Guiding Lights, Tragic Shadows Tales of Great Lakes Lighthouses

by Butts, Edward

• ISBN13: 9781933272023
• ISBN10: 1933272023
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-06-01
• Publisher: Thunder Bay Press Michigan

Summary

A peaceful lighthouse at Prescott, Ontario, was once the flashpoint of American invasion in an undeclared war. Robbers called "Blackbirds" preyed on Lake Erie shipping, using false beacons to confuse their victims. The lighthouse at Oswego, New York, was the site of one of the worst disasters in the history of the United States Coast Guard. A Lake Huron lightkeeper wiped snow off the window of his lamp room, and inadvertently caused a shipwreck. A 14-year-old Detroit River lightkeeper's daughter was the heroine in a courageous rescue.Lighthouses, from the Upper St. Lawrence River to the head of Lake Superior, have played an integral role in the history, romance, lore and legends of the Lakes. The towers and their keepers bore witness to, and participated in, the dramas of war, shipwrecks, and daring rescues. All while enduring the privations of one of the loneliest occupations on earth.

Author Biography

Edward Butts is the author of numerous books, including Murder, Line of Fire, Running With Dillinger, True Canadian Unsolved Mysteries, and The Desperate Ones, which was nominated for the Arthur Ellis Award. He lives in Guelph, Ontario.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 11
A Question of Firsts	p. 12
The Imperial Towers: John Brown's Legacy	p. 17
The Lights and Their Keepers: Lamps, Lenses and Oils	p. 21
The Thousand Islands	p. 31
Windmill Point Lighthouse: The Hunters' Invasion	p. 33
Rock Island Light: A Pirate and a Wreck	p. 46
Sisters Island: Light on the Border	p. 49
Lake Ontario	p. 53
Gibraltar Point Lighthouse: The Parade of History	p. 55
Toronto's Eastern Gap and Queen's Wharf Lights: Standing Witness	p. 61
The Frenchman's Bay Light: Mixed Signals	p. 64
Presqu'ile Light: Changing the Course of History	p. 66
Main Duck Island: Sanctuary from Storms	p. 73
East charity Shoal: One Light in the Darkness	p. 80
The Oswego Light: Six Men Down	p. 81
The Burlington Bay Light: Yesterday in the Shadow of Today	p. 86
Lake Ontario: Fire From Heaven	p. 92
Lake Erie and the Detroit River	p. 98
The Lights of Buffalo: Towers, Ships & a Piece of the British Empire	p. 99
Long Point: Graveyard of Lake Erie	p. 110
Pelee Island Light: Casualty of War	p. 118
Jack Sutherland and the Ciscoe: Above and Beyond	p. 123
Mohawk Island and Colchester Reef: Life and Death on Lake Erie	p. 127
Vermilion Ohio: The Disappearing Lighthouse	p. 134
Southeast Shoal Light: Flames on Lake Erie	p. 136
Detroit River Light: Fire on the Lucille	p. 140
Maebelle Mason: Rescue on the River	p. 141
Lake Huron	p. 145
Charity Islands Light: Gifts from God	p. 146
Chantry Island Light: A Tradition of Saving Lives	p. 150
The Nottawasaga Light: George Collins and the Mary Ward	p. 157
Adam Brown: Bird Man of Red Rock	p. 163
Clapperton Island Light: The Luck of the Bakers	p. 168
Sulphur Island: Closed for the Winter	p. 172
Lake Michigan	p. 177
South Manitou Island: Graves in the Water, Graves in the Sand	p. 178
White River Light: 'Till Death Do Us Part	p. 183
Women at the Lights: Equal to the Task	p. 185
Pilot Island: The Lighthouse at Death's Door	p. 191
Squaw Island: Adrift on Lake Michigan	p. 197
Lake Superior	p. 203
Au Sable Light: Desertion on the Kiowa	p. 204
Miners' Castle: The Wreck of the Elma	p. 206
Stannard Rock: The Loneliest Place in America	p. 212
Big Bay Point: A Hard Man to Work For	p. 215
Rock Of Ages: The Devil Rock	p. 217
Passage Island Light: Light on the Frontier	p. 228
Peril on the Water: Commuting as a Life and Death Struggle	p. 238
George Johnston: Lonely Caribou Island	p. 244
Around the Lakes	p. 252
Alone With Their Dead	p. 254
The Storm Of 1905: Guiding Lights	p. 261
Epilogue	p. 266
Bibliography	p. 267
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