Episode 96 - Big Bay Point Lighthouse

0:00 Okay, you ready? I'm ready. Hey everybody, I'm Emily. And I'm Vince. And this is The Lighthouse Lowdown. Cute. You look up at me like... Gotta throw a long pause in there to mix it up. The Lighthouse Lowdown. Keep everybody on their toes. On your toes. It is spooky season. Spooky season. Yeah. Let's go, it's October. Getting into it, Vince and I are doing lots of stuff to prepare. Got a party coming up. Yeah, so this kind of fell into the back burner, but it'll be done in time because that's the kind of people we are. We're decorating the house. We're also building the house. Put a graveyard in the front yard.

0:43 Yep. There's purple lights. My first time putting up spotlights on the house. Scary movies. Yeah, it's a whole thing. Spooky season. We got, I was going to say potatoes. Pumpkins. We've got potatoes. Potatoes. Pumpkins. Yeah. Pumpkins for our party. Pumpkin. Ring toss. That's right. Classic. Toss it on the stem. I think it'll be hilarious. By the way, do we have rings? Yes. Nice. They're coming in the mail. Just like a million other items. Nice. Vince gave me a budget and I stuck to it exactly. Actually, that's a lie. I went $1 over. $1? Have you included taxes?

1:23 Exactly. I was below it before taxes. Robbery. Government robbery. It's pretty high. He's adjusting his microphone. You guys can't hear it, though. It's fine. We have A -plus machinery. Well, our table is plastic. Oh, yeah. Holding plastic table. But I think we're doing good. So what are we talking about today? Well, I'm taking a break. And I feel like I've said that a lot. We take breaks from things. It's fine. Taking a break from Green Islands because it's spooky season and I have to do a spooky lighthouse. So that's what I'm doing today. Spooky lighthouse. Thank you. Here's our history buoy. For those of you not yet watching, you can get on YouTube if you'd like to see us on the Lighthouse Slowdown podcast on YouTube. The screen says in all caps, I'm a loser. I did not prepare. I started to prepare a history buoy, but we've talked about foghorns.

2:33 Right? Didn't you cover foghorns? I don't know, but it seems likely. Because you posted a video of the foghorn that you took when you were younger, right? Okay, but then I used AI to try and find... In my defense, we have a hundred folders with a hundred different sets of notes. It's pretty good. It probably found it. No, it said, well... I said, look through all these files and find if we talk about foghorns. And it like summarized all the times we talked about it and none of them were a history buoy. So, well, yeah, I don't know. So, so what I was going to talk about was the type of foghorn that they use at this lighthouse.

3:18 And the more I got into it, the more I was like, I really can't remember if we covered this already. And I would, I would be remiss to cover another. I mean, it's, it would be okay. So, I mean. You think it's better or worse than just skipping it altogether? Better. Yeah. But that's all right. Yeah. Sometimes we don't have. This is why it says I'm a loser. For those of you who might be joining us on the show, welcome. What we like to do on almost every episode is a lighthouse history buoy where. It's not a lighthouse history buoy. Okay, it's a history buoy. Sorry. Sorry. It's where we say something interesting about.

3:59 a fact, a history, it could be a patent, it could be a piece of technology, it could be a happening in historical record of something that's somewhat related to the episode almost always. But it's kind of a fun fact to throw in that maybe didn't fit anywhere else in an episode. That's a great summary. Good job. Everyone who already knew that, there you go. You've been reminded. You're our best friends. You're here all the time. Welcome back. So I'll go on to our lighthouse. No buoy. Maybe next time. I try my best. So like I said, we're taking a break from Green Islands. And I looked up, like I do every Halloween time, the most haunted lighthouses. And there's a lot that comes up every year. And I'm like, that would be great. But there's so much history that I'm like, no. Oh, it's like super long stories.

4:55 Yeah, it's like Owl's Head or... Whatever, you know, like some really well -documented lighthouse. And I'm like, I don't have the capacity right now to cover this the way that it deserves. It's like a spooky episode has to be like a little more on the stories than the history of the lighthouse. Sure. So I chose one that you may recognize. We are going to Big Bay Point, Michigan along Lake Superior. Do you remember this lighthouse? Big Bay. I don't. It's not ringing a bell. I know the area well. Standard Rock is out there. Right across, yeah. You can see it by the gold star in our map. We talked about this briefly when I was pitching the Duluth. Yeah, the trip.

5:38 What is it, Duluth? Minnesota. Minnesota. Because we were talking about driving along the coastline to visit some of these lighthouses. I still want to. Yeah, yeah. No, it's still out there. Our list is so long of things we want to do with lighthouses. Anywhere. I would even do what we've already done. again for those of you i agree who don't know we went on two lighthouse right together two lighthouse focused trips uh one was the first was to the outer banks north carolina big lighthouses great time the second was to cape cod small lighthouses um massachusetts great time and so the next one I don't know. I mean, we've talked about a lot of different things.

6:21 I feel like you're going to be pining for the West Coast until we go. But the West Coast itself is big, too. I know, but you know what I'm talking about. Well, I'm thinking, if you guys really care, go check out Lighthouse Tourism. I think it was a two -part episode I did where I talked about we kind of pitched some trips to one another, and I'm pretty sure it's included there. Oh, really? I don't remember. Um, and we decided at that time we decided on Cape Cod, but my, my pitch was like some family related areas I have up in the Northwest Washington state and, uh, down, I would say down to, um, what is it?

