Au Sable Light Station podcasts
The following podcasts were developed by Karena Minor, seasonal Park Ranger (Interpretation) at the Au Sable Light Station. They were part of her Masters Degree project at Michigan State University, and represent her deep interest in the history of the station and its keepers.
If you download the podcasts and use them as an on-site hiking tour, begin at the lower Hurricane River Campground and walk 1.5 miles on the North Country Trail to the lighthouse. The first three podcasts feature the shipwrecks beginning with the Mary Jarecki at the lighthouse road gate. The last five podcasts are on the Au Sable Light Station itself.
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This podcast series is a self-guided walking tour of the trail from Hurricane River Campground and the Au Sable Light Station. It is a virtual tour of the shipwrecks and lighthouses. Please start with this introduction podcast.
- Credit / Author:
- Karena Minor
- Date created:
- 2010-05-01
Welcome to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. I am so glad you are able to join us today. You are at the eastern end of the Lakeshore, which is quite different from the western end of the park. The western end of the park is known for its tall sandstone cliffs. This end of the park is magnificent in its own way.
One of the more unique natural features is its large area of sand dunes. As you stand facing north toward Lake Superior at Hurricane River, you will find the Grand Sable Dunes to your right, beyond the end of the point about three and a half miles away. A two-track service road extends east from Hurricane River Campground for a mile and a half and ends at Au Sable Point and the Au Sable Light Station.
At the point there is a shoal that stretches for a half mile along the coast and extending for one mile out into Lake Superior. This shoal is roughly six feet deep. There is also in this area a thick fog that periodically develops. This fog is a product of the mixing of the cold air mass over Lake Superior and the warm moist air mass over the Grand Sable Dunes.
Because of these dangers to navigation, Congress was compelled to appropriate money in 1872 to build a light station. At the time of its completion in 1874, Au Sable was one of the most remote land-based light stations in United States. Before 1939 this light was serviced only by boat or by foot.
The other unique feature of this end of the park is the shipwrecks. In the mile and a half walk from Hurricane River Campground to Au Sable Point, three shipwrecks are visible along the shore: the steam barge Mary Jarecki, the steamer Sitka, and the steamer Gale Staples.
It is my honor to introduce you to John Brooks. Keeper Brooks was an important fixture in the history of this light station. He came to Au Sable Point as the Second Assistant, was promoted to First Assistant, and eventually to Keeper at this station from 1908 through February 1923.
Come with me as we embark on an adventure through time and let Keeper Brooks tell you the stories of these shipwrecks and the light station as only he can remember it.
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The Steam Barge Mary Jarecki is the first wreck located along the trail from Hurricane River. She ran ashore on July 4, 1882. Her remains lie in the water perpendicular to the shoreline. Visibility depends on the water level and wave action of Lake Superior.
- Credit / Author:
- Karena Minor
- Date created:
- 2010-05-01
Narrator: This podcast is the first in a series of three podcasts about the shipwrecks. Each of these shipwrecks is visible from the beach. As you approach the trail to the Au Sable Light Station, you will notice a sign to your left indicating that there is a shipwreck on the beach. Follow this path down to the beach where you may be able to see waves breaking over the remains of the Mary Jarecki as she lies in the water facing perpendicular to the shoreline. Visibility of the Mary Jarecki is dependent on the water level of Lake Superior.
John Brooks: Hello, my name is John Brooks. My stint as the lighthouse keeper at Au Sable Point spanned from 1908 through February of 1923. Over my 15 year career at Au Sable, I have taken time to go back and read some of the old journal entries. Some of those entries were about shipwrecks that occurred along the coast here long before I ever became keeper.
One entry in particular talks about the steam barrage Mary Jarecki. The journal entry that Keeper Fredrick Boesler left us reads, “On the 4th day of July 1882 the steam barrage Mary Jarecki ran on the shore. She is a total wreck. Her commander was Captain Anthony Everett from Kenosha, Wisconsin. No life was lost.”
Mary Jarecki is the wreck just east of Hurricane River. I heard that she was a great ship! Mary Jarecki, a 179-foot steam barge, was on her way from Marquette to the Soo Locks when she ran ashore at full steam after drifting south of her intended course. Others say that the force of her impact was so strong that it drove her bow nearly three feet out of the water! They say that Captain Everett immediately went to the Soo to get a pump to save her. The poor guy didn’t have a chance. He couldn’t save his ship. She was a goner! The value of the ship and cargo was estimated to be $46,000 back in 1882.
