served out in the lake more to mark where boats were safe to travel which makes
(09:04):
a lot of sense. Yeah. Why would you smack a lighthouse in the middle of an area where you
really should mark the end where people go around. Yeah the middle I guess if you put it more inland
you could just say hey stay far away from this light. Yeah. But then it makes it so inconvenient
and they're having to take measurements and ever just aim for the lighthouse and go around it.
(09:25):
They go. So like that's the better way to go. It's got to know which side you're on. Yeah right.
So that's what they decided to do. So I have a picture there's Grays Reef lighthouse and above
that I put a little pin where Wagachance is. Wow I expected it to be on Wagachance Island. I know
it's actually far out because Google Maps doesn't show all the shallow areas so although
(09:49):
they're showing the visual islands there's a lot of ground underneath that like reefs and shoals
and all that that don't show up on the map. So I found where it is based on longitude and latitude
and it took me a long time to find it on the map because Google doesn't make it easy. You can't
just like you can't just type in latitude this longitude that it won't come up with any results
(10:13):
so you have to like click around. Okay. Preface this to say that I probably don't know that there
is an easier way to do this. So anyway that's where our lighthouse is and I don't know it.
Is Grays Reef shown on the map because it's another significant lighthouse probably. Yes
(10:34):
and also it's the reason why our lighthouse today is not showing on Google Maps is because
it's technically ruins. Oh yeah. So shame this Grays Reef light came decades after
Wagachance was out of service. So that's why it's so close. You said Wagachance we're talking 1830s.
(10:58):
Yeah for the or for the allocation at least. Right. So yeah. So when it was first like hey
we need a lighthouse here because we had a light ship the Lois McLean.
Which had been anchored near Wagachance shoal for five years and as actually the first light ship
on the Great Lakes. So oh cool. Yeah. So a little bit of fun history there but the light was hard
to keep on during hot harsh weather because you know that a ship whips around with the waves
(11:24):
and needed to be a towed away for the winter and spring because of ice. So they needed something
more permanent and that also meant that they could re-signify the ship. So that's why we
reallocate the Lois McLean to somewhere that needs a light ship. I wonder I don't mean to take us off
track but maybe in the future I'll look into it. When they took these light ships off station
(11:47):
because of the weather did trade in the region like stop like were merchants not running Lake
Superior. Good question because they couldn't in through ice. It's solid ice. It must maybe
that maybe they did like this sounds so stupid I'm sure but like sledding dogs like you know
(12:08):
maybe that business picked up during the winter time or people just sheltered in place. I really
don't know. Yeah maybe they just stopped shipments during the winter. We should look that up. That
would be a good that would be good history Bowie. Well that's one of the reasons there's so many
wrecks in the Great Lakes is because there's so much ship traffic. True. I don't know we should
we have people we could ask who are literally professionals but I don't know if that was
(12:30):
seasonally you know every every fall. Everything shut down. 80% of the wrecks happened because
people had to get their last shipment in or something. Yeah interesting. Open question.
Kind of cool. Should look more into that. So because they changed their plans originally the
lighthouse was going to be on the mainland now it's going to be on a reef they needed a lot
more money in order to build it so Congress sent another $25,000 in 1838 and then $38,000 more
(12:58):
dollars in 1848. We never learned to budget. And another $20,500 in 1850. This is a very expensive
lighthouse. And there was a solid 12 years between or like 13 years before between the first allocation
of money and the last one so it took them that long to get around to like actually building the
(13:20):
thing. But you also remember this was early on in like building caissons and cribs and stuff so
I'm not surprised that it would take that long. The area that they wanted to build on was 12
well between 4 and 12 feet of water. Okay. So like it's rocky you know it's up and down. Yeah.
(13:41):
And so they did soundings in order to build a white and yellow pine
crib on nearby St. Helena Island. Let's see if I have it. And they did all that sounding work
with rope and weight at that time. Yes. It's this one up here. That's pretty neat. It made it into
my picture. So yeah that so they would they built it on St. Helena and then towed it I think they
(14:08):
said it was like 14 miles back to where the rock was that they were building on. The bottom of the
crib up to the water line was filled with concrete and on top and I took quote from
lighthouse friends because I don't know too much about what any of this really means but I figured
it's probably I can just put any information out there and on top quote large blocks of hammer
(14:30):
dressed Sandusky limestone set in hydraulic cement were used to form 16 foot tall bases for the tower
and dwelling that rose four feet above the deck of the crib. Cool. The bottom of the crib was
this work began in earnest in 1848 but in 1849 they started working on the tower because they
finished the crib. They used yellow Milwaukee brick to build a circular tower with a story
(14:56):
and a half keepers dwelling connected by a two foot walkway. So like somewhere else they referred
to it as an integral lighthouse but I think since there's just even though it's just two feet I feel
like they're if you're referring to as a walkway then they're not actually connected. I would consider
this not to be an integral lighthouse. Two feet is not even enough space to open a door. Interesting.
(15:19):
At least a standard door today. Oh yeah I didn't even think about how small two feet is. I mean you
could have them both and open swing into the buildings which is likely what they did. Yeah.
But that's close. Yeah I guess you'd want to keep them separate if you're like heating your home
like I don't want to heat the entire lighthouse tower by. Just put in a door. Yeah I guess. I don't
know. At least it was close. You know short commute. Yeah just a little walk. The wooden pier around the
(15:46):
light station was 90 by 100 feet and was 12 feet above water covered in thick oak planks and I don't
actually have a picture of it before the oldest picture that I have. Okay. So I have a drawing
of like original plans for it. Beautiful. Yeah it is nice. I like the dome top. It's very old
(16:07):
fashion for a lighthouse I feel. It still looks like that today but there's some differences that
I don't want to just put on the screen until I talk about them. Okay. Look I see a ladder or steps
on the center view. Yeah. And on the left view. Are those facing away from this
keeper's house? I'm not sure. Maybe they're for emergencies. I don't actually know what the layout
(16:29):
is referring to and I also don't know how old these drawings are so maybe it was before they
had decided everything and it was just like a general sketch. I think I take it for granted
a lot of people do now but the quality of these drawings done by hand. Oh I know. It's really
incredible. It's so funny they'd be impressed by like straight lines but if you think about it
there's they're artists as well as engineers. But yeah you can see in the bottom right the
(16:55):
the shape of the original pier which changes. Okay. In 1850 an iron spiral staircase was added to the
76 foot tall light tower so 76 is pretty good especially like normally we have little light
houses. On the open water yeah. Yeah. Along with its lantern room a boat house a wood house fog
bell and a boat crane that they added so they just finished it up by like adding all the extra stuff
(17:20):
and then in 1851 Wagachants light was operational sporting a third order lens which they were
placed with a fourth order with a white flash every 90 seconds sometime before 1858 but I
couldn't they they actually don't even have the light list on US LHS anymore so. Wow. I know. A
head keeper was the only one at the light for the first two years of operation and they had to
(17:43):
have a second head keeper. Yeah. So they had to have a second head keeper for the first two years
of operation resulting in a lot of keeper turnover because it was so isolated and lonely. Yeah. And
by 1830 1853 they added a first. My gosh first assistant position with a second added in 1856.
