Marquette, Michigan
3 June 2025

At one time the lighthouse keeper of the Marquette Harbor Light lived with his (or her) family in the lighthouse building. The local historical society is in the process of restoring the keeper's residence.

At one time there was a Coast Guard rescue station at the harbor and also an installation of fog signals that have since been removed.

The catwalk led to the location of the old fog signals.

The lighthouse keeper's job was physically demanding and required a strong work ethic and attention to detail.  Keepers were expected to be self-reliant and resourceful, as they often lived in isolated locations.  The safety of mariners was the top priority, and the lighthouse keeper's role was crucial in preventing shipwrecks. 

Everyday duties included, among many others:

• Lighting the beacon at sundown every day.
• Trimming the wick of the oil lamp several times a night
• Removing soot from the lens as needed
• Keeping watch for ships in trouble, especially during storms
• Maintaining supplies and records

Supervisors made surprise inspections.

As I walked to the end of the catwalk, I passed a number of native plants and also this bold bunny. He (or she) was unperturbed by my presence and kept munching away on the vegetation.

I climbed to the top of the tower for the view. The light is still active and automated and there was a prominent sign warning the visitor that it might light up unexpectedly.

Our ship was located in the inner harbor,  although you can't see it in this picture.

The large grey structure is the abandoned ore dock. There is a similar structure in the outer harbor that is still in use.

The stone building on the beach, the former city waterworks, contains the Marquette Maritime Museum. One of our buses is in the parking lot, although the ship was an easy walk from the museum. I chose to walk back with another of our group.

It was a spooky climb down from the tower on the spiral stair. I'm glad the handrail was sturdy. Climbing up to tend the light multiple times a night would not be the easiest part of a light keeper's job.

I was attracted by this display in the lighthouse basement of vintage Evinrude outboard motors.

Ole Evinrude developed the design for detachable outboard boat motors and built his first one in 1907.

When I was a kid the family co-owned a couple of runabouts with friends. In the summer when other people would go to "the beach," we would go to "the sandbar" somewhere along the Mississippi River near Vicksburg. I couldn't remember if we used Evinrude outboards, but my brother says that we had Johnson. The other major manufacturer of the day was Mercury Marine. They are still in business unlike the others.

This is a REALLY vintage Evinrude: a 1909 one cylinder model.

The motors were donated by the Evinrude family. The Evinrude company was headquartered in Milwaukee, and I don't know the connection with Marquette.

The Maritime museum had this lifeboat on display.

Lifeboats were not favored by Great Lakes sailors. They were hard to launch in heavy seas and they didn't offer much protection from the frigid temperatures, rain, and snow often encountered on the stormy lakes.

There were numerous Fresnel lenses on display. I took pictures of them all, but this one was the most colorful. It is a fourth order lens that is similar to the one that was used in the lighthouse.

Marquette was the site of another of the hiccups of the trip. I had forgotten to bring the adapter that I need to get pictures from my camera to my computer. This not only meant that I couldn't work on the pictures while on the trip, it made all my pictures vulnerable to SD card failure. I looked through the Marquette shopping guide and it referenced some downtown photo shops. One had moved out of town, one was a portrait studio that didn't sell equipment, and one was closed for the week. A couple of locals recommended the local Walgreens, which was "within walking distance." HAH!

Two ladies from the ship kept me company in my search for the Walgreens, but after about a mile we checked and it was much farther. And it was starting to rain. Bummer. We gave up and returned to the ship.

At least we got to see some of downtown Marquette. This is the former City Hall, built in 1894 and used until 1975. It is now a professional office building.

The minor near-tragedy that followed was my decision to use multiple SD cards to prevent losing ALL the pictures if one of the cards failed. That night I put the first card containing all the pictures so far in a "safe place," and forgot where I put it. Since you are looking at these pictures now, I clearly found it, but it wasn't until I got home from the trip. I fretted over that card and searched and fretted and searched for the "lost" pictures for the rest of the trip!

The weird-looking structure that loomed out of the haze when we arrived in Marquette that morning is an ore dock. Sources differ as to when this one was built -- probably 1931. It went out of use in 1971. A similar dock in the outer harbor is still in use.

This old dock is the centerpiece of several local celebrations including Orehenge. Check the link for some spectacular photos.

At one time a trestle took ore cars onto the top of the structure. There are pockets connected to the moveable chutes that were lowered to the hatches of waiting bulk carriers. Ore was then gravity-fed into the ships. Two ships could be efficiently loaded at the same time.