7:04 The graveyard of the Pacific is destruction day. Uh, disappointment. This Cape disappointment. Yep. Yeah. I don't remember. They all sound the same right now. Sorry. We get out of touch with the lighthouse stuff and then we come back into it. Yeah, we got to retouch it. It has to be a focal point of our life again because right now we're so consumed by house stuff that we don't really have time to immerse ourselves in some other hobby. But we're going to come back around, everybody. Don't worry. Anyway, it's hard to describe the way that this point looks. So everyone go check it out on our YouTube. It has like a lake. right along the edge so hard to describe pretty cool yeah it's a goofy looking point um but that's on lake superior um so the question being why did we need a lighthouse here it popped up uh what was the year even 1892 was when it was recommended by lighthouse board to build a station here prime time and the point or the reason the point the reason for that was that Um, there's two other lighthouses or at least there were, I'm pretty sure there still is on either side, um, separated by like 15 miles on either side and there was no lighthouse in between them. So it was just like this dark period of the coast that was well traveled because people were going from Marquette to, you know, the West.

8:37 Duluth. Whatever else is over there. Duluth is a big shipping on the West side. Okay. Then Duluth. I know they said something else, though, so whatever. And I want to go to Thunder Bay while I see it on the map. I want to go up there. Oh. It's cool. This is between Granite Island and Huron. Huron? Huron. Huron. Okay. Take it for Granite. Take it for Granite. Good one, Vince. Thank you. Very good. And for your own kudos. And then. On top of that, there was protected anchorage on either side of this point. So like if there was a storm for our viewers, because Vince knows right away what I'm talking about. Yes. The point protects heavily from storm and winds on either side, just naturally. And so this was a place where ships could pull over effectively if they were caught in a storm. And Lake Superior has some big old storms. They've actually had songs about them. Yeah. the old storms you think of yeah if you want to i wish i knew the episode offhand but i did talk about the sinking of the edmund fitzgerald and the song that was written about it and i played the song two times during that episode because that's so much fun we don't advertise we're not sponsored right now so we can do whatever we want right now so i played right now seven minutes of licensed music because it's just promotional

10:09 yeah So anyways, if you want to go listen to the song twice, you can go listen to that episode. Also, it's me alone, which is crazy. Yeah. Emily was having a crisis somewhere else. A crisis? I mean, it's fine. I'm the only one who's allowed to say that. Oh, sorry. She was having a bridal shower. Yeah. But it was tough. It was tough. It was tough. It was tough for everybody. Anyways. Okay. 1892 suggested we have a lighthouse here. Congress authorized it a year later, and in 94, they appropriated $25 ,000 and acquired five acres for it the year after that. And they started work in May 1896 and finished in October. So very quick turnaround for construction, considering how beautiful this lighthouse is. I'll pull up a picture. Really? It's old, so you can't really tell, but this is our lighthouse. Okay. I like the architecture a lot. Yeah, it's very tall.

11:02 So it's a two -story, 18 -room red brick duplex. So it was humungo. Huge. It's humungo. And it was half for the principal keeper, half for the assistant keeper. So we had principal, assistant at the beginning. Can you explain why it was so big? No. Okay. A lot of rooms. Yeah, they just did that. Black and white photo. It looks like a tiny little bluff, but it's actually... It's a cliff? It's a good amount, yeah. So big old trees all around this thing. Very heavily wooded area, which comes into our exit later. And a very tall lighthouse integral to the keeper's home. Cool. Cute, cute. Yeah. That tower is 16 feet, not including the house. So humongous.

11:49 And the lantern, because of that, the lantern room is 64 feet off the ground. 64 feet! The house is humongous. It's a big house. It's like a four -story house. It's crazy. And then with the bluffs, the focal plane is 89 feet above Lake Superior. Bizarre. I don't understand. They had all sorts of money. This is not typical. I've never seen a house this big. This amount of money and size. I love it. It's just crazy. Okay. I said these were hot times for lighthouses, the late 1800s. Yeah. Really were. Just doing the whole thing, whatever they wanted. They also built a landing crib, barn, oil house, two brick privies and separate red brick fog signal building, which at the time wasn't a fog signal, but it was a steam whistle. Yeah. Yeah. They had a third order lens and it had four rotating flash panels, which produced a flash every 20 seconds. And it had one of the weight driven mechanisms that rewound that they had to manually rewind every five hours. But the waits started in the service room underneath the lantern room and then went all the way to the basement of the house. I was going to say, do you have any photos of that?

12:59 No. Oh. Everybody, imagine a grandfather clock. Yeah, yeah. But it's a four -story house. So cool. And it's like, imagine, imagine if it was like. I was like, why does that sound? I did have something stuck. But imagine if you had this house today. And then you have like a chain work mechanism. Just in the middle. Yeah. Like, oh, you have a chandelier. That's fun. This runs a giant lighthouse. And it's like running. Like it's dropping slowly. I'll have to go rewind in five hours. 10 inch steam whistle. It's a big whistle. And the water for that was supplied by a 20 by 20 foot crib that was sunk in Lake Superior. Interesting. So they drew water from the lake. Yeah. Yeah. From a crib. I don't understand the crib part. I forgot. I think it was to filter.