(18:06):
Okay. Yeah. Every couple of years they were like let's just add another one. A little bit more
of a second head keeper. Yeah. And they were planning to have that many people. So I didn't
see anything about it but I'm interested to know if it was difficult living. I'm sure this was a
stag station so they wouldn't have families. Well and they're on a crib as well so there's nowhere
(18:27):
to go. Yeah. You can't go take a walk. Can you imagine. Oh how cramped you would feel that you
can't go on a walk. Nowhere to go. By 1860 the wooden crib needed some serious help and while
they were trying to fix it they did a thorough examination which you should do and found out
that they needed two hundred thousand dollars in order to fix it because really they just needed
(18:52):
to build a new one. And like the fact that the lighthouse is already there it was at a loss.
Yeah. It makes it seriously problematic but the lighthouse board urged Congress to give them the
money saying the need for Wagachance was quote second to none in the Lake region which I would
have thought was a good idea. But the area is very shallow and unpredictable. Yeah I mean this is a
(19:15):
little silly but first glance I took at the map you know this is where I'd take my boat and I would
have wrecked. Yeah I would have sunk it. I know it's like oh it's far enough away from the islands
that there's probably no shallow area but they're just in the middle of nowhere. You never and even
the area that it was built on 90 by 100 feet ranged from 4 to 12 feet of water. That's like
(19:36):
so after they received the funds because Congress did give them two hundred thousand dollars it was
decided to build an elliptical stone pier instead of the wooden square one. I'm not really sure why
like an oval but equal squished circle. I don't know maybe there was some cost benefit to having
some straight lines going on. Or maybe like yeah maybe there's some sort of like like when waves
(20:02):
hit it or when ice hit it stronger to have curves than probably square or the square original.
Stress distribution is optimized in a circle. So the closer you are to a circle the best you can
distribute. Interesting and yeah earlier I said circle foundation I meant square. Okay. It was
square. That was my bad. Cool. So the excavation teams worked in an iron cofferdam. Oh yeah. Okay
(20:28):
I was like I feel like we talked about it but the words are not clicking with an airlock in an
attempt to reach bedrock for their foundation to sit on. This project was the first time a pneumatic
process was used to sink a case in foundation for a lighthouse. Very interesting. After they had
reached 15 feet into the ground and not reached bedrock they were like I think we're done. Oh no
(20:53):
oh no. They were just like we'll quit here. So they halted excavation in 1868 and just were like
this will be good enough. They're just which it's still standing so it was good enough.
But it's funny when they're like we're reaching bedrock and they're like 15 feet's probably good.
That's crazy. Yeah if you want to hear more about cofferdam and caissons go check out the last
(21:14):
episode on Baltimore Harbor. Yeah. Talk about that one. Two episodes ago 65. Go check out. Two ago.
We are flying. Well I know recording a lot pre-holidays. But yeah 15 feet under they may
have you know determined this is not bedrock but look how solid it is. Yeah I think it was a lot
of rock and there were like big boulders that they were breaking up and moving so it's just kind of
(21:38):
very expensive. A year later the foundation pier was laid inside the cofferdam and a stone pier was
built on top and a new keeper's dwelling was built for twelve thousand dollars because they figured
why not. Oh that's probably they made it probably bigger for more keepers at that point. Oh I hope
so. However less than a decade later we are once again in trouble. The lighthouse board noted the
(22:02):
station was quote entirely out of repair and quote needing twenty five thousand dollars for more work.
So we are just it is just a money sucker. We are still we're still not even into the 1880s and it's
like hundreds of thousands of dollars. What was the cause of the need for these repairs. This one was
the actual tower and the dwelling that were like falling into disrepair. So they encased both in
(22:29):
iron sheets. Oh my gosh. And added a new steam fog whistle and they also added a new lens that was
fixed illuminating all the way around with work completed in 1884. So it took them a long time to
get all of that enacted. That's crazy. Yeah jumping ahead into the 90s 1893 the dwelling needed a new
(22:49):
roof and paint which they did in horizontal white and red bands including the tower which this is
the first time I have a picture of the lighthouse. So you can definitely see the original design in
there but the keeper's house is probably a lot bigger. It's it's more space than you would think.
See that looks like a full operation. Yeah. Like a well-built. See yeah that's the boat house in
(23:13):
front there. So big house multiple chimneys full tower clad in iron. Yeah. Yeah that looks expensive.
I know and I'm interested it shows the square on the outside but you can see on the inside the
elliptical actual foundation pier. So there was some difference between the two and maybe that
(23:36):
ladder you saw earlier was coming down to this. Like it looks like just a spot like a barrier for
ice. Yeah maybe. Like that sloped kind of shape. They also changed the light characteristic to a
white flash every 45 seconds and so they didn't change the lens or anything they just added two
(23:58):
flash panels that rotated around the light so it gave it the illusion of flashing with a fixed lens.
I feel like they're changing flash patterns all the time. I know I think it's because they were
adding more lighthouses around the area. Must be. Three years later they added a large oh here it is.
Obviously okay in my defense I took these notes all in one sitting took me like how long was it
(24:24):
because you fell asleep at 730. A day. It took me like five hours straight sitting to take these
notes so some of the details. Pretty quick. All right what are you saying? I spend a lot of time
on episodes they're not better I just spend more time. Well your notes scare me when I look at
your notes you just copy and paste things from. I don't read the whole thing. No I'm saying you
(24:49):
copy and paste important things from resources and then reference those as you speak. I my brain
I'm a bullet point person. It's got to be in my own words because if I'm reading something it's
going to be obvious. Yeah I don't write a script. You know whenever I'm like quoting stuff I'm like
second to none in the lake region. Nice. So here it is yeah yeah yeah. Sorry 1896.
