![]() ![]() And one man visiting Tawas Lighthouse from his home on Michigan’s Thumb climbed to the lantern stage, gazed across the water towards his home, and, taking in the Thumb’s windfarms from a distance, pronounced, “that’s an eyesore!,” and soon marched back down again. Vacationers who confided that they’d ditched their husbands for a weekend of freedom enjoyed the wide open view. Visitors saw different things, according to their interests. As the land expanded, a previous lighthouse was replaced by the present structure, and when still more new land accumulated, a fog signal was added. While many beaches experience erosion, Tawas Point has seen accretion occur, where the beach grows over time. ![]() Trinity studies earth sciences, Noah studies biology, and Lucy studies environmental science, so they were all intrigued by the story of how the Tawas Lighthouse came to sit a full mile from the shoreline. To prepare to be guides, the keepers were trained by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources historian and given a binder to study, and, once at the lighthouse, they explored the museum on site. ![]() Heads turned as I accidentally stepped on small sticks, creating obviously unwanted noise.” I became aware of the sound of my own footsteps on the soft, dirt trail. But as I passed the entry signs to the trail and began my walk, birdsongs became all I could hear. Some of them walked slowly, but most of them stood still, their necks craned and their eyes peering through scopes or cameras.” It was an eye- (or ear-) opening experience for her: “birdsongs have always served as background noise…This is just something you get used to as a Michigander. The people around me wore camouflage, countless shades of tan, and binoculars around their necks. In an article she is writing about her experience at the lighthouse, she describes the pre-Memorial Day flocks of birders at Tawas Point, a site designated an official Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International and the Audubon Society: “In athletic shorts and a UofM t-shirt (an outfit that would usually allow me to blend in), I felt like I stood out. Lucy, meanwhile, started watching birdwatchers. When she started taking notes, the couple suggested books– Michigan’s 116 Lighthouses and Women of the Lighthouse–and recommended other great Michigan lights to visit, such as those on Whitefish Point and Isle Royale. “I’m supposed to be the expert, but they were so knowledgeable that I was asking them questions!” She remembers one couple who had already toured hundreds of lighthouses, from Australia to the UK, Maine to Vancouver. “Some people just want to go up the lighthouse, some want to hear every little detail, some want to tell YOU every detail,” says Trinity. I went outside and no one was there.” Then again, she was then in the middle of reading Haunted Lighthouses.Įven early in the Michigan tourism season, the lighthouse keepers did have a lot of company. I expected her to come in but she didn’t. “I swear there were ghosts there….one time I heard a woman talking outside. Trinity counters this by suggesting that they were not as alone on dark nights as she might have liked. “But as picturesque as it seems, lighthouse keeping can be a really lonely job.” “I didn’t experience this head on, because I was with two people and it was gorgeous–except one day it was 49 and rainy,” Noah recalls. Photo by Noah Manuszak.įor the volunteer lighthouse keepers, these tours and the tourists they met provided still more perspectives, on Michigan, on history, and on, well, life. ![]() Living in the historic lighthouse, Noah Manuszak, Trinity Metcalf, and Lucy Baker raised and lowered the American flag, oversaw daily operations and basic maintenance of the lighthouse, and gave tours to visitors, leading groups up the 86 steps to the lantern’s platform for aerial views of the Tawas Point State Park, across Tawas and Saginaw Bays, and out over the 23,000 square-mile expanse of (by surface area) the planet’s third largest freshwater lake. In May, a team of undergraduates from the University of Michigan’s Great Lakes Writers Corps volunteered to serve a two-week term as Tawas Lighthouse Keepers. Now a historical site maintained by Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources, the Tawas Lighthouse serves another purpose: providing a birdseye view of the U.S.’s third coast and a portal to the past for sightseers, history buffs, and lighthouse aficionados from Michigan and beyond. During its operation, the light was manned–and, once, womanned–by lightkeepers who kept an often lonely vigil in weather that ranged from idyllic to deadly. For over a century, the beacon at Tawas Lighthouse guided ships on Lake Huron. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |