Will the Sequels Ever End

I feel like I am creating "Rocky 59, it Never Ends". With the 4th of July weekend upon us, we chose not to do a lot... except tour Washington Island.

In an earlier post I mentioned doing a little recon on Washington Island, so we did it. It was a beautiful day for it too. How many of you remember Miss Muppet sitting on her tuffet...

There was a bench to sit at, and it was surrounded by spiders like this, fortunately they were not aggressive, just enjoying the sun.

This was the passenger ferry we rode to the island, from the  island landing we rode a tram around the island. The photo is courtesy of Voight Marine Services. When we boarded the boat we went to the top, and while we were waiting for boarding to complete, we looked down in the water and saw fish swimming around (I don't know if they were part of the tour experience, ha ha)

Unfortunately these are not exotic fish, they are only carp, some consider them trash fish. These guys did not let the departure of the boat bother them one bit.

After we pulled out from the dock, we headed north towards Washington Island, passing the infamous "Death's Door" passage.

Death's Door, home of more than 200 shipwrecks. The captain steered us port (left) a bit so that we could get a good look at another operational lighthouse

This lighthouse, on Plum Island is no longer manned after the mid 1970s. The lighthouse in the photo is the rear range of Plum Island. There are several lighthouses on this island. The first lighthouse bult on the island in 1849, unfortunately too far in in passage to be of great value, and mariners still had issues navigating Death's Door passage.

Bottom photo courtesy of Andrew Apollo

Because the Plum Island lighthouse was not doing its job, they abandoned it and built another lighthouse on Pilot Island in 1858.

Because it was a government job, the Pilot Island lighthouse didn't prove to be much better than the old Plum Island lighthouse. Always remember the government's motto... there is always enough time to do it wrong twice. (did I type that out loud, oops)

Around the late 1880s a sailing captain who traveled the passage quite a bit, proposed range lights be built on Plum Island. Our speedy government only took until 1895 to approve the idea, with construction beginning in 1896.

The brick structure by the lighthouse is the Keepers house. The Keeper had the south side and upper floor of the house; one Asst. Keeper lived upstairs on the north side, and the other Asst. Keeper lived on the 1st floor of the north side.

The next two photos are the fog signal building, boathouse, and oil storage building.

Once we crossed the harbor channel it was time to time up at Detroit Harbor, on Washington Island. I mentioned earlier that our tour of the island would be by tram...

This was our tram, two cars pulled by an SUV. History of the early island settlers begins with a bunch of Scandinavians moving to the island to farm. For you people that like shopping, the tour does stop at the mall for some shopping, but first we passed Washington Bay.

The tour driver was giving the islander prospective on how they see us, a 30 minute ferry ride from the mainland. The island is over 35 square miles in size, with over 100 miles of roads throughout the island. Why so many roads? 718 permanent residents, plus the tourists in the summer, which increases the population to nearly 1600 when the rental cottages are filled.

Brace yourself, we are now going to stop at the mall to do some shopping.

The big building in the first photo is the candy, swimming, souvenir, hardware, clothing, paint, and food snack store. The other building is handmade crafts from the locals. Leaving here we headed into downtown Washington; I couldn't get my camera ready fast enough to take a photo of downtown. I did see a grocery store, couple of bars, realtor, newspaper office, and a couple of eateries.

Leaving town we headed for the next tour stop, the Stavkirke Church.

Before we enter the church lets discuss the name. Stavkirke refers to the use of vertical posts; the term "stav"  means pole or support. 

This church is a replica patterned after the Borgund church, in Norway, built in 1150A.D.. The project was started in 1991 by local carpenters, and a large group of volunteers. The main portion of the church was dedicated in 1995 as a Christian house of worship. In 1999, the bell tower and dragon heads were added. 

At the time the original church was build in the mid 1100s, paganism was giving way to Christianity. The carvings are a blend of pagan and Christian symbols.

Our next stop on the tour is a farm museum representing what life might have been in the earlier days on the island. The first thing I want to say is that it is a working horse ranch, with other animals too. I was able to get a picture of the working horses...

As you may notice, some of the horses were comfortable with humans around. The other livestock...

Visitors can feed the livestock, for a quarter per serving. Around the farm are other buildings that were located on the island from days gone by.

TYPICAL FAMILY LIVING SPACE

WEAVING BUILDING

INSIDE WEAVING BARN

BARN

CIDER PRESSING BARN

INSIDE PRESSING BARN

Anyone know what this piece of farm equipment is?

USED FOR PLANTING CORN CROPS

Our last stop on the tour was Schoolhouse Beach. Apparently it is a tourist destination on this island. The selling point to the beach is the smooth rocky shore. Smooth rocks are still tough to walk on without water shoes. The reason the beach got its name was because the schoolhouse was located really close to the water. 