(25:17):
They added a large concrete protecting pier around the outside presumably for ice. Oh yeah so there
it is. This big square with the sloping sides. Two miles north of this lighthouse is White
Shoal lighthouse which we cover in episode 58. Its construction was completed in 1910 causing
(25:39):
Waukesha to discontinue in 1912. Wait White Shoals is way up there. It's two miles. So White Shoals
must be where ships were routed to to hug White Shoals rather than here to avoid this. I don't
remember what the notes were but I have this vague memory that you were supposed to go tight around
(26:01):
White Shoals. White Shoals I remember was a bastard to build as well. Yeah but it's much larger and
more powerful than this lighthouse so then they built it and they're like we don't need it.
I have a picture from 1931 that so at this point it had been discontinued for almost 20 years
but it shows a it's a good picture of the iron shell they put around the entire thing. Oh those
(26:25):
are rivets. Uh-huh and even the windows you can see that they can bar them closed but they're also
made of metal. It's pretty cool and it makes sense if you're closing up shop for the winter then
you've got to protect your windows. Yeah porthole window it looks like or maybe that's an air
intake or exhaust and then shutters that are steel. Everything's riveted. It's so funny I just think
(26:48):
of welding. Yeah how things have changed. Oh man that is crazy. So it held up well for a long time.
I have another picture later that shows the 30s 1930s. The picture yeah 1931. 100 year old light
station at this time. Yeah almost almost yeah crazy. 1943 during World War II the Navy used
(27:10):
many Lake Michigan islands to train naval forces including the islands of Wagachants
and Lake Michigan was used since the ocean was unsafe you know because war and all yeah the
German U-boats and all that and so they converted two luxury liners stripped of their first two
cabins and given 500 foot wooden flight decks so they converted two like cruise ships into
(27:37):
aircraft carriers. Yes oh my gosh I like I don't have the word and I guarantee it's not written
anywhere in my notes. Aircraft carrier. I have a picture but it was um with wood deck. So there's
a picture up top of what they used to look like and then when they were converted. Man we did
some cool stuff. I know so the C and B and the greater buffalo were transformed into the USS
(28:02):
Wolverine and the USS Sable. That's really neat. I know how cool that you can just convert it just
like it doesn't click to me that it would be how like do they gut the inside there's almost no
similarities between the first and the second ship. It's so funny. There's a sidetrack. Okay.
(28:27):
Just cut it later if you want. I'm ready. There's some ships that my dad I think Iowa class
battleships I think that's what they were called but they were built in World War II towards
the end and they didn't see a lot of action is what I understood but we had them as museums
like these I think these two or three ships that were like literally you can walk around
(28:50):
the war is over it's been 20 years yeah and then um there was some conflict in the 80s
uh desert storm I think okay I know very little of this clearly but these ships were converted
they were upfitted with armor and modern weapons at the time. Why is that so cool? We redeployed
them oh my gosh and they ended up uh actually firing their like long gun cannons. Oh my gosh.
(29:15):
Um so there's images with 1980s quality over like from an airplane of the battleships firing
at the land I don't know even where. Yeah they still got it. Pretty cool. Like that's so neat.
There's a concept that was actually drawn up to further employ modern technology with these ships
(29:35):
because they were already built. Yeah. It wasn't uh taken up luckily. Um are they still can you
still see? I think they were retired and dismantled. Man. I think so. I can go find it later. It's a
sidetrack. Went backwards a little there. Other military re-ups upfitting that's really interesting.
That happened with light ships too. There was a couple instances of merchant ships being turned
(29:59):
into light ships so it happened around it's probably a huge cost saver even though I can't
really wrap my head around how you would turn a luxury liner into a aircraft carrier that's
but anyway pilots would take off from Glenview airport which is just outside of Chicago and land
on these ships to practice landing on aircraft carriers. Wow. And um at this time the secret
(30:24):
stag one drone program began in 1943 teaching pilots to remote control unmanned aircraft with
bombs our first drones. 1940s? Yep. How did they do that? We didn't have. Just radio controlled
and they were very difficult. I mean they they only used them the next year like a few times and the
(30:47):
hit rate was like 50 percent and so they didn't. I didn't even know about this technology. It's is
there's a ton of information on it and I'm going to have it in my show notes if anyone's interested
in reading about it. I didn't go I read the whole thing but I didn't take notes on all of it so
obviously the thing we're focused on in the lighthouse and guess who else was focused on
(31:09):
on the lighthouse because you got to practice aiming at something with your
no no way yeah our poor lovely Wagachants lighthouse was the target for their practices
and after many hits and a resulting fire that ended up gutting everything inside the lighthouse
it is left only as a shell of its former self. It's a it's a surprise when you bomb your own
(31:34):
stuff what happens to it. I know. Although I'm still impressed. We just kind of have a skeleton
of the lantern room the shell this picture is old steel hanging down yeah maybe the 60s or something
black and white so yeah the shell casing started to peel away. Damn they bombed the lighthouse
there was no other island out there with nothing on it repeatedly I'm like oh it's rude. I guess
(32:00):
the government owned it right but at that point it had been built for a hundred plus years.
You'd think you would still I guess I don't know I would still see it as something historical
but if nothing's protecting it then the military kind of has a lot of leeway with the things they
practice on which they own several times like just bomb it. The military owns the lighthouse
(32:24):
at this time so. Coast Guard. Crazy sad. Sad. In 2006 the Coast Guard deemed the remains of
Wagachants to be excess clearly and offered it up for no cost by the National Historic
Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000 which we talked about in a previous episode. Sure did.