13:55 Yeah, okay. Yeah, so it's like you had non -sedimenty water being pushed through. Going through a boiler. Yeah. Oh, this goes into more detail about Keeper's Cottage. Each side had a kitchen, parlor, dining room, and three bedrooms. Wow. And so they lived with their families there, so that kind of explains. But still, they didn't used to have that kind of... Luxury. Very uncommon. Your whole family would share one bedroom. That was kind of what it used to be like. Or a single room. Three bedrooms? That's crazy. There were some lighthouse keepers that had single rooms that had a stove and a table and a bed. Yeah. Like a cabin style. Yeah, this was living in luxury. I had a basement cistern which collected rainwater. And unfortunately, at some point, I don't know when, they discovered that they had used lead paint. The cistern. And so then they started having to take water from the lake. It's like something they didn't really fix until there was plumbing. Yeah. In like five gallon buckets. That sucks. Yeah. So, and you would have to like boil that water, right? To use it? No, it's fresh water. Oh. So. I think there's stuff in it. There, there probably, I mean, if you and I went out there and we went camping, we'd boil it. Okay. Right. But if you drink it all the time. I think you would be okay.

15:15 It depends on, you know, what area you're talking about, what pollution and whatnot. But people have been drinking fresh water for all of history. Yeah, and maybe before the 1900s, this was probably still pretty clean. Well, and people were just kind of sick all the time. Oh. You know, like, oh, I don't feel well today. It's just another day. Versus now, we're like, oh, I only got seven hours of sleep. Hey, that comes into play later. Oh, okay. Yeah. Thanks for... Wrapping it in. Last thing I'll say about this. October 20th, 1896 is when our light and fog signal began operation. Cool. We know someone that's their anniversary. Not 1896. Oh. I was like, what? How old are they?

15:59 Sorry, keep going. I'm hopped up on caffeine now. Great, great grandparents. Okay, so I'm going to talk about our first keeper here at the lighthouse. The OG. Please. His name was William H. Pryor. He transferred from Standard Rock, so he was used to hard living. Oh, Vince is going to be doing this. He worked there prior. Ah, good one. You don't want to hit your button? No, I've hit enough buttons for now. I think that one deserved it a lot more than... Excellent. But when you're on Standard Rock, you can't live with your family. So I'm pretty sure his family lived in Marquette for a while, and then they all got to move in together at this lighthouse.

16:42 So he upgraded. From Standard Rock to... Oh, yeah. Standard Rock, one of our favorite lighthouses, is on its own little concrete crib that was erected... On a reef. What is it? 10 miles off the coast? It's a ways. I think it's more than that. 40? It's some time off the coast. Like where it takes you like hours to fly there. Boat there. Boat there. Yeah. But we have covered Standard Rock in the past. We've actually interviewed and talked about people who... Know a lot about Standard Rock. So check that out if you're interested. Very cool lighthouse. Explosion happened there at one point. Big explosion. Yeah. So prior was there before the explosion. Must have been because he's in good health. And yeah, this is way more accessible, I would think, and luxurious. Like it was still in the middle of nowhere from major cities. Like the nearest hospital was in Marquette.

17:38 So it's kind of far. But apparently he ruled. as a principal keeper with an iron fist, kept meticulous logs in his log books to the point of where it's like a diary that he's keeping track of all of his thoughts and feelings. Yeah, as he was drinking lead water. Yeah. And he experienced repeated conflicts with his assistants. And he said himself that he had trouble keeping them because he was so hard to work with, I think. Dang. In 1896, a seven, excuse me. the first year that he's on the job, he walked around 30 miles to Marquette, walked to visit his dying sister and attend her funeral, and he was gone for like a week and a half or something. And when he got back, he said that his assistant had allegedly neglected the station. On his return, he wrote in the logbook that the assistant didn't appear to have done any work in the week he was gone, plus a bunch of nasty stuff about this man's wife. I would love to know the real story.

18:41 It's like a whole paragraph of like, he doesn't have any backbone to stand up to his wife. She is lingering around him, not letting him work. Like all kinds of stuff, which maybe is just how it was. They were just connecting. And he's like, no. None of that. Yeah, that was a whole paragraph. Was Mr. Pryor single? No, he had a wife and kids. So I don't know. Maybe they were just more independent. I think I would be hanging. If you were working in the house, I would. Also, hang around. That's cute. Well, I'd get talked about. I'd tell you to go away. Quote, he wrote, as my assistant objects to working during the closed season, I have written to the inspector to get his opinion on the matter. Oh. Brutal.

19:27 He answered that on December 27th. And then he said, quote, my assistant claims now that he is unable to work as he has a lame back. That was New Year's. And in February, he wrote. Quote, Mr. Heater arrived from Marquette at 6 p .m. and walked the entire distance of 33 miles in 12 hours, including two rest stops over an hour each. Pretty good gate for a lame man. And then he said that same month, Mr. Heater came across the ice to the other side of Big Bay with his wife. It is Sunday and his back is not lame today. So he's just like absolutely picking this guy apart. He's like, oh, he says he has a lame back, so he can't work. And then his subsequent. log book writings are like, somebody who doesn't have a lame back today. Look how strong his back is. Listen, I once knew a story of someone who couldn't do dishes. You know, their neck just, oh, they're just something. I can't tell you.