Because winters were pretty harsh near the shore, with a lot of freezing temperatures and icing, the school was moved up the hill. This new schoolhouse later became a church, and an addition was added to the left side of the building. From the last stop we scurried back through downtown so that we could catch our ferry back to the mainland.

We made it back intact, and ready for lunch.
 

On the way back we stop at Mink River Basin...

This was a good place to stop for lunch, mainly because I stopped so a car could back out of the parking lot to enter the road. As you might guess, this gave me a sign that I should take his parking spot, and have lunch there. This place is an upper crust kinda place, they have a dress code...

Fortunately Carol and I met their dress code, so we sat down and had lunch. 

TEMPURA FRIED SHRIMP

DEEP FRIED WHITEFISH

Last night was the 4th of July, and there were fireworks all around us, some of them we could see...

Made our preps for departure today, stopping at Piggly Wiggly, and Waseda Farms. Waseda Farms is a local working farm that sells meat, veggies, eggs, and dairy products, plus they have a looky-loo zoo, no petting or feeding though.

You will be happy to know that the Sturgeon Bay series has come to an end, we are heading closer to Fond Du Lac.

Sturgeon Bay... Sequel to a Sequel

 I promised you a lighthouse in the last post, sorry for the fib.

So here is a lighthouse, Cana Island Lighthouse. It was a bit interesting getting to this lighthouse, it is technically located on an island.  Visitors have the option of walking, or riding a hay wagon pulled by a tractor... we chose to ride the hay wagon.

That beautiful white haze is the smoke from Canada. What you are looking at is the access to the island, across a causeway. Looks pretty easy you say, today it was. Depending on the waters of Lake Michigan and the wind, there could be three feet of water covering the causeway. In fact, as we were returning after our visit, the water was beginning to cover the causeway. 

The stopping point for the hay wagon is at the visitor center/gift shop, from there it is a 200 yard walk to the lighthouse.

This photo gives one a perspective as to what had priority. The little tan brick building is the two-person privy, the white structure is the oil storage.

This structure housed the oil barrels containing the kerosene used for the light. Here is a bit of a surprise for some folks, in 1869, when the lighthouse first lit, they used lard. The earlier lighthouses used whale oil, but because it became expensive, the Coast Guard found the need to find a different fuel. Lard was readily available from the local butchers.

Lets talk about the next form of lighting the lamp, kerosene, and mineral oil. Because the kerosene and mineral oil were so flammable, they were stored by the boathouse across the island. 

Around 1925 the light keeper moved the kerosene and mineral oil tanks closer to the storage structure, and ran a line between the structure and tanks.

In 1934 the Lighthouse Service was considering running electricity to the lighthouse; one estimate was for $13,400.00, which was equal to $245,329.00 in 2018. By 1939 the Lighthouse Service was absorbed by the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard again looked at cost to electrify the lighthouse, and received an estimate for $2,500.00 ($45,770 in 2018 dollars). The design involved the installation of two or three engines and a battery. Evidence indicates that they went with two engines.

Looking in the Fresnel lens today, all visitors will see are small filament light bulbs. In the photo you can two sticking out, one to the right, the other to the left, but only one lights at a time. In actuality, there are four bulbs, and when one bulb burns out, the mechanism rotates to bring a good bulb into operation.

I did not intend to start at the top, so back down we go.

The yellow brick structure is the Light Keeper's house. Originally the lighthouse was made out of the same brick as the house, but weather started causing deterioration, so it was clad in metal.

Here are some notes about this particular lighthouse:

Built: 1869

Height (to top of the lightning rod): 89 feet

Light Height: 85 feet

Focal Distance: 18 miles.

Steps: 95

In the 75 years the lighthouse was manned, there were 9 Keepers, and 23 Asst. Keepers.

The keeper's house was recently restored.

Originally the keepers house was designed to be two living quarters, one for the Keeper, the other for the Asst. Keeper. 

Lets just say it didn't happen that way with the first Keeper, who brought his wife and five children. They took up both floors, thanks to his wife being named the Asst. Keeper.

The first floor consisted of the mud room, family room, kitchen, the Keeper's office, and a bed room; there was also access to the lighthouse from the first floor.

The second floor was not quite as fancy.

Along with the three rooms for the assistant, there was a kitchen. The other obvious room missing is the... bathroom, remember, it is located outside near the oil storage structure.

Asst. Keepers were usually young single men, because they did not have much. The Lighthouse Service also preferred the young single men because they could assign them wherever they might be need. Only when there was a shortage of applicants would the Service look at wives and older sons of the Keepers family.