It wasn't for another five years that someone finally stepped up to do something because nobody
(32:49):
was going to take this for no reason. So two two U.S. senators announced that three Michigan
Lighthouses South Haven Pier Head Light, Middle Island Light and Wagachants Light would be
transferred to local preservation groups. So I don't know if that meant they had to they could
skip the whole process but Wagachants Lighthouse Preservation Society stepped up and were working
(33:12):
to restore the lighthouse. But in 2021 the nonprofit dissolved after they concluded that
the lighthouse couldn't be saved because in 2019 there was like record high water levels
in Lake Michigan and they like check on it because you know it's so far out there they're checking
(33:33):
ever on it every once in a while and they found that the water had knocked out a lot of the stones
that are on its foundation. So like even here in this picture you can tell it's not in very good
shape. Well it's been bombed. Yeah I know. I know but oh I think I have a picture. I took a screenshot
um I watched a news like a news story they did on it. You can just see it's just like eating away
(33:59):
into at some point it's going to be a critical some cavity here and it's going to tip into the
lake. So that's sad. RIP. Yeah so they dissolved because they learned that it would cost three
hundred thousand dollars just to protect the base temporarily for a single year and they're like
okay we can't that that's even just to keep it as it is for that long not even. There's only so many
(34:24):
resources available even if you have all the care in the world. There's yeah so I've got a picture
up of it's uh I can't remember what these birds are called it's it's a word uh it's a type of bird
I haven't heard of before but they nest there. It's like fine you guys have it. I know it looks like
something like a prop from a movie or something. Yeah but also the chimney whoever built that
(34:48):
chimney did a damn good job. Yeah got through bombings fires. It looks new. Everything else
looks like hell. Hundreds of years of ice and wind and hang in there. So there's still hope
obviously that somebody's going to like step up and restore it because the coast guards suggested
they demolish it and they're like I can't remember who some somebody was like we're not going to do
(35:13):
that because there's still a chance that somebody could fix it. I think it is too far gone because
too far gone because nobody has the money to put to I mean this would be multi-million dollar. Yeah
you'd have to I mean I do not know you'd have to start with a big casein that just dries and isolates
this and then you could work within the casein to start building a new lighthouse. I don't think
(35:41):
that I mean think about the tower think about a structure that's been literally attacked. I keep
I keep saying bombed. Let's say it's been targeted with guns or whatever. I don't know what they did
right but something happened to it. It lost its metal steel casing. I don't know how a structural
engineer is supposed to say yep we can put new brick on the outside of this. Like are you going
(36:03):
to x-ray the whole thing? Right. I mean that's a real question because how do you confirm this is
structurally safe where people from the public could access this space again? That you'd feel
comfortable people walking in there. I don't know. And also looking at this photo it appears the
metal casing is still on there but the the one that was on the tower peeled off but there's still
(36:28):
I was looking at that hole in the side and I was like that looks like metal. Crazy. It's just kind
of hidden under all the bird poop. Well you never know who's going to come along. Yeah there could
be somebody. Maybe somebody passes away and they had a couple of million dollars they left for the
specific use here. I don't I just yeah somebody wins a lottery and this is their thing you know.
(36:50):
I hope maybe someday or it'll be the end of yet another lighthouse. No one's going and climbing
that thing now. Oh no. There's no need to. There's no stairs. Yeah there's no need to knock this down.
It's unfortunate that is the story of Wagashawt's lighthouse hoping one day that somebody will step
up and you know take one for the team and rebuild this thing. It's neat that you can still you know
(37:14):
from a boat or presumably a plane you can still see an item that was started in the 1830s.
That's really neat. Yeah yeah and it is pretty it's just decrepit. It's a unique build. It's
very pleasing to look at. So yeah sorry that was a bummer. It had a cool history at least. Yeah.
A lot of places have no history. Thank you to our listener for suggesting it because we knew about it but I was like oh.
(37:37):
That's right. You give us reasons to look deeper into Lighthouse's specific ones and they always
turn out to be interesting. Well thank you for listening in to yet another Lighthouse Lowdown
episode. You can check out our Instagram at the Lighthouse Lowdown. Our website thelighthouselowdown.com
where you can watch videos, listen to our podcast, leave reviews which we love, leave voicemails, send
(38:03):
us messages, all that jazz all in one place. You ready? Yeah thanks for hanging out. Yeah we'll
catch you next time on the Lighthouse Lowdown. Nice with Gustav.
Hi everybody, I'm Emily and I'm Vince and this is the lighthouse lowdown.
(00:13):
Wish people could see our dance moves. We could do video. No. Oh yeah. Nobody wants to see
my facial expressions. I think they do and they do and they would also be seeing me with my coffee
I just made and my work clothes. Also for me sometimes it ruins it knowing what a person
looks like because their face may not match their voice or something. Do you think that would help
(00:38):
our case or hurt our case? Are you saying what are you saying? Who knows? I guess our face is over on
our Instagram anyway so. Oh yeah. Anyway I do have a history buoy today. Buoy. It popped up
during my research for the episode so we can have it. It'll appear a little later. Like a natural buoy.
(01:01):
Nice. Yeah all natural. All natural. I like to put the buoys later. I did that once and it worked.
What do you mean you like doing that? I did it once and it worked. That's what I mean.
I disagree with this concept but I will let you do whatever creative wind takes you. Thanks. Welcome.
So history buoy is sounding. Have you heard of that? No I don't think so. You look like you're
(01:30):
gonna say something. I think I mean I think I've heard of it but I don't I can't recall
what I think it is. Okay it is a method for measuring the depth of a body of water at different
points. Yes. Which is important and it's probably something you heard when you were doing the case in.
No we talked well yes but also we talked about sounding when we talked about
(01:54):
what a knot is. We were talking about nautical. Really? I think a long time ago and then there
was the beginning of the movie King Kong we were talking about. That's right yeah.
Sounding but yes please remind us. Okay it's a pretty short buoy but I have a picture
because usually these measurements are shown as just numbers on a map. It's a good way to determine
(02:18):
if there are shallow areas and stuff but it's also used when a lighthouse would have like a wooden
crib that fit to a shoal so they would carefully measure the area to build a structure off site
that would fit on the shoal when they tow it to site so they don't have to spend all that time on
the ocean when you could just take some measurements do it offshore and then tow it back out there. Yeah.
(02:41):
So I pulled up a picture of what one of those might look like so it would be helpful while
you're sailing to know where the areas of shallow water are and the old way that they used to measure
this which can still be used today but obviously it just takes a lot longer than modern technology
was to attach a weight to a line and then drop it through the water until it hits the ground.
(03:02):
They would mark on the rope where the water line is while it's resting and then take it up and
measure it above water and they would either do this in feet or fathoms and fathoms is just six feet.
So six foot to one fathom. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah this is cool. It's like a topographical map. Yeah.
Reverse. Inverted. The modern way is to use sonar which uses sound waves and then they use the time
(03:29):
that it takes for the wave to return to calculate what the depth is. I wonder if there's data
collection going on out there to build like Garmin for example. Garmin builds fish finders
and also GPS for diving and boats. I wonder if there's a database on soundography. I'm making
(03:52):
that word up. Yeah like where like anytime someone takes a measurement it's like in their database
or something. For example Pokemon Go. Oh my gosh yeah. I saw an article today. Pokemon Go.
I guess this was always the plan. So some people are saying oh this is always the plan. It's not
a secret but to me it was new. They are data mining and they always have been. That was always the
(04:17):
plan. So they got people to walk around in real life with their phones to play this Pokemon game.
Yeah. And they put specific Pokemon interest areas where they didn't have data and that data is being
used for AI and automated driving and AI vehicles and AI machines. Well they need to make their
(04:40):
GPS system better then. But they did it on purpose. They put poor GPS locations there on purpose.
So as you're walking around like a teenager or you're in your car you're not supposed to be but
you're helping to map their new system. So they just sold that for probably hundreds of millions
of dollars. That data collection. Wow. And they made money the whole time on selling in-game data.
(05:05):
Yeah all that. So I wonder if Garmin doesn't have not that that's evil or not that Garmin's evil but
if they don't have some data mining going on with all their technology. Yeah because don't they have
like boat technology for like finding fish and stuff. Okay so that's probably also like sonar
(05:27):
sounding sort of thing. I think it is exactly. Yeah. Cool. Pretty neat stuff. But that's it. They
use that at the lighthouse we're talking about today which is the Wagachance lighthouse. You said
that confidently. Thank you. The Wagachance. I listened to the guy who owns the organization that
owns the lighthouse say it a few times. Nice. So I think that's the best way. Wagachance. That's the
(05:52):
best way to do it. So I don't know if you recognize the name of this lighthouse but we talked about it
very briefly in our old Mackinac Point light episode and this is another listener lighthouse.
So thank you to Travis for leaving a voicemail on our website and suggesting that we cover this
lighthouse. Very good. We love voicemails. They're so goofy and you can tell people are like uh so
(06:18):
yeah hello uh I'm Emily. Do we have one of those buttons where they can go back and redo it or is
it just like you know. Um I'm not sure. Probably not is what I'm guessing. So yeah I guess I've
never left a voicemail on our website so I don't know how it is. Well the yeah the company we work
for um we work at separate divisions but the company uh we have these digital interviews
(06:44):
and I did not get the job after my digital interview but you get like a
one minute to record yourself answering a question that you get one more chance.
It's like so much pressure. So thank you. Is it Travis? Travis. Very good. Yeah we love it. So
we are heading back to Lake Michigan. Sorry to everybody. I. The great lakes. I tend to
(07:07):
cover Lake Michigan and Maine a ton. I don't know what is happening. There's a lot of lighthouses
there. I know but. A lot of them. That doesn't inherently mean. I don't know I think I'm drawn
to Maine lighthouses which is funny because I've never been there. Anyway Vince is just looking at
me. It's on the list. Maine? Yeah but it's. I know we're gonna go northwest and then well
(07:35):
well in many years from now I guess we'll do whatever I want to do. Hey hey hey hey hey
bologna. I'm just kidding. We did what we wanted what I wanted to do this year. And it was great.
So now you plan the next one. We've started a system. I guess. You planned the last one.
I know I'm just poking fun at you. Okay we're in Lake Michigan.
(07:58):
Wagashan's Point ends seven miles out into the lake and it's full of shallow shoals and small
islands. I have a picture from Google Maps. So this north of Sturgeon Bay is where we have
Wagashan's Point and there's also the little disconnected the far one is I think it's the
(08:21):
far one is Wagashan's Island and little bits and very shallow water all around there.
Mackinac City. Yes the little star on there is where our old Mackinac Point is. Hey nice.
So it's on there. $5,000 was appropriated in 1837 for a lighthouse marking this like little
(08:42):
islandy point which was originally planned for being on the mainland. So like still on the
the point you know where it sticks out into the water but not on one of the islands. However they
did a survey as they do before they decided to build a lighthouse and it showed that the light
would be better served out in the lake more to mark where boats were safe to travel which makes
(09:04):
a lot of sense. Yeah. Why would you smack a lighthouse in the middle of an area where you
really should mark the end where people go around. Yeah the middle I guess if you put it more inland
you could just say hey stay far away from this light. Yeah. But then it makes it so inconvenient
and they're having to take measurements and ever just aim for the lighthouse and go around it.
(09:25):
They go. So like that's the better way to go. It's got to know which side you're on. Yeah right.
So that's what they decided to do. So I have a picture there's Grays Reef lighthouse and above
that I put a little pin where Wagachance is. Wow I expected it to be on Wagachance Island. I know
it's actually far out because Google Maps doesn't show all the shallow areas so although
(09:49):
they're showing the visual islands there's a lot of ground underneath that like reefs and shoals
and all that that don't show up on the map. So I found where it is based on longitude and latitude
and it took me a long time to find it on the map because Google doesn't make it easy. You can't
just like you can't just type in latitude this longitude that it won't come up with any results
(10:13):
so you have to like click around. Okay. Preface this to say that I probably don't know that there
is an easier way to do this. So anyway that's where our lighthouse is and I don't know it.
Is Grays Reef shown on the map because it's another significant lighthouse probably. Yes
(10:34):
and also it's the reason why our lighthouse today is not showing on Google Maps is because
it's technically ruins. Oh yeah. So shame this Grays Reef light came decades after
Wagachance was out of service. So that's why it's so close. You said Wagachance we're talking 1830s.
(10:58):
Yeah for the or for the allocation at least. Right. So yeah. So when it was first like hey
we need a lighthouse here because we had a light ship the Lois McLean.
Which had been anchored near Wagachance shoal for five years and as actually the first light ship
on the Great Lakes. So oh cool. Yeah. So a little bit of fun history there but the light was hard
to keep on during hot harsh weather because you know that a ship whips around with the waves
(11:24):
and needed to be a towed away for the winter and spring because of ice. So they needed something
more permanent and that also meant that they could re-signify the ship. So that's why we
reallocate the Lois McLean to somewhere that needs a light ship. I wonder I don't mean to take us off
track but maybe in the future I'll look into it. When they took these light ships off station
(11:47):
because of the weather did trade in the region like stop like were merchants not running Lake
Superior. Good question because they couldn't in through ice. It's solid ice. It must maybe
that maybe they did like this sounds so stupid I'm sure but like sledding dogs like you know
(12:08):
maybe that business picked up during the winter time or people just sheltered in place. I really
don't know. Yeah maybe they just stopped shipments during the winter. We should look that up. That
would be a good that would be good history Bowie. Well that's one of the reasons there's so many
wrecks in the Great Lakes is because there's so much ship traffic. True. I don't know we should
we have people we could ask who are literally professionals but I don't know if that was
(12:30):
seasonally you know every every fall. Everything shut down. 80% of the wrecks happened because
people had to get their last shipment in or something. Yeah interesting. Open question.