20:24 It better not be me. No, no, no. But they couldn't do dishes because looking down and something. But, you know, they loved skiing and surfing and riding bikes and playing tennis. All these things. But it's the ergonomics. They just can't do it. So he's not been the first one. Who is it? I can't say. You listen to our podcast? Everyone listens to our podcast. So true. So after that, there was like a few months of butting heads. The assistant was transferred to Granite Island Lighthouse and replaced with another assistant. And apparently this assistant was even worse, according to Pryor. Oh no, new kid. He wrote...

21:05 He evidently expects me to work with him wherever he is at work, and if I do not, he leaves work and does nothing until I get back to him. So that's pretty bad. Ooh, greatest generation. He said he is too high -strung for a lightkeeper's assistant. Between himself and his wife this season, I imagine that I am keeping a home for the helpless poor instead of a U .S. lighthouse. Yo! Like, oh my God, I and my family having to do the greater part of the work while they receive the pay. So, yeah, he... He had a lot to say in this logbook. This is on record. It's tough. He turns these things in. He really was military. Evidently, he put him on a steamer for home eventually in 1898 and said, he is, quote, without exception, the most ungrateful and the meanest man I've ever met. Wow. That wasn't long. No, not at all.

21:54 That was like less than a year, I'm pretty sure. So, Pryor sent himself. Hard to work with. But I think he just loved his job. I think he just was like, this is how you do it right. And if you're not going to do it right, then you're a failure. Which, it's an important spot. There's been lots of wrecks on this point. You do need people like that. I was listening to a podcast yesterday and this morning. Do you know the name Nick Saban? No. It's a long story. There's a documentary coming out about him. But he was known most recently as a football coach for Alabama. And you would recognize him. I guarantee it. Um, he's been at a, like a bunch of movies and, um, he was on TV all the time. Uh, very good football coach, head coach program. Um, and, but his personality is, he talks to this interview.

22:45 He's like, that's how I saw it was like, I would learn how people needed to be motivated and some people needed to be disciplined and discipline wasn't punishment. Discipline was what it takes to change your behavior. Yeah. And I was like, Oh, like this guy, he's like, you know, He talks about he's retired. He's like 73. He's like, we were in traffic the other day and there's this long merge and I stopped. My wife freaked out because I always was the person who would drive right up to the front and try to get in next. And he goes, but now I'm not in a rush anymore. I've been in a rush my whole life. The point is there's still people like that. And they are head coaches. That type of personality.

23:27 They're the type that make it up to leadership because of their... Tenacity. Yeah, excellent leadership. But they're not making a lot of friends, I wouldn't imagine. No. I think that's to say, I think that's probably what this is. Like, Pryor was an excellent keeper and struggled a lot with keeping relationships. The weak people who tried to help him. Yeah, he's expecting a lot from people, which I think is fine. Yeah. When you're in a position like this, that's like, people are relying on you to live. It was a very serious position, right? Yeah. Lighthouse keeping. Prestigious. Right. Prestigious. Prestigious. Prestigious. Prestidigitation. Okay. So William's son, George, I think he had five kids. George was, I was going to say his oldest son, but I don't know that for sure. He was 19 in 1900 when he became the assistant keeper at this lighthouse. Wow. Okay.

24:21 So eventually. Young. Yeah, assistant keepers ran out, and he was like, okay, my son's going to be my assistant. Because I think he was pretty much acting as pseudo -assistant keeper this whole time anyway. Yeah, he was working there. He did. So they worked together for about 15 months, and then George fell on the landing crib in April 1901 and cut his leg down to the bone. Oh, no. Which at this time is really bad. Like 1901 to get it cut that bad is like shit. Yeah, this is before World War I. Just for reference. Keep going. Thank you. He was taken to the hospital in Marquette, and he battled gangrene, which is, for our listeners, is when your tissue dies because of blood loss or infection. And unfortunately, he died two months later from his injuries. At like 20? Yeah. Oh, man. I know. I'm telling you.

25:19 It's just like, if you have an accident, there's... Think about us now. If you cut your leg that bad, it would be like a story you tell, and that's it. Yeah. That sentence has come a long way. It's crazy. It is not a death sentence to get a bad cut. It's not a death sentence to get shot or get pneumonia. Yeah, 56 I shot nine times. He's still walking around. Tuberculosis. We're in really good shape these days. Pryor was really. shaken by the death of his son um despondent depressed yeah actually didn't write much in the logbook for the next couple weeks which is how people were like oh he's not himself he's like not the same he's being lazy lazy probably didn't know what day it was what time it was i can imagine just like grief stricken and on june 28th 1901 so Just a couple weeks after, he disappeared into the woods carrying a gun and strychnine? Strychnine? I don't know that.

26:20 It's a rat poison. Fuck. Well, okay, so. What the fuck? Disappeared. A long search ensues. And they never find him. Until 17 months later. So, like, it was on October, I think, that his wife and four children left for Marquette to, like, live in Marquette. Because they never found him. Keeper's gone. They want to move on. It sucks for them. Move away. Yeah. So they moved back to Marquette. And then 17 months after his death, a hunter found a skeleton hanging from a tree a half mile from the lighthouse and was identified as prior by his keeper's clothing and red hair. Half a mile? Half a mile. And that's what I was saying. Is this dense? The dense trees and everything? Made it to where nobody found him, even though they did a huge search of the surrounding area. Half a mile. Half a mile is two laps. It's nothing. It's really nothing.