Narrator: If you wish to continue exploring the shipwrecks, come with us from the Hurricane River Campground to the Au Sable Point trail. Please join John Brooks and me about a mile east down the trail at the location of the Sitka. There will be a sign on your left directing you down a set of steps to the Lake Superior shoreline.
If you wish to skip the remaining shipwrecks, you may do so by continuing down the trail for an additional half-mile. This will take you to the Au Sable Light Station. Either way, John and I will meet you there to continue our adventure.
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The Steamer Sitka is the second wreck, located a mile from Hurricane River. Watch for the shipwrecks sign and stairs to the beach. She ran aground on the Au Sable shoal on October 4, 1904. She washed onto the beach and now sits parallel to shore.
- Credit / Author:
- Karena Minor
- Date created:
- 2010-05-01
Narrator: This podcast is the second in the series of three podcasts about the shipwrecks. Each of these shipwrecks is visible from the beach.
After walking approximately one mile east down the service road from the Hurricane River Campground, you will see a sign directing you to stairs down to the Lake Superior shoreline. After descending the stairway to the beach, the steamer Sitka is about 200 yards to your right. She was washed onto the beach and now sits parallel to the shore.
John Brooks: Hi, I’m John Brooks. I was a keeper here at Au Sable Point from 1908 through February of 1923. Just a few hundred yards west of the light lay the remains of the steamer Sitka. She went down on October 4, 1904, four years before I became second assistant at the Point.
Otto Buffe, the keeper at this station when the wreck occurred, reported that Sitka was carrying a load of iron ore taken on at Marquette. I never got to see her afloat, but I was told that she was a 273-foot, 1,740-ton wooden steamer. She found herself in some thick fog off Au Sable Point and got caught on the shoal a mile out from the lighthouse where she was only 100 feet from the safety of deep water. There was no way to save Sitka. The waves pounded her to pieces against the shoal. With the help of salvagers she was stripped of anything deemed useable. Her loss in 1904 was valued at over $53,000.
Narrator: If you wish to continue with the shipwreck tour, please join John Brooks and me another one to two hundred yards east of Sitka, where you will find several sections of the steamer Gale Staples.
If you would rather move on to the lighthouse, you may do so by continuing on up the beach for an additional 600 yards. You will walk past the remains of Gale Staples and on to the rope-and-log stairway leading up the hill to the light station.
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The Steamer Gale Staples is the third wreck, located closest to the lighthouse. Her remains are intermixed with those of Sitka. The Gale Staples became another victim of the Au Sable shoal on October 1, 1918.
- Credit / Author:
- Karena Minor
- Date created:
- 2010-05-01
Narrator: This podcast is the third in this series of three podcasts about the shipwrecks. Each of these shipwrecks is visible from the beach.
Of the three shipwrecks, Gale Staples is located closest to the lighthouse. The best way to reach her is to descend the stairs that are one mile down the footpath from the trailhead at the Hurricane River Campground.
Gale Staples is the second of the two shipwrecks as you walk down the beach to your right. Her remains are intertwined with those of Sitka, but the primary sections of her hull are those closest to the light station.
John Brooks: Hi, keeper John Brooks here. From 1908 through February of 1923 my work station was at Au Sable Point. While I was the keeper here, I witnessed the wreck of the steamer Gale Staples. I recorded in the official log on October 1st of 1918 that the steamer Gale Staples of Port Arthur, Canada, was bound for her homeport with a load of coal. A hard gale out of the north caused her to be grounded on the reef about half or three-quarters of a mile northwest by north of here. She was in plain sight of the station.
My first and second assistants went out to see if they could render any help. That was October first. Initially they thought that she could be saved, but it turned out to be impossible. Within five days the upper cabin of the ship was gone. Gale Staples appeared to have broken forward of the cabin. The salvagers abandoned her on the 7th, being able to salvage 1,600 tons of coal by that time. Her estimated value in 1918 was about $75,000. She is just another victim of the Au Sable Shoal!