Kind of cool. Should look more into that. So because they changed their plans originally the
lighthouse was going to be on the mainland now it's going to be on a reef they needed a lot
more money in order to build it so Congress sent another $25,000 in 1838 and then $38,000 more
(12:58):
dollars in 1848. We never learned to budget. And another $20,500 in 1850. This is a very expensive
lighthouse. And there was a solid 12 years between or like 13 years before between the first allocation
of money and the last one so it took them that long to get around to like actually building the
(13:20):
thing. But you also remember this was early on in like building caissons and cribs and stuff so
I'm not surprised that it would take that long. The area that they wanted to build on was 12
well between 4 and 12 feet of water. Okay. So like it's rocky you know it's up and down. Yeah.
(13:41):
And so they did soundings in order to build a white and yellow pine
crib on nearby St. Helena Island. Let's see if I have it. And they did all that sounding work
with rope and weight at that time. Yes. It's this one up here. That's pretty neat. It made it into
my picture. So yeah that so they would they built it on St. Helena and then towed it I think they
(14:08):
said it was like 14 miles back to where the rock was that they were building on. The bottom of the
crib up to the water line was filled with concrete and on top and I took quote from
lighthouse friends because I don't know too much about what any of this really means but I figured
it's probably I can just put any information out there and on top quote large blocks of hammer
(14:30):
dressed Sandusky limestone set in hydraulic cement were used to form 16 foot tall bases for the tower
and dwelling that rose four feet above the deck of the crib. Cool. The bottom of the crib was
this work began in earnest in 1848 but in 1849 they started working on the tower because they
finished the crib. They used yellow Milwaukee brick to build a circular tower with a story
(14:56):
and a half keepers dwelling connected by a two foot walkway. So like somewhere else they referred
to it as an integral lighthouse but I think since there's just even though it's just two feet I feel
like they're if you're referring to as a walkway then they're not actually connected. I would consider
this not to be an integral lighthouse. Two feet is not even enough space to open a door. Interesting.
(15:19):
At least a standard door today. Oh yeah I didn't even think about how small two feet is. I mean you
could have them both and open swing into the buildings which is likely what they did. Yeah.
But that's close. Yeah I guess you'd want to keep them separate if you're like heating your home
like I don't want to heat the entire lighthouse tower by. Just put in a door. Yeah I guess. I don't
know. At least it was close. You know short commute. Yeah just a little walk. The wooden pier around the
(15:46):
light station was 90 by 100 feet and was 12 feet above water covered in thick oak planks and I don't
actually have a picture of it before the oldest picture that I have. Okay. So I have a drawing
of like original plans for it. Beautiful. Yeah it is nice. I like the dome top. It's very old
(16:07):
fashion for a lighthouse I feel. It still looks like that today but there's some differences that
I don't want to just put on the screen until I talk about them. Okay. Look I see a ladder or steps
on the center view. Yeah. And on the left view. Are those facing away from this
keeper's house? I'm not sure. Maybe they're for emergencies. I don't actually know what the layout
(16:29):
is referring to and I also don't know how old these drawings are so maybe it was before they
had decided everything and it was just like a general sketch. I think I take it for granted
a lot of people do now but the quality of these drawings done by hand. Oh I know. It's really
incredible. It's so funny they'd be impressed by like straight lines but if you think about it
there's they're artists as well as engineers. But yeah you can see in the bottom right the
(16:55):
the shape of the original pier which changes. Okay. In 1850 an iron spiral staircase was added to the
76 foot tall light tower so 76 is pretty good especially like normally we have little light
houses. On the open water yeah. Yeah. Along with its lantern room a boat house a wood house fog
bell and a boat crane that they added so they just finished it up by like adding all the extra stuff
(17:20):
and then in 1851 Wagachants light was operational sporting a third order lens which they were
placed with a fourth order with a white flash every 90 seconds sometime before 1858 but I
couldn't they they actually don't even have the light list on US LHS anymore so. Wow. I know. A
head keeper was the only one at the light for the first two years of operation and they had to
(17:43):
have a second head keeper. Yeah. So they had to have a second head keeper for the first two years
of operation resulting in a lot of keeper turnover because it was so isolated and lonely. Yeah. And
by 1830 1853 they added a first. My gosh first assistant position with a second added in 1856.
(18:06):
Okay. Yeah. Every couple of years they were like let's just add another one. A little bit more
of a second head keeper. Yeah. And they were planning to have that many people. So I didn't
see anything about it but I'm interested to know if it was difficult living. I'm sure this was a
stag station so they wouldn't have families. Well and they're on a crib as well so there's nowhere
(18:27):
to go. Yeah. You can't go take a walk. Can you imagine. Oh how cramped you would feel that you
can't go on a walk. Nowhere to go. By 1860 the wooden crib needed some serious help and while
they were trying to fix it they did a thorough examination which you should do and found out
that they needed two hundred thousand dollars in order to fix it because really they just needed
(18:52):
to build a new one. And like the fact that the lighthouse is already there it was at a loss.
Yeah. It makes it seriously problematic but the lighthouse board urged Congress to give them the
money saying the need for Wagachance was quote second to none in the Lake region which I would
have thought was a good idea. But the area is very shallow and unpredictable. Yeah I mean this is a
(19:15):
little silly but first glance I took at the map you know this is where I'd take my boat and I would
have wrecked. Yeah I would have sunk it. I know it's like oh it's far enough away from the islands
that there's probably no shallow area but they're just in the middle of nowhere. You never and even
the area that it was built on 90 by 100 feet ranged from 4 to 12 feet of water. That's like
(19:36):
so after they received the funds because Congress did give them two hundred thousand dollars it was
decided to build an elliptical stone pier instead of the wooden square one. I'm not really sure why
like an oval but equal squished circle. I don't know maybe there was some cost benefit to having
some straight lines going on. Or maybe like yeah maybe there's some sort of like like when waves
(20:02):
hit it or when ice hit it stronger to have curves than probably square or the square original.
Stress distribution is optimized in a circle. So the closer you are to a circle the best you can
distribute. Interesting and yeah earlier I said circle foundation I meant square. Okay. It was
square. That was my bad. Cool. So the excavation teams worked in an iron cofferdam. Oh yeah. Okay
(20:28):
I was like I feel like we talked about it but the words are not clicking with an airlock in an
attempt to reach bedrock for their foundation to sit on. This project was the first time a pneumatic
process was used to sink a case in foundation for a lighthouse. Very interesting. After they had
reached 15 feet into the ground and not reached bedrock they were like I think we're done. Oh no
(20:53):
oh no. They were just like we'll quit here. So they halted excavation in 1868 and just were like
this will be good enough. They're just which it's still standing so it was good enough.
But it's funny when they're like we're reaching bedrock and they're like 15 feet's probably good.
That's crazy. Yeah if you want to hear more about cofferdam and caissons go check out the last
(21:14):
episode on Baltimore Harbor. Yeah. Talk about that one. Two episodes ago 65. Go check out. Two ago.
We are flying. Well I know recording a lot pre-holidays. But yeah 15 feet under they may
have you know determined this is not bedrock but look how solid it is. Yeah I think it was a lot
of rock and there were like big boulders that they were breaking up and moving so it's just kind of
(21:38):
very expensive. A year later the foundation pier was laid inside the cofferdam and a stone pier was
built on top and a new keeper's dwelling was built for twelve thousand dollars because they figured
why not. Oh that's probably they made it probably bigger for more keepers at that point. Oh I hope
so. However less than a decade later we are once again in trouble. The lighthouse board noted the
(22:02):
station was quote entirely out of repair and quote needing twenty five thousand dollars for more work.
So we are just it is just a money sucker. We are still we're still not even into the 1880s and it's
like hundreds of thousands of dollars. What was the cause of the need for these repairs. This one was
the actual tower and the dwelling that were like falling into disrepair. So they encased both in
(22:29):
iron sheets. Oh my gosh. And added a new steam fog whistle and they also added a new lens that was
fixed illuminating all the way around with work completed in 1884. So it took them a long time to
get all of that enacted. That's crazy. Yeah jumping ahead into the 90s 1893 the dwelling needed a new
(22:49):
roof and paint which they did in horizontal white and red bands including the tower which this is
the first time I have a picture of the lighthouse. So you can definitely see the original design in
there but the keeper's house is probably a lot bigger. It's it's more space than you would think.
See that looks like a full operation. Yeah. Like a well-built. See yeah that's the boat house in
(23:13):
front there. So big house multiple chimneys full tower clad in iron. Yeah. Yeah that looks expensive.
I know and I'm interested it shows the square on the outside but you can see on the inside the
elliptical actual foundation pier. So there was some difference between the two and maybe that
(23:36):
ladder you saw earlier was coming down to this. Like it looks like just a spot like a barrier for
ice. Yeah maybe. Like that sloped kind of shape. They also changed the light characteristic to a
white flash every 45 seconds and so they didn't change the lens or anything they just added two
(23:58):
flash panels that rotated around the light so it gave it the illusion of flashing with a fixed lens.
I feel like they're changing flash patterns all the time. I know I think it's because they were
adding more lighthouses around the area. Must be. Three years later they added a large oh here it is.
Obviously okay in my defense I took these notes all in one sitting took me like how long was it
(24:24):
because you fell asleep at 730. A day. It took me like five hours straight sitting to take these
notes so some of the details. Pretty quick. All right what are you saying? I spend a lot of time
on episodes they're not better I just spend more time. Well your notes scare me when I look at
your notes you just copy and paste things from. I don't read the whole thing. No I'm saying you
(24:49):
copy and paste important things from resources and then reference those as you speak. I my brain
I'm a bullet point person. It's got to be in my own words because if I'm reading something it's
going to be obvious. Yeah I don't write a script. You know whenever I'm like quoting stuff I'm like
second to none in the lake region. Nice. So here it is yeah yeah yeah. Sorry 1896.
(25:17):
They added a large concrete protecting pier around the outside presumably for ice. Oh yeah so there
it is. This big square with the sloping sides. Two miles north of this lighthouse is White
Shoal lighthouse which we cover in episode 58. Its construction was completed in 1910 causing
(25:39):
Waukesha to discontinue in 1912. Wait White Shoals is way up there. It's two miles. So White Shoals
must be where ships were routed to to hug White Shoals rather than here to avoid this. I don't
remember what the notes were but I have this vague memory that you were supposed to go tight around
(26:01):
White Shoals. White Shoals I remember was a bastard to build as well. Yeah but it's much larger and
more powerful than this lighthouse so then they built it and they're like we don't need it.
I have a picture from 1931 that so at this point it had been discontinued for almost 20 years
but it shows a it's a good picture of the iron shell they put around the entire thing. Oh those
(26:25):
are rivets. Uh-huh and even the windows you can see that they can bar them closed but they're also
made of metal. It's pretty cool and it makes sense if you're closing up shop for the winter then
you've got to protect your windows. Yeah porthole window it looks like or maybe that's an air
intake or exhaust and then shutters that are steel. Everything's riveted. It's so funny I just think
(26:48):
of welding. Yeah how things have changed. Oh man that is crazy. So it held up well for a long time.
I have another picture later that shows the 30s 1930s. The picture yeah 1931. 100 year old light
station at this time. Yeah almost almost yeah crazy. 1943 during World War II the Navy used
(27:10):
many Lake Michigan islands to train naval forces including the islands of Wagachants
and Lake Michigan was used since the ocean was unsafe you know because war and all yeah the
German U-boats and all that and so they converted two luxury liners stripped of their first two
cabins and given 500 foot wooden flight decks so they converted two like cruise ships into
(27:37):
aircraft carriers. Yes oh my gosh I like I don't have the word and I guarantee it's not written
anywhere in my notes. Aircraft carrier. I have a picture but it was um with wood deck. So there's
a picture up top of what they used to look like and then when they were converted. Man we did
some cool stuff. I know so the C and B and the greater buffalo were transformed into the USS
(28:02):
Wolverine and the USS Sable. That's really neat. I know how cool that you can just convert it just
like it doesn't click to me that it would be how like do they gut the inside there's almost no
similarities between the first and the second ship. It's so funny. There's a sidetrack. Okay.
(28:27):
Just cut it later if you want. I'm ready. There's some ships that my dad I think Iowa class
battleships I think that's what they were called but they were built in World War II towards
the end and they didn't see a lot of action is what I understood but we had them as museums
like these I think these two or three ships that were like literally you can walk around
(28:50):
the war is over it's been 20 years yeah and then um there was some conflict in the 80s
uh desert storm I think okay I know very little of this clearly but these ships were converted
they were upfitted with armor and modern weapons at the time. Why is that so cool? We redeployed
them oh my gosh and they ended up uh actually firing their like long gun cannons. Oh my gosh.
(29:15):
Um so there's images with 1980s quality over like from an airplane of the battleships firing
at the land I don't know even where. Yeah they still got it. Pretty cool. Like that's so neat.
There's a concept that was actually drawn up to further employ modern technology with these ships
(29:35):
because they were already built. Yeah. It wasn't uh taken up luckily. Um are they still can you
still see? I think they were retired and dismantled. Man. I think so. I can go find it later. It's a
sidetrack. Went backwards a little there. Other military re-ups upfitting that's really interesting.