27:19 I don't know how it's possible. Those woods, he was in there. And he hung himself? Yeah. So what was the gun and the poison for? He had a gun and rat poison. And he hung himself. And must have been rope. Yeah. And they're like, maybe he just wanted options. I don't know. Maybe he wasn't planning. Maybe he was hunting or. Hunting with rat poison? Well, I don't know. Does that make sense? Yeah, it's just like a weird... That's very sad. Weird situation, yeah. Maybe he didn't know how he was going to do it, but he just brought some options. Yeah. I don't know. Crazy move, actually. Yeah. So, he comes up later in our lighthouse. 1903, we add a second assistant keeper as the United States moved toward an eight -hour workday. So this is the first time I've heard about that. That's like, we started, what is it called? Like to, uh, standardize like the work day. Yeah. And so they're like, we're going to add a whole other position because keepers must've been working around the clock without.

28:25 Do you know Dolly Parton song nine to five? Yeah. Is about an easy job. Oh, like a nine. Yeah. People say like my nine to five, nine to five is like, uh, I heard this recently, I guess I assume it's true. is you know in those days yeah before that and the inter i don't know once you write that song i'm sure for a while it's like oh it's an easy job yeah because you know not a 12 -hour shift not a seven -day job i i can see that if you think about keepers and there's no hours like of course they're gonna work 24 7 yeah or like coal miners like yeah dang you know yeah keepers at least i get to go to the office and turn on the lights and the fan and Yeah. Right on paper. And then I go home. Yeah.

29:10 And then I drive home. But they added a second assistant keeper. So they built a new frame dwelling near the fog signal building. Okay. Which I'd be like, excuse me. We have all this land and you had to put me close to the fog signal building. That is suspect. I don't appreciate that. That's suspect. 1911, the additional surrounding land was purchased and cleared. which improved the lights visibility and provided a better location for a landing slash tramway. So a little easier to get to the lighthouse, a little more accessible. Do you know the image on screen now is what year this was? I don't know. Cause there's a clearing around the immediate property, but I would guess that they don't own. I don't know. It's hard to tell. I'm guessing maybe the area facing out to the water. Yeah. It was cleared. And then two years later, the light was upgraded from 26 ,000 to 220 ,000 candle power by switching from oil to oil vapor. Nice. Oh, yeah. In the 28, 1928, the steam whistle was replaced by the type F diaphone, which is what I was going to do for our. Yeah. Our history buoy, which there's a good video online. Oh, no. What's his name?

30:27 Lighthouse. Jake, maybe. Sorry, I've got to look. It's a good name. They have the last working Type F diaphone. Diaphone are really cool. Yeah, Lighthouse Jake on YouTube. So if anybody wants to go check it out, he explains how it works and demonstrates. But it's basically, you know, people think of a classic foghorn as two -tone, like high note, low note. No, two -tone is bi, B -I. That's, okay. This one, the original, was a high tone and then a grunt. It's like when it shuts off. It's like a lower. Yeah, the air slows down and makes a second sound. And so the two -tone, which everybody knows, is just they extend that grunt sound to be longer. Oh. Yeah.

31:25 So that's actually a type F2T, which is F two -tone. Do you want to go ahead and make that noise for us? No. I knew you were going to ask me. We're done with our steam whistle. We have a diaphone. And let's see. A year after the Coast Guard took over the lighthouse, which was in 1939, it was electrified and the fog signal was discontinued. So it wasn't running for very long. No fog signal at all. Huh? No fog signal at all. After, yeah, 1940. I'm kind of surprised by that. Yeah, that's a good point. Like, usually they keep them running and they're just automated. Maybe this one had trouble. Maybe they just didn't need it as much. I don't know. A year after that, the last keeper left and the assistant keeper's quarters were later rented as private residence.

32:13 Sick. That would be really nice. The other spooky thing that happened around here, I don't know if you would hear of this movie, but after a decade, the lighthouse and property was leased to the U .S. Army in 1951 -52 for anti -aircraft training, which... What they did was they placed like large guns on the bluffs. And then they basically just camped on the grounds like the soldiers. So nothing. It's not like the past episodes where they shoot the bomb in the lighthouse. It was just like using the ground. Being on a beachfront with a gun. Yeah. Targeting aircraft, I guess. Yeah. There's like, I don't know. They'd be like training. Yeah. All out. But. During this time, there was a soldier stationed there named Coleman Peterson, and he committed murder at Big Bay's Lumberjack Tavern because the barkeep allegedly raped his wife. Okay. So I'm like, you know. I didn't see that coming. I mean, I think that's the quickest way to handle that.

33:22 What is it? Big Bay's Lumberjack Tavern. Is it still there by chance? Because I would love some cupware, some glassware. Big Bay's Lumberjack Tavern. How did he murder him? Yes, it is still there. I think it was just with a gun. Dude, imagine I'm holding up a beer glass right now. It says 49th State Brewing. It's got a bear running. We got this when we visited Alaska. Now, Big Bay Lumberjack Tavern with a pistol, like a revolver in hand. Let's see. Honestly, this is going to have some kind of cachet because, one, there was this whole very well -publicized trial afterwards and he was found not guilty by reason of insanity.

