Last week Molly and I served as lighthouse keepers at Crisp Point Lighthouse. Our five day stint as keepers on this remote Lake Superior shore was but a “blink in time” for Crisp Point and lighthouses in general. Ever since man constructed ports, lighthouses have existed to aide navigation. The oldest standing lighthouse today is the Tower of Hercules in Spain which was built by the Romans in the 2nd Century. Crisp Point light is a Johnny come lately to the world of beacons, built in 1904.

I hope you enjoy this photo journalistic essay of a day in the life of Crisp Point Lighthouse from the lighthouse’s perspective. This first image was taken 20 minutes before sunrise.  The perspective is from out on the catwalk looking through the glass.

Our stay was our fourth visit as keepers, and we are already signed up for 2018. Molly and I feel privileged to have been a very small part of this history. The images are combined from our five day stay. Finally, I invite you to visit my wife’s blog, Superior Footprints. Molly, who is a published writer for many magazines including Lake Superior Magazine, gives her impressions of Crisp Point including our duties as keepers.

100 minutes before sunrise: Crisp Point near the finish of another night’s work. The first light of dawn may be seen in the lower right hand corner of the photo.

60 minutes before sunrise: Getting ready for a new day in the official lighthouse keepers residence, a small tent!

30 minutes before sunrise: Morning calm descends over Lake Superior

15 minutes before sunrise: Reflections on a new day!

Sunrise!

20 minutes after sunrise: Time for a morning walk on the beach before starting keeper’s duties for the day.

Daytime – morning

Daytime – afternoon

20 minutes prior to sunset: Quite the view for dinner!

Sunset: The sun starts to dip below the Lake Superior horizon. The lighthouse photograph was taken with three minutes left of direct sunlight.

15 minutes after sunset

25 minutes after sunset

120 minutes after sunset: Nothing like a good bonfire to relax and enjoy a great day. After the last guest leaves, Molly and I enjoy our very private campsite. Reaching Crisp Point requires a 50 minute (19 mile drive) along a dirt road. The closest town of any size is an 80 minute drive … truly heaven on earth!

Crisp Point Lighthouse Map

Molly and I are back on the grid for a few hours. We just spent a heavenly week at Crisp Point Lighthouse serving as lighthouse keepers. This light is very remote and may only be reached by a 19 mile long dirt road which is in poor condition. The nearest small town to Crisp Point is Newberry, Michigan which is a 70 minute drive one way.

We had fantastic weather, a true Indian Summer, on our remote Lake Superior shoreline. Our official keeper’s residence is our small pup tent which was pitched only 30 yards from the beach. The white noise sound of crashing waves helped us fall asleep every night. Expect an extensive post of the many moods of Crisp Point a few days hence, but in the meantime here is an image I took of our final sunset, and a ring-billed gull who paid our campsite a visit. Now it’s on to Northstar Lake near the Minnesota Canadian border … time to shut down the water system at our cabin and winterize the place. Once again, we will be off the grid! Kind of nice, isn’t it?!

Although the primary focus of my camera may be birds, as an outdoorsman I love varied experiences which provide me the opportunity to enjoy nature’s beauty. Today as I find my planned bike touring rained out by Hurricane Nate, I am looking forward to Molly and my upcoming service as lighthouse keepers on a remote Lake Superior shore. In eight days we will find ourselves at Crisp Point Lighthouse , which is fifteen miles shy of Whitefish Point near the eastern end of Lake Superior.

Our duties are not difficult. During the day we greet guests, serve as impromptu tour guides, provide security for the site, perform housekeeping chores, and run the small gift shop. Unlike many lighthouses, there is no keeper’s residence. However, far from being a negative, having one’s own private campsite 20 miles from the nearest building of any kind is fantastic!

From a photography vantage point hanging out at a lighthouse is great. Having the combination of the largest lake in the world, Gitchi Gumi, and a lighthouse only 10 yards from the water makes for a great photo subject. My image taken last Fall and shown below is now used by the United States Lighthouses web site as the featured photo for Crisp Point. In total we will serve as keepers for just under a week, but as there is no connectivity of any kind … posts about the experience will have to wait till our return to civilization.

One final note … the Edmund Fitzgerald sank seven miles off Crisp Point … as noted in the lyrics of the song by Gordon Lightfoot.

The searches all say they’d have made Whitefish Bay
If they’d put fifteen more miles behind her