That happened with light ships too. There was a couple instances of merchant ships being turned
(29:59):
into light ships so it happened around it's probably a huge cost saver even though I can't
really wrap my head around how you would turn a luxury liner into a aircraft carrier that's
but anyway pilots would take off from Glenview airport which is just outside of Chicago and land
on these ships to practice landing on aircraft carriers. Wow. And um at this time the secret
(30:24):
stag one drone program began in 1943 teaching pilots to remote control unmanned aircraft with
bombs our first drones. 1940s? Yep. How did they do that? We didn't have. Just radio controlled
and they were very difficult. I mean they they only used them the next year like a few times and the
(30:47):
hit rate was like 50 percent and so they didn't. I didn't even know about this technology. It's is
there's a ton of information on it and I'm going to have it in my show notes if anyone's interested
in reading about it. I didn't go I read the whole thing but I didn't take notes on all of it so
obviously the thing we're focused on in the lighthouse and guess who else was focused on
(31:09):
on the lighthouse because you got to practice aiming at something with your
no no way yeah our poor lovely Wagachants lighthouse was the target for their practices
and after many hits and a resulting fire that ended up gutting everything inside the lighthouse
it is left only as a shell of its former self. It's a it's a surprise when you bomb your own
(31:34):
stuff what happens to it. I know. Although I'm still impressed. We just kind of have a skeleton
of the lantern room the shell this picture is old steel hanging down yeah maybe the 60s or something
black and white so yeah the shell casing started to peel away. Damn they bombed the lighthouse
there was no other island out there with nothing on it repeatedly I'm like oh it's rude. I guess
(32:00):
the government owned it right but at that point it had been built for a hundred plus years.
You'd think you would still I guess I don't know I would still see it as something historical
but if nothing's protecting it then the military kind of has a lot of leeway with the things they
practice on which they own several times like just bomb it. The military owns the lighthouse
(32:24):
at this time so. Coast Guard. Crazy sad. Sad. In 2006 the Coast Guard deemed the remains of
Wagachants to be excess clearly and offered it up for no cost by the National Historic
Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000 which we talked about in a previous episode. Sure did.
It wasn't for another five years that someone finally stepped up to do something because nobody
(32:49):
was going to take this for no reason. So two two U.S. senators announced that three Michigan
Lighthouses South Haven Pier Head Light, Middle Island Light and Wagachants Light would be
transferred to local preservation groups. So I don't know if that meant they had to they could
skip the whole process but Wagachants Lighthouse Preservation Society stepped up and were working
(33:12):
to restore the lighthouse. But in 2021 the nonprofit dissolved after they concluded that
the lighthouse couldn't be saved because in 2019 there was like record high water levels
in Lake Michigan and they like check on it because you know it's so far out there they're checking
(33:33):
ever on it every once in a while and they found that the water had knocked out a lot of the stones
that are on its foundation. So like even here in this picture you can tell it's not in very good
shape. Well it's been bombed. Yeah I know. I know but oh I think I have a picture. I took a screenshot
um I watched a news like a news story they did on it. You can just see it's just like eating away
(33:59):
into at some point it's going to be a critical some cavity here and it's going to tip into the
lake. So that's sad. RIP. Yeah so they dissolved because they learned that it would cost three
hundred thousand dollars just to protect the base temporarily for a single year and they're like
okay we can't that that's even just to keep it as it is for that long not even. There's only so many
(34:24):
resources available even if you have all the care in the world. There's yeah so I've got a picture
up of it's uh I can't remember what these birds are called it's it's a word uh it's a type of bird
I haven't heard of before but they nest there. It's like fine you guys have it. I know it looks like
something like a prop from a movie or something. Yeah but also the chimney whoever built that
(34:48):
chimney did a damn good job. Yeah got through bombings fires. It looks new. Everything else
looks like hell. Hundreds of years of ice and wind and hang in there. So there's still hope
obviously that somebody's going to like step up and restore it because the coast guards suggested
they demolish it and they're like I can't remember who some somebody was like we're not going to do
(35:13):
that because there's still a chance that somebody could fix it. I think it is too far gone because
too far gone because nobody has the money to put to I mean this would be multi-million dollar. Yeah
you'd have to I mean I do not know you'd have to start with a big casein that just dries and isolates
this and then you could work within the casein to start building a new lighthouse. I don't think
(35:41):
that I mean think about the tower think about a structure that's been literally attacked. I keep
I keep saying bombed. Let's say it's been targeted with guns or whatever. I don't know what they did
right but something happened to it. It lost its metal steel casing. I don't know how a structural
engineer is supposed to say yep we can put new brick on the outside of this. Like are you going
(36:03):
to x-ray the whole thing? Right. I mean that's a real question because how do you confirm this is
structurally safe where people from the public could access this space again? That you'd feel
comfortable people walking in there. I don't know. And also looking at this photo it appears the
metal casing is still on there but the the one that was on the tower peeled off but there's still
(36:28):
I was looking at that hole in the side and I was like that looks like metal. Crazy. It's just kind
of hidden under all the bird poop. Well you never know who's going to come along. Yeah there could
be somebody. Maybe somebody passes away and they had a couple of million dollars they left for the
specific use here. I don't I just yeah somebody wins a lottery and this is their thing you know.
(36:50):
I hope maybe someday or it'll be the end of yet another lighthouse. No one's going and climbing
that thing now. Oh no. There's no need to. There's no stairs. Yeah there's no need to knock this down.
It's unfortunate that is the story of Wagashawt's lighthouse hoping one day that somebody will step
up and you know take one for the team and rebuild this thing. It's neat that you can still you know
(37:14):
from a boat or presumably a plane you can still see an item that was started in the 1830s.
That's really neat. Yeah yeah and it is pretty it's just decrepit. It's a unique build. It's
very pleasing to look at. So yeah sorry that was a bummer. It had a cool history at least. Yeah.
A lot of places have no history. Thank you to our listener for suggesting it because we knew about it but I was like oh.
(37:37):
That's right. You give us reasons to look deeper into Lighthouse's specific ones and they always
turn out to be interesting. Well thank you for listening in to yet another Lighthouse Lowdown
episode. You can check out our Instagram at the Lighthouse Lowdown. Our website thelighthouselowdown.com
where you can watch videos, listen to our podcast, leave reviews which we love, leave voicemails, send
(38:03):
us messages, all that jazz all in one place. You ready? Yeah thanks for hanging out. Yeah we'll
catch you next time on the Lighthouse Lowdown. Nice with Gustav.
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