34:14 And the crime later inspired the novel and film Anatomy of a Murder. Do you know it? No. Okay, I've heard of it, but I've never seen it. And the book, it was a book originally, and I think it was written by the lawyer who represented... and he wrote under a pen name something else and just like told the story of what happened. I like that. They made it into a movie. I hope the movie's good. Yeah, I think it's like a classic. Let me look at, hold on. Okay. Quick side Google. But I will say that I'm hoping Lumberjack Tavern has some kind of publicity. Oh, okay, wait. I pulled up Lumberjack Tavern and the front plaque says murder free since 1952. Okay. All right.

35:00 This is fast. 1959. The film came out. What? That's what I'm saying. It's on Rotten Tomatoes. Crime slash thriller. Two hours and 40 minutes. Oh my gosh. IMDB rates it 8 out of 10. No way. We have to watch it. Okay. We have to watch it. That's crazy. That's crazy. 1959. Wait. Came out in 1959. 8 .0 out of 10. And it was two hours and 40 minutes. An upstate. Yeah, I know. It's black and white. Oh. An upstate Michigan lawyer defends a soldier who claims he killed an innkeeper due to temporary insanity after the victim raped his wife. Okay. What is the truth and will he win his case? Yes. Also, they made this fast.

35:48 This is like Dune 3 coming out. That's insane. He must have written it the second it happened. I'm glad we looked this up. Yeah. We have to add it to our list. Could have been not good. Absolutely. Maybe it could be a Halloween. I don't think he comes up again in the spooky stories, but I don't know. It's just a thing that happens. When we go eventually on our Lake Superior, maybe it's going to have to be a couple of them, but our Lake Superior road trip, we have to go to the bar. I think so, too. Have to. It's like Salty Dog. Yeah, the Salty Dog Saloon with the Alaskan duck fart. It's essential. Disgusting. If anyone wants... Look up the Salty Dog Saloon episode. It's one of my favorites. Alaska. Homer, Alaska. Ew, duck fart is so gross. It's because of how it looks. It's delicious though. Just like duck poop. We also, I'm just plug, plug, plugging us. We explored the Alaskan duck fart here on the show live with Nathan and Monica who introduced us. I don't know if we, did we post that? Yeah. I think so. I think it's like four hours. We did Lighthouse Cocktail Hour, where we had four plus cocktails, all with Lighthouse history, your names, and we talked about them and such. Yeah, I was really drunk at the end of that. We couldn't go to dinner. We were going to go to dinner after, and we were like, I guess we have to order food. That was so funny. What were we thinking? Of course. Well, we had four drinks and then wine. Some more wine, yeah. Crazy.

37:20 Yeah, it was crazy. Asked if we were going to go to dinner after that. Yeah, that was the only one we've done. I would like to do another one, but we can't do five drinks. No way. It's too many. We're too old for that now. It's a door dash. Okay, moving on. We're wrapping up towards the end of The Lighthouse. Okay. 1961, it was purchased with The Lighthouse and 33 Acres, and that was sold to Chicago plastic surgeon Dr. John Pick for $40 ,000. So very cheap. Very cheap. Same year our house was built. All right. Oh man, you're so right. Yeah. What do you think our house was sold for at that time? 20 grand.

38:02 Our house sold for half the price it is now in 2012. Yeah. So, you know, we're the fools. That was 14 years. So maybe it was like five cents when they built it. We're not fools. Okay. We're just, we're slave to the markets of the, of the years. Guys, we didn't know we were going to have a fixer -upper. No, we didn't sign up for a fixer -upper. Whatever. On purpose. So at this point, much of the roof was missing. It had broken windows, deteriorated plaster, and heavily painted woodwork and floors. So they kind of just slapped stuff on over the years. So Pick spent most of his 17 years at the property restoring it. He added plumbing, electricity. Heating, repaired windows, replastered walls, added a fireplace.

38:54 Nice. I like this guy. And combined the duplex into one humongous residence. I would love to see that house. Love it. He filled the lighthouse with antiques from his travels, including a ship's wheel from the Normandy. Really awesome. Wait, why do we know the Normandy? We do. We do. Should I Google it? Here, I'll do it. Normandy ship. A revolutionary French luxury ocean liner. Did they turn this into a light ship or something? Because sometimes they did that, you know? Seized by the U .S. Navy in 1942 and renamed the USS Lafayette. Yeah, later scrapped in 1946. So that's an awesome ship wheel to have. Super cool. Very cool. Super cool. Pick sold the property to Dan Hitchens in 1979 in his 80s. And at this point he was like, what the fuck? What did you just spit out? Ice. Oh, okay, okay. It just was like a white lump. I was like, ew, and it thunked into the thing. Vince has lots of whipped cream and stuff on his mustache. Yeah. We're having some Dutch Bros delicious, basically milkshakes.

40:15 Coffee milkshakes. Oh, yeah. Not sponsored. Really good. Not yet. So anyway, he was in poor health and sold the lighthouse to Dan. And this began. This lighthouse's era as a bed and breakfast. So Dan added bathrooms to most of the seven bedrooms. Gosh, this place must have been huge. I know. And he operated it as a corporate conference slash retreat center. Sick. Awesome. In 84, Hitchens sold the property to a corporation that included a man named Norman Buck Gottschall. Okay. In 1986, Gottschall opened the lighthouse as a bed and breakfast. Or modern photo. Wow, it got prettier.

