Last week one of the few people in the country who can be considered an old-school ”lampist”, Jim Woodward, along with Kurt Fosberg, cleaned the mercury and made adjustments to the lens, float, and rotating mechanism.  Since mercury is a hazardous material special certification and special care and equipment is required to prevent exposure to mercury vapors during the process.

Nearly two gallons of mercury was drained, and the mercury bowl and float cleaned, and the mercury replaced.  The very small surface area of mercury that is exposed to the air when the float is closed was covered with mineral oil to stop any mercury exposure to the air.

This was a fascinating procedure to watch especially in that the knowledge of the old classical lenses and their care is becoming a lost art.  This tune-up, along with restoration on the lighthouse itself, were completed in time for the 100 year anniversary of the commissioning of Split Rock Lighthouse which will be celebrated in 2010.

Among them was the family of one of the Fitzgerald’s crew members.  Siblings, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of one of the ship’s maintenance men attended the bell ceremony and the beacon lighting.  Each year relatives of at least one of the crew members who perished with the ship attend the ceremony.  This reinforces for us the importance of remembering and showing respect to the ship and crew. 

The weather was unusual for mid-November in that it was calm, clear and in the high forties at sunset.

This is the event of the year for me and all of the staff at Split Rock that really resonates and brings home the reason for the lighthouse being built on this rocky point.  We enjoy seeing visitors who have become old friends and who have returned to the site each year on November 10 to experience Lake Superior in different weather and with a little different emphasis than a summer visit has.

So, even though the temperature will be in the 50’s and the sun will be out it will still be November.  The sun will reflect off of the lake at a very low angle and it will dip behind Day Hill at 4:37 p.m.  The long dusk allows for the lighthouse beacon to add its glow to what promises to be a glorious sunset.

Back in the day, the light keepers at Split Rock and other Great Lakes lighthouses always had relatively easy duty during the summer months.  Short nights, warm evenings, and settled weather made their jobs easy at that time of year.

This time of year, late October and November, bring on the rain and snow and days and nights that the northeast winds howls in off of the lake as low front after low front bring in Canadian cold blasts.  This October has been the wicked sister to a warm and quiet September that took summer with it.

For those who have made it to the lighthouse and the North Shore this fall it has been a mixed bag of weather.  A record warm September followed a very cool summer.  Now, the first snowfall has come in the form of an inch or so last Saturday morning.  I spent last Saturday putting up the storm windows on our home in the middle keeper’s dwelling in a strong wind.  That job is always an indication that summer, and even autumn, are over.  Even with the freezing nights the fall colors have lasted a couple of weeks later than normal.  This upcoming weekend is teacher’s workshop weekend in Minnesota, which means the kids, and most of the teachers, get a four-day weekend.  This will also be the last weekend of the regular tour season at Split Rock.  Now, the next major event with be the Edmund Fitzgerald Beacon Lighting on November 10.

October 3rd Cathy Wurzer held a book signing here for her book “Tales of the Road“. The book signing was well attended and many of our visitors recognized Cathy from her work at WCCO in the Twin Cities and from her MPR program as well.  Cathy will be back next summer - watch the MHS Calendar of Events for her next visit as well as other Anniversary events.

At mid-day today a parade of about 30 vintage airplanes passed in procession past the lighthouse heading up the shore towards Canada.  The visitors at the lighthouse watched as these planes flew past, some of them uncomfortably close to the cliff.

The next three weeks will be prime for fall colors.  For those tracking the progress of the color transition southward the leaves along the shore are only about 10-15% changed.  Over the first ridge and back from Lake Superior the maples and other trees are about 30-40% changed.

The trees that get the most attention, and the ones most visitors ask most about, are the mountain ash.  They are now loaded with bright red berries and are attracting cedar waxwings and other migratory birds that feed on the berries.  As the berries ripen they tend to ferment on the branch.  When overripe, and the grouse and other birds eat them, they tend to fly a little erratically from the buzz they get from the berries.  That is when we need to be concerned about loosing windows to the grouse….and grouse to the windows.

With one month remaining before we button up the lighthouse for winter the staff are enjoying a little lighter visitation and the opportunity to spend more time chatting with visitors and finding out where they are from.  Now that kids are back in school we are seeing more retired people from all over the country.  In fact, the day before yesterday a retired couple said that they have visited 760 lighthouse around the country and this was their third trip to Split Rock Lighthouse!

Next summer, for the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the lighthouse, one of our staff had the great idea to invite the public to share family photographs of their visits to Split Rock over time.  This sounded like a fantastic way for visitors to get directly involved with the history of the lighthouse and to share some of their own personal history.

So, we are asking all of you who have photographs of Split Rock Lighthouse from before 1980 to share them with us at the historic site.  They will go into an exhibit in the visitor center next summer plus we will post them on the Split Rock Lighthouse website, www.mnhs.org/splitrock.  We are looking for any photos of your family at the lighthouse or scenic shots of the grounds or the lighthouse from your visit before 1980.  Why 1980?  Much of the restoration that was done at the site to bring the light station back to its original condition was done in the 1980’s so we are looking for older photos to show changes in the site before that time.  Also, we all know how digital photography change peoples ability to take hundreds, not dozens of photos, and we will just not be able to accomodate all the digital photos.

So, dig out your family vacation albums from years back.  Pop out your Split Rock photos and stand by for more information on submitting either the photos or scanning and emailing them.  Let’s see how far back we can go with peoples memories of Split Rock.

The Hells Angels definately attracted the most attention from law enforcement and others.   The HAMC held their national pre-Sturgis rally the last week of July in Carlton, MN and it was estimated that around 500 club members spent three or four days playing tourist around Duluth and up the North Shore.  Very little activity out of the normal was noticed (though much was anticipated) during their visit and traffic along the North Shore highway continued as usual.

Motorcycles are a great way to visit lighthouses as most lighthouses are in very scenic locations and bikes are the best means of traveling to these mostly rural settings.  Many of the visitors to Split Rock are continuing on the circle route around Lake Superior or heading inland toward northern Minnesota and the iron range towns by way of the Superior National Forest Scenic Byway, arguably one of the best motorcycle roads in the state, even in a car.There will be a couple of more months of good riding weather ahead.  With fall colors just over a month away think about a trip over some great roads with great scenery, to see some great lighthouses.