Narrator: If you will continue to follow the beach to the east for a couple hundred yards, you will come to the rope-and-log stairway leading up to the light station. There John Brooks and I will rejoin you to look at the lighthouse.
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This podcast begins the Au Sable Light Station series. Please stand at the flagpole for this episode and consider daily life at one of the most remote mainland light stations in the continental U.S. Listen to Keeper John Brooks as he remembers his life at the station.
- Credit / Author:
- Karena Minor
- Date created:
- 2010-05-01
Narrator: This podcast is the first in this series of five episodes about the Au Sable Light Station. Another set of episodes contains the stories about three shipwrecks. These downloads are for those coming to the light station by way of the Hurricane River path.
As you stand at the flagpole for this episode, you are at one of the most remote mainland light stations in the continental U.S. This isolation required the keeper to perform all types of repairs, maintenance, and adaptations to the station and grounds.
This monotonous lifestyle, while distracting them from their loneliness, did not mask it. Let’s listen to Keeper John Brooks as he tells us more about the station.
John Brooks: Napoleon Beedon, the second keeper at the Au Sable Light Station, was working on the grounds on an absolutely gorgeous day in 1876. By that night a nasty gale had picked up off the lake. In the official logbook, Keeper Beedon had recorded that by 5 p.m. the light breeze from the south had been replaced by a frightful storm. It knocked down 50 trees close to the lighthouse. In his entry, Beedon confessed the fear that “the lighthouse and tower would blow down as they shook like a leaf…”
Some 34 years later, in 1910, another keeper named James Kay was given a bottle found just west of here. That bottle had a note inside. The note read, “Lake Superior Aug 4th 1901, To those who find this, gone down with all hands, Steamer Mappleton. Lord have mercy on us all. Signed Captain Stinson.”
Welcome to the Au Sable Light Station! My name is Keeper John Brooks, and this place was my home from 1908 through February of 1923. I am so glad you are here! I added many firsts to the history of this lighthouse. I was the first keeper to rise through the ranks at this light station. I came here as the second assistant, was promoted to first assistant, and then to keeper. I had to be everything to my station. I was a doctor, a mechanic, a carpenter, painter, and gardener, just to name a few.
In 1916, I was also the first keeper here to be awarded an efficiency star based on the 1915 inspection of Au Sable. An efficiency star is awarded to keepers who maintain a high standard of excellence at their stations. This means that I was able to keep my lighthouse in tip-top shape, including keeping a very neat and orderly station and making sure that the light was burning nightly for all those ships that passed by my station.
Narrator: Please stay right here as you continue to join Keeper Brooks and me as he talks about the construction of the light station. To do this please listen to episode two - “Why Here?”
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While standing at the flagpole for this episode, consider why this light station was critical to navigation in this area. Keeper John Brooks reveals the answer.
- Credit / Author:
- Karena Minor
- Date created:
- 2010-05-01
Narrator: This podcast is the second in this series of five episodes about the Au Sable Light Station. Another set of episodes contains the stories about three shipwrecks. These downloads are for those coming to the light station by way of the Hurricane River path.
As you stand at the flagpole for this episode, notice the house attached to the tower. This is the assistant keepers’ house. Please notice the differences in the stone versus concrete brick construction at the base of the building.
At the time it was built, the Au Sable Light Station was worth $40,000 in 1874. Listen to Keeper John Brooks as he describes why the station was placed here.
John Brooks: Hi, I’m Keeper John Brooks, and this place was my home from 1908 through February of 1923. When I arrived here in 1908 as the second assistant, the building attached to the tower and the tower itself were the only two notable structures on the property. Congress had set aside $40,000 in 1872 to build the Au Sable Light. When the lighthouse was completed two years later, its original name was Big Sable. It wasn’t until 1910 that the name was changed to Au Sable to avoid confusion with Big Sable Light on Lake Michigan.
This area is unique for two reasons. If you look out toward the lake, you will see there is a shoal or reef that extends into the lake for about a mile. It is a half-mile wide at the shore. At its deepest this shoal is 6 feet. Ships that would travel along this coast at the time this light station was built were traveling using a navigational process called coasting. This process generally allows a ship to travel safely from point A to point B along the shoreline with the coast always in sight. By coasting, ships are close enough to land so that, if a storm or wind picks up, the ship could get pushed easily onto the shoal.