The children didn't just roam the 8.7 acre site aimlessly, the boys would help with chores around the campus, and the girls usually helped their mother.

Enough about the laborers, lets labor ourselves by...

95 steps to the light. The handrail you see in the photo did not exist when the tower was first built, it took several years before someone decided it would be a good idea to install it. Think of yourself as the Keeper or Asst. Keeper carrying buckets of lard, mineral oil, or kerosene up those steps every day, possibly multiple trips. This trip was not one of great excitement for me, I am uncomfortable with heights... just wait until we get to the top.

I'm ok, this is the view from the first landing port hole. Up we continue.
Still ok, third landing, we are still inside the tower, but it can't last much longer.

NOT MY COMFORT ZONE. My back was up against the tower wall, only grabbing the rail to continue around the tower. I was very happy to step back inside the tower again.

The second photo shows damage from a duck. It is believed that the duck was blown into the outer glass housing, which caused damage to the Fresnel lens. Speaking of the outer glass, it was the responsibility of the Keeper, or Asst. Keeper to keep the glass clean. Daily they had to climb a hook ladder, from the outside of the tower, and clean each window. NO THANK YOU!!

We made it back down the 95 steps to the comfort zone.

WRECKAGE FROM THE M.J. BARTELME

Last stop on the way back to the information center. This is the workshop/barn, built in 1885, and restored in 2017.

In the information center/gift shop there is a short video, and a timeline of the lighthouse.

CANA ISLAND AND CAUSEWAY TO ISLAND

We made it safely back to the truck to begin our trip back to the trailer.

When Carol and I travel we try to find events or attractions that are local to the region we are visiting. As I have mentioned before, here in Wisconsin is cheese, in Door County is cherries, and... fish boils.

In this area the idea of fish boils came about through the Scandinavian immigrants. The area was filled with logging communities, and the folks were trying to figure out how to feed the masses, a community feed was the answer. Today the process has become a show, as well as a feast. Carol and I decided to visit one.

We drove to Fish Creek, which was about 7 miles from our campground, and managed to find a good, shaded parking spot on the street, almost in front of the restaurant we were going to visit. Whichever restaurant one visits, they recommend that diners show up about an hour earlier than their reservations, that way they get to see their food cooking. Our restaurants sat at the base of a bluff, which was particularly nice in that it was not too windy eating outside.

Yes, there are houses on the bluff, through the trees.

It doesn't look like much when I took this photo, but this is the arena where the show becomes a meal.

Notice that the chef has inserted the stainless cooking vessel, and added wood under it, and around it. While the chef is preparing the fire, the audience can ask questions. One of the questions asked pertained to the wood planks on the outside of the cauldron. The function of the planks is to keep a steady temperature on the cauldron during cooking. By moving the planks he can maintain temperature, functioning much like an oven door.

In the cauldron is about 35 gallons of water, with a pinch of salt added; that pinch of salt is a one gallon pitcher. During the boil he will use 10 pounds of salt.

Once the water get to boilin' the chef will add the potatoes, and another pinch of salt (ice scooper). You may be asking yourself, how will he do that... answer... stainless steel basket.

The big baskets hold the potatoes and Texas sweet onions, there is a smaller basket that fits inside the bigger one, and it is for the fish.
We now have potatoes and onions cooking. The potatoes were started first because of their cooking time, then the onions were added. After about half an hour cooking, the fish is added...

This is locally net caught fish, called Whitefish, caught straight from the waters of Lake Michigan/Sturgeon Bay. 

The fish are classified by size, and range up to jumbos. Most of the fish boil restaurants use a class one, which nets about three good steaks per fish. Once the fish go in, its about another 15 minutes before the dinner bell rings.

I do not mention the dinner bell lightly. When the bell is rung, it is time for boil over. Boil over is the process by which the chef removes the oil that is riding on the surface of the boiling water. Ah... how is boil over achieved... a #10 can of diesel fuel, or kerosene. The fuel is poured on to the fire, causing the water to boil over, spilling all the oils off the water's surface.

Was that great or what.

End result of the boil over...

I had the manly serving of two portions of fish with my dinner. To give you an idea as to how good it was, Carol, the not a fish lover, ate her entire portion of fish. As you can see, there was fish, coleslaw, potatoes, onion, and corn on the cob, slices of white and rye bread and butter, and a nice portion of Door County cherry pie for dessert.

I will tell you this, one needs to know the secrets for removing fish bones. The only thing that happens to this fish after its caught, is that it is cleaned. This light tasting fish was easy to debone. Find the backbone and gently pull the fillets off the bones, that gets most of the bones out of the way. Carol and I would do another fish boil.

MORE TO COME OF DOOR COUNTY