Lighthouse of the Week, June 19 - 25, 2022: Devils Island, Wisconsin, USA

 

I think it's been awhile since I featured a lighthouse in the United States (I won't bother to check when); but this is a good one, quite scenic, fairly remote, and also in a National Park Service property -- the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in Lake Superior, officially part of Wisconsin.

If you think of "Devil's Island", you might think of the prison island off of French Guiana, made famous by Papillon.  Well, this lighthouse is on Devils Island (no apostrophe), which is a much nicer place.  The island coast is beautiful layered and caved lake cliffs, which form the foreground for pictures of the lighthouse.  Here's where it is.  I zoomed way out to show where it is in relation to Duluth, Minnesota, and Bayfield, Wisconsin.  This is to the west of the Keweenaw Peninsula, where Highway 41 ends, and where the Highway 41 end-to-end Streetview trek just recently ended on this blog.

The Lighthouse Directory has a lot of information about this one.

"1901 (station established 1891). Active; focal plane 100 ft (31 m); red flash every 10 s. 71 ft (21.5 m) round cylindrical cast iron tower with square pyramidal steel bracing, lantern and gallery. The original 3rd order Fresnel lens was removed by the Coast Guard in 1989 and then returned to the tower by the park service in 1992, but it is not in use; the active light is a solar-powered 190 mm lens mounted on the gallery. Tower painted white, lantern black. Two 2-story Queen Anne brick and wood keeper's houses (1891 and 1896), two brick oil houses, and other buildings. One of the keeper's houses includes an apartment for a resident caretaker during the summer season. Original wood fog signal building." ... 

"This is one of five Apostle Islands lighthouses closed for repairs during summer 2014; the keeper's house was restored inside and out and new concrete footings were poured for the light tower; the exterior and foundation of the fog signal building were also restored. The Devils Island and Outer Island (next entry) lights guide vessels around the northern end of the archipelago. Located on the northern tip of Devils Island, about 10 miles (16 km) northeast of Point Detour on the mainland. Accessible only by boat"

There are quite a few pictures, too, as one would expect for a scenic location.

by Kathleen Pine