Outer Island Light

Outer Island Light
Location	Wisconsin
Coordinates	47°04′35.5″N 90°25′00.11″W / 47.076528°N 90.4166972°W
Tower
Foundation	Stone
Construction	Brick with Italianate bracketing
Automated	1961
Height	90 feet (27 m)
Shape	Frustum of a cone with attached brownstone keeper's house
Markings	White with black trim and lantern
Heritage	National Register of Historic Places contributing property
Light
First lit	1874
Focal height	130 feet (40 m)
Lens	Third-order Fresnel lens (original), solar powered Vega VRB-25 (current)
Range	12 nautical miles (22 km; 14 mi)
Characteristic	White, flashing, 10 sec

The Outer Island lighthouse is a lighthouse located on the northern tip of Outer Island, one of the Apostle Islands, in Lake Superior in Ashland County, Wisconsin, near the city of Bayfield.^[3]^[4]

The light was designed by United States Lighthouse Board Eleventh District Chief Engineer Orlando Poe and constructed under the supervision of his successor, Godfrey Weitzel.^[5]

Currently owned by the National Park Service and part of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977, part of reference number 77000145. It is listed in the Library of Congress Historic American Buildings Survey, WI-318. The lighthouse is attached to a two-story, red brick keeper's quarters.

Access

Most of the Apostle Islands light stations may be reached on the Apostle Islands Cruise Service^[6] water taxi or by private boat during the summer. During the Annual Apostle Island Lighthouse Celebration^[7] ferry tour service is available for all the lighthouses. In the tourist season, volunteer park rangers are on many of the islands to greet visitors.^[8]

Erosion control

In 2004–2005, the National Park Service undertook a significant erosion control project at Outer Island, to stabilize the bluff which had proved susceptible to erosion since the station's earliest days. The project followed a similar effort completed the previous year at the Raspberry Island Lighthouse, and consisted of a three-part strategy: armoring the cliff base with a massive stone wall; improving drainage on the upper grounds to prevent runoff from undercutting the clay bank; and stabilizing the bluff face with "bio-engineering," i.e. planting carefully selected vegetation to anchor the slope. The rock wall at the bottom and drainage system at the top were completed, but a shortage of funds required scaling back the bio-engineering plans, and only the most critical sections of the bluff face were treated.^[9]

Notable incidents

On September 2, 1905, Outer Island Keeper John Irvine performed a heroic rescue, when the 337-foot, three-masted schooner-barge Pretoria lost the line to its towing steamer Venezuela during a fierce storm. The Pretoria attempted to anchor about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) off the island, but when the ship began to break up, the ten-man crew attempted to flee in a lifeboat. Sixty-one-year-old keeper Irvine was alone on the island, his assistants having gone to town, but when the lifeboat flipped in the surf, he waded into the waves and rescued five of the ten men. On that same night, the steamer Sevona also sank in the Apostle Islands, striking a reef near the Sand Island Lighthouse, with the loss of seven men. This double tragedy preceded the better-known Mataafa Storm by several weeks.^[10]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Light List, Volume VII, Great Lakes (PDF). Light List. United States Coast Guard.
^ Wobser, David, Outer Island Light Archived 2008-07-25 at the Wayback Machine, Boatnerd
^ Light List, Volume VII, Great Lakes (PDF). Light List. United States Coast Guard. 2009. p. 151.
^ "Historic Light Station Information and Photography: Wisconsin". United States Coast Guard Historian's Office. Archived from the original on 2017-05-01.
^ Jane C. Busch, People and Places: A Human History of the Apostle Islands, U.S. National Park Service, 2008; David Snyder, A Compendium Of Written Communication Of The Light House Board For The Twelve Light Stations Of The Midwest Region, National Park Service, 1839-1881, U.S. National Park Service, 1992.
^ Apostle Islands Cruise Service.
^ Apostle Island Lighthouse Celebration.
^ Wobser, David, La Pointe Light Archived 2009-01-07 at the Wayback Machine, Boatnerd Originally in Great Laker Magazine.
^ U.S. National Park Service, Annual Reports, Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, on file at AINL headquarters, Bayfield, Wisconsin
^ David C. Cooper, By Fire storm and Ice: Underwater Archeological Investigations in the Apostle Islands. Wisconsin State Historical Society, 1991; James M. Keller, The Unholy Apostles: Shipwreck Tales of the Apostle Islands, Sheridan Books, 1984; Busch, op cit.