The other unique feature to the area is the periodic thick fog that can develop off of Au Sable Point. This fog is the product of two air masses colliding. There is a warm moist air mass that sits over the Grand Sable Dunes to your east. A cold air mass sits over Lake Superior. It is the combination of these two air masses that creates the periodic fog at the Point.
To show you how dangerous the shoal and fog can be, back in 1908 steamer Sitka ran into some thick fog and was a mile out when she ran aground only 100 feet from the end of the reef!
During my second year here, in 1909, the U.S. Lighthouse Service built onto the east end of the house that is attached to the tower. You can see where the addition began by the jog in the wall, where the concrete block construction begins. They also added that big porch. This made the house a double keeper’s quarters, which meant that two assistants lived in the house. The second assistant, Emil Kohnert, lived on the first floor. I, as the first assistant, lived on the second floor.
At the same time, Keeper James Kay had his own house built. That house is the one to the west of the tower. That Keeper Kay got a great deal out of this reconstruction because, in 1909, not only did he get his own house, but his own outhouse as well. Lucky guy, his outhouse had two windows in it, Kohnert and I had to share an outhouse that had only one window. Rank sure must have its privileges!
Narrator: Please join John Brooks and me in front of the assistant keepers’ house. As you face the lake, this is the house to your right. It is the house that is attached to the tower. Keeper Brooks will be discussing family life at the station. While here, please listen to episode three - “Family Matters.”
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To begin this episode, stand facing the lake at the house to the east (assistant keepers house). If you were stationed here to keep the light burning for nine months, what emotions would you have? Keeper John Brooks remembers living here with his family.
- Credit / Author:
- Karena Minor
- Date created:
- 2010-05-01
Female Voice: This podcast is the third in this series of five episodes about the Au Sable Light Station. Another set of episodes contains the stories about three shipwrecks. These downloads are for those coming to the light station by way of the Hurricane River path.
As you face the lake, you should be standing near the porch of the house to the right, the assistant keeper’s house. If you were to be stationed out here and required to diligently keep the light burning for about nine months straight, what kind of emotions would you be facing?
John Brooks: Hi, I’m Keeper John Brooks, and this place was my home from 1908 through February of 1923. Families play a crucial role in the maintenance of any light station. They are an important fixture in the life of a keeper. The U.S. Lighthouse Service discovered that, if a keeper had his family at a light station, he was less likely to desert the station than a keeper who was here without his family. During most of my time at the station, my family was with me, but there were a few times when I was living out here by myself.
Let me tell you, I can understand the loneliness that some of those other keepers may have felt. The isolation here can be something gruesome. It is eight miles by boat from Au Sable to Grand Marais; by foot along the base of the Grand Sable Dunes that same journey would be twelve miles. I also can understand the importance of keeping your family in town, especially during the winter months when the light station was not in operation. The lake doesn’t freeze over, but the water at the Soo Locks freezes, so they are closed. During the harsh winters it is very hard to get anywhere on the lake without risking your cargo, your ship, or yourself.
It is during these months that the families leave the station. I sent my family downstate to the Port Austin area. This way my young son, Gordon, could get a decent schooling in town. Otherwise my wife Martha would have had to school him, along with the other children here at the station. It seemed to work out pretty well for them living down there. Martha worked as a dressmaker on the side to help with the family income while I continued my stint here at Au Sable Point as the light station’s first assistant. Gordon turned out pretty well, if I may say so myself. He worked as my assistant at Tawas Point on Lake Huron after my time at this station was done. But that is a story for another time.
When the keepers’ families were here, they worked very hard. Everybody had to pull his or her own weight. It was important that each person do his or her part to keep the light station running. The children were expected to collect firewood, cook, pick berries and other fruit and, of course, help with the cleaning just in case that dreaded lighthouse inspector came to pay us a visit.
Every three to four months during the April to November or December shipping season, a ship tender would pull up to the old dock that extended in front of the fog signal building, the last brick building on the property. This ship tender would not only bring the supplies, such as kerosene and coal, but food supplies as well. The kerosene would be stored in the two storage buildings to the south. The middle of the three buildings is just the older construction of the yellow and red storage building to the right.