40:57 It's so red, right? And so I thought it was painted all this time. And that's just the color of the bricks. Really, really red. There are pictures that make it even more red looking than that. But it's really nice. We've also had lots of trees fill in from that cleared area we saw earlier. I know. I do like it. Actually, lots of trees filled in all over. But it's haunted. But it is haunted. Walking around those woods in the dark. By yourself? Ew, no chance. You couldn't pay me. He restored the fog signal building and located the original Fresnel lens at the Park Place Hotel in Traverse City and returned to the lighthouse. So now it's still there. But why? This is like when we were talking about that people have lenses in their living rooms.

41:43 Lenses and dinosaurs. Why did a hotel have this Fresnel lens? Because it was cool. Get your filthy paws off of my lens. They probably... liked it and they probably took care of it get out of your sinking hotel by 1991 the owners had acquired nearly 100 surrounding acres so we're like really expanding this area yeah they established hiking trails and a landing strip was cleared for gotchell's 1957 tri -pacer sick yeah so i don't know what that is but it sounds sick it's one of those planes it's like a four -seater plane The propeller. Yeah. Like out of Africa. Exactly. Exactly. During these years, the first ghost stories were leaked to the media by two people who stayed at the bed and breakfast who said that they saw a spirit walking around the lighthouse in a U .S. life -saving service uniform. That's not right. So maybe it's misreported. How do they even know?

42:43 Well, they probably described it and they were like, oh, that's... But... It should be pretty close to like Keeper's uniform too. Sure. Maybe they're just, people are misinformed and just wrote whatever. Yeah. I mean, I would, I'd be, I'd freak out. I would too. You could just say it was a uniform. I mean, it could have been a janitor, but it's still like creepy. There's something about, something about it. He could have been wearing a t -shirt and shorts and I'd be like. These people also reported quick banging sounds. Hate that. Running water in the basement shower. Hate that even more. What? There was not supposed to be any plumbing here. The problem is if you say basement before anything, I'm thinking dark, creepy, misused, rusted. Basement shower.

43:29 Like it should not be running and it's running. And maybe that's true, but I don't know what their basement looks like. It would be scary. I don't know. And also light taps on their body while they're sleeping. Do not touch me. Don't touch me. Don't like that. He's like, get out of bed. You've got to clean. Get up, you lazy assistants. Get up, Jesse. We have to cook. And there's more than one story that talks about a tall, red -headed man wearing a late 1800s uniform walking the grounds around the lighthouse. They talk about doors and windows opening and closing on their own, lights turning on and off by themselves, and disembodied footsteps making their way across floors. There's something about disembodied footsteps as a set of words that...

44:13 Is unnecessarily creepy. I was like disembodied. You could have just said footsteps. No, that makes sense. No, it makes sense. Footsteps with nobody. With nobody. Nobody. One overnight guest reported seeing the reflection of a man wearing a keeper's hat standing behind her in the mirror. That's a horror film. That's what they make horror films out of. On the nose. And other guests talk about waking up in the middle of the night and a man standing at the foot of the bed. That's also. Horror stories. That's like... Dang. The mirror one is where they give you the jump scare in a horror movie. Yeah, they're waking up. Oh, no. I got goosebumps. Just prior hanging out.

44:59 He's like, what are all these people doing? Get to work. This is my half. We've never had such a big staff with such lazy habits. Why is everybody always sleeping? 1992, preservationist John Gill, Linda Gamble, and Jeff Gamble purchased the lighthouse for $500 ,000. After they had stayed at the lighthouse and then learned that the lighthouse was for sale and the most promising prospective buyer was going to raise everything and build condominiums. No. I know. I was like, good Lord. So they bought it, kept operating it as an inn. And then in 2011, they placed it on the market for $1 .275 million. What? It doesn't seem like a lot. Huh?

45:47 It does not seem like a lot. In 2011? You said 100 acres? I think, yeah, but then, okay, so then the other thing is that the surrounding land was divided into 12 parcels and offered as site condominium. Real estate kills me, man. I know, but these are the people who bought it so that condos wouldn't be built. So, like, why are they selling off the land in parcels? They wanted to keep the lighthouse, but couldn't afford otherwise all the land. Well, they were selling everything. I don't know what to say. I don't either. I know what I'd like to say. The National Register Coordinator for the Michigan State Historic Preservation Office weighed in on the controversy because there was some backlash and wrote, quote, I think it most unfortunate that the light station's current owners seem to be more interested in making a profit than in providing appropriate stewardship for a unique historic property. Savage.

46:43 Blazing review. Scathing. Yeah. And I did not see an update on what happened after this. Was it 2011? Yeah. And that's 25, 15 years ago. Excuse me. That's almost twice today. Link one more time. 25. But looking at this photo and current photos, it doesn't seem to be built out into condos. Okay. Or maybe there are more. You didn't find anything else online? No. Can you visit? Do you know any of that? Yeah. Let me finish talking. I thought you were done. I'm sorry. Lots of questions here. It wasn't until 2018 that the lighthouse was purchased by Nick Korstad.