External links

Aerial photos of Outer Island Light, Marina.com.
Library of Congress Historic American Buildings Survey Survey number HABS WI-318
Lighthouse friends, Outer Island, WI article.
Merket, Jim, Outer Island: Place of Remoteness and Beauty, Lighthouse Digest, Oct. 1999. Archived 2011-06-14 at the Wayback Machine
National Park Service Maritime History Project, Inventory of Historic Light Stations - Wisconsin, Outer Island Light. Archived 2006-02-09 at the Wayback Machine
Terry Pepper, Seeing the Light, Outer Island Light.
Light List, Volume VII, Great Lakes (PDF). Light List. United States Coast Guard.
Wobser, David, Outer Island Light Archived 2008-07-25 at the Wayback Machine, Boatnerd

[uscg7-1] Light List, Volume VII, Great Lakes (PDF). Light List. United States Coast Guard.

[2] Wobser, David, Outer Island Light Archived 2008-07-25 at the Wayback Machine, Boatnerd

[3] Light List, Volume VII, Great Lakes (PDF). Light List. United States Coast Guard. 2009. p. 151.

[4] "Historic Light Station Information and Photography: Wisconsin". United States Coast Guard Historian's Office. Archived from the original on 2017-05-01.

[5] Jane C. Busch, People and Places: A Human History of the Apostle Islands, U.S. National Park Service, 2008; David Snyder, A Compendium Of Written Communication Of The Light House Board For The Twelve Light Stations Of The Midwest Region, National Park Service, 1839-1881, U.S. National Park Service, 1992.

[6] Apostle Islands Cruise Service.

[7] Apostle Island Lighthouse Celebration.

[8] Wobser, David, La Pointe Light Archived 2009-01-07 at the Wayback Machine, Boatnerd Originally in Great Laker Magazine.

[9] U.S. National Park Service, Annual Reports, Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, on file at AINL headquarters, Bayfield, Wisconsin

[10] David C. Cooper, By Fire storm and Ice: Underwater Archeological Investigations in the Apostle Islands. Wisconsin State Historical Society, 1991; James M. Keller, The Unholy Apostles: Shipwreck Tales of the Apostle Islands, Sheridan Books, 1984; Busch, op cit.

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v t e Apostle Islands
Islands	Madeline Island Stockton Island Gull Island Eagle Island Outer Island Oak Island Sand Island Basswood Island Bear Island Michigan Island Hermit Island Cat Island Otter Island Manitou Island Rocky Island Long Island Ironwood Island York Island Raspberry Island Devils Island South Twin Island North Twin Island
Lighthouses	Michigan Island Light Raspberry Island Light Outer Island Light Sand Island Light Devils Island Light Gull Island Light La Pointe Light Chequamegon Point Light Ashland Harbor Breakwater Light
Shipwrecks	Antelope Big Bay sloop City of Ashland D.R. Owen Lucerne Manistee Marquette Moonlight Noquebay Ottawa Pretoria R.G. Stewart Sevona Ira H. Owen T.H. Camp
Related historic sites	Hadland Fishing Camp Bass Island Brownstone Company Quarry La Pointe Indian Cemetery Manitou Camp Rocky Island Historic District Madeline Island Historical Museum
Protected designations	Apostle Islands National Lakeshore Big Bay State Park

v t e Lighthouses of Wisconsin
Main: List of lighthouses in the United States
Lake Superior	Ashland Harbor Breakwater Chequamegon Point Devils Island Gull Island La Pointe Michigan Island Outer Island Raspberry Island Sand Island Wisconsin Point
Lake Michigan	Algoma Baileys Harbor Baileys Harbor Range Cana Island Chambers Island Dunlap Reef Range Eagle Bluff Grassy Island Range Green Bay Harbor Entrance Green island Kenosha Kenosha North Pier Kevich Kewaunee Pierhead Long Tail Manitowoc Breakwater Milwaukee Breakwater Milwaukee Pierhead North Point Peshtigo Reef Pilot Island Plum Island Range Port Washington Port Washington Breakwater Pottawatomie Racine Harbor Racine North Breakwater Racine Reef Rawley Point Sheboygan Sherwood Point Sturgeon Bay Canal Sturgeon Bay Canal North Pierhead Two Rivers Wind Point
Lake Winnebago	Asylum Calumet Fond du Lac Neenah Rockwell
Historical (lost) lights	Dunlap Reef Range Front Manitowoc Main Manitowoc North Pierhead Plum Island Range Front Racine North Pierhead
Apostle Islands Lighthouses

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