47:23 Sorry for all the pronunciations. You know what? It's everyone else's fault for having hard last names. Korstad, who was an experienced lighthouse owner and restorer and former owner of the Borden Flats Lighthouse. Do you remember that one? No. I'm pretty sure that this lighthouse, they have... It's kind of like Alcatraz, where it's in the middle of... It's like right next to a bridge and on either side is a city. Yeah. But it's like on a crib or like, or in Lake Superior? I don't remember. Okay. But I'm pretty sure that this is one of the lighthouses that you can bid to have a night stay in. Oh, through the USLHS?

48:04 Yes. Okay. So he owned that originally. So then he bought this lighthouse in 2018. and he continues to run it as a private bed and breakfast. The grounds are open to the public, and they have guided tours available. It's still operating for the U .S. Coast Guard. Nice. Yeah, they still operate. There's a beacon up there. Yeah. It's not the lens, which is interesting because the USLHS has that the Fresnel lens is still operating. The Fresnel lens is on the property, but it's not operating the light. Where is it? Oh, I think it's in. Like in the. The house? Inside. Yeah. Inside the house somewhere. It's hard to have a Fresnel lens anywhere. Isn't it noise? It's really pretty. So now we're looking at a photo of the green cast iron stand and the Fresnel lens. Is this a second order? Third order. Third order. Nice. I do like it. No bullseyes. It's beautiful. Yeah. So now I'm going to like quickly show the website. Okay. Because it's really nice.

49:05 And I know you love a good website. I do. We're going to Big Boy Point Lighthouse. Did you say big boy? No. Maybe I did. Big boy. Big boy point. Big boy. But just wanted to scroll. They've got a good picture of the lighthouse. Talks a little bit about the history. Here's the lens they have now. Superior Spa Services. Two -sided, whatever it's called. I can't remember now. Two -sided rotating lens. Yeah, spa services. Pizza. Let's look at the accommodation. Such a fatty pizza. Okay, so we have a bunch of different rooms named after keepers. I'm pretty sure they all have bathrooms. And yeah, it's just varying levels of space, costs. If you're more budget friendly, their lowest per night is $289. And the most expensive is $425. But it has the fireplace in it that he put in. That's really nice. all over that. This is also a lighthouse that is in the auction for the USLHS every year. They must donate that time. That's awesome. Donated a couple stays.

50:16 So yeah, there's all kinds of fun stuff. That sounds like fun. It's a great website. I love their logo. It's clean and nice. Yeah, it looks like a great place to visit. How, do you know what it's like to access this today? Access? Like a paved road, you know, X number of miles from somewhere. It's probably a getting here type of thing. It doesn't look paved. Yeah, it could just be the driveway. Gravel, but yeah, I don't know how close we are to, I'm pretty sure there's a highway not too far off. I don't think it's hard to get to. Yeah, I'd imagine everything's built out now. Yeah. 30 miles was the original distance from Marquette. From Marquette. Yeah, so it can't be bad. Nice. Too bad. Beautiful.

51:00 Located 25 miles north of Marquette and nestled. On the cliffs of Lake Superior. Really pretty. No kids allowed. Gotta keep the place in order. Yeah, there's too much stuff. I mean, this area is so pretty. There's so many lighthouses. And Lake Superior is a very scary place. Yeah, I wouldn't want to be liable for kids running around that close to the edge of the bluffs. Yep. So yeah, we had some spooky elements. And this is a great lighthouse. Very appealing. Very appealing. And you can stay here. And I think that's the best part is that you can just go on the website and book to stay in a lighthouse. True. So fun.

51:43 I wish someday we will do that. Someday. That was part of my pitch for our stay. Yeah. All right. That's the end of my episode. All right. Good job. I loved it. Not too much spooky, but a little spooky. Just had to get a little something. I mean, that's, I'm scared. Shivering in my boots. Hey, do you want to go to this Airbnb? It's very haunted. Oh. I always think that I want to experience something paranormal, but I'm not sure that I do. Did you have a, was there a paranormal thing you did? Yeah, in my bachelorette party, which I think we may have experienced something, but it was Carly and I were certain there was somebody on the other side of like, I don't know. It was like this area where there was like a chair in this very tight like back corner. And we went around thinking that there was someone there for certain. And then there was nobody there.

52:40 And it was like actually really scary. You were actually surprised. We were so certain. I can't remember if it was like we were hearing noises or talking. You know, we were in a big group. So we were like, oh, what's around here that someone's looking at? And there was no one there. And it was just like, oh, oh, my God. And it's funny because we both experienced it. Otherwise, I would just be like, oh, I'm hearing things. St. Augustine? Yes. Florida? St. Augustine. Yeah, we went to their After Dark Ghost Tour. Cool. But I had one of those readers and nothing ever spiked. Well, happy Halloween, everyone. Thanks. Happy Halloween. Spooky season. Hope everyone has a fun and safe time trick -or -treating and having Halloween parties because I know that we will. Uh, thanks for joining to listen and check out our YouTube. You can go to our website and listen to all of our episodes there, figure out where to listen to our episodes. And I also just updated our episode map. So we are fully up to date on that. You can see which lighthouses we've covered on a map. Good job. Yeah. And we'll catch you guys next time on the lighthouse.