Every once in a while, when the tender arrived, it would be flying the lighthouse inspectors’ flag, announcing that he was on board. He was my boss and would check this place from top to bottom to make sure that it was in tip-top shape. If you did a good job, like I did in 1915, then you could receive an efficiency star, which you could wear on your uniform for the next year. I got to wear my efficiency star in 1916.
Now, some guys weren’t so lucky. I don’t know how much truth there is to it, but there has been a story going around the Great Lakes about a keeper whose wife was sitting on the floor and folding the laundry while the kids played around her. Now, for many of us, this is a picture that is not at all unusual, but for the lighthouse inspector who came to pay the family an unexpected visit that day, it was a horrific sight. When he walked in and saw where she was folding the laundry, he gave the husband a demerit. She was folding the laundry on the floor instead of the kitchen table like the rulebook had directed!
Narrator: Please join John Brooks and me on the lakeside of the assistant keepers’ house. This will be the opposite side of the house from where you are currently standing. Here please listen to episode four - “Unexpected Visitors” - talking about a time when once in a while, the quiet lifestyle of the keeper was interrupted by some unusual experiences.
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For this episode, face the lake while standing on the lakeside of the house attached to the tower (the assistant keepers house). What visitors would be expected at a lighthouse? Keeper John Brooks describes some unexpected guests.
- Credit / Author:
- Karena Minor
- Date created:
- 2011-05-01
Narrator: This podcast is the fourth in this series of five episodes about the Au Sable Light Station. Another set of episodes that contains the stories about three shipwrecks. These downloads are for those coming to the light station by way of the Hurricane River path.
As you face the lake you should be standing on the lakeside of the house attached to the tower; this is the assistant keepers’ house. The remoteness of this station meant that visitors were rare. Every once in a while, visitors could surprisingly interrupt the busy and monotonous work of the lighthouse keeper. Sometimes these visitors could be most unusual. What visitors would you expect to receive at a lighthouse?
John Brooks: Hi, Keeper John Brooks here! This light station was my home from 1908 through February of 1923. This lighthouse was so remote that a keeper’s family was the best thing to have to keep from going absolutely crazy with loneliness. A visitors every once in a great while also disrupts the monotony of life here.
One keeper noted in the log book that, on a particularly warm August day as he was working on the grounds, “a porcupine visited at the station. I didn’t invite him back!”
On another August day in 1887, Keeper Gus Gigandet entered in the logbook the following:
“On August the 8th, an Old Gentleman, the watch man in a Lumber Camp seven miles west of this Station, came here to the Light House at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. He was sick and unable to go farther, it was blowing a gale wind from the South, so we could not take him away in the boat. By 9:30 that evening he was dead. The man was about 70 years of age and was from Canada. I notified the Justice of Grand Marais the next day. He came and took the body back to Grand Marais for burial.”
Unusual experiences such as this, even though having bad results, provide a good change and challenge for us.
Narrator: As you face Lake Superior, please join John Brooks and me on the lakeside of the house to your left. This is the Keeper’s House. Once there please listen to episode five - “Murder and Intrigue!” It is here where the keeper’s lonesome existence could some days be interrupted by some out-of-the-ordinary finds.
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For this episode, face the lake while standing on the lakeside of the house on the west (the keepers house). The light station seldom had visitors, but every once in a while, visitors did interrupt the lighthouse keeper. Keeper John Brooks reveals an unusual visitor.
- Credit / Author:
- Karena Minor
- Date created:
- 2010-05-01
Narrator: This podcast is the fifth in this series of five episodes about the Au Sable Light Station. Another set of episodes contains the stories about three shipwrecks. These downloads are for those coming to the light station by way of the Hurricane River path.
As you face the lake, you should be standing on the lakeside of the house to the left. This is the keeper’s house. The light station seldom had visitors. But every once in a while, visitors did surprisingly interrupt the lighthouse keeper. Not all of these visitors were alive! What comes to your mind?
John Brooks: Hi, Keeper John Brooks here! This light station was my home from 1908 through February of 1923. Although a keeper’s job was tiresome and monotonous, every once in a great while some adventure and intrigue could come our way. Such was the case in 1908 when I was still only the second assistant here at the point.
Our story starts in June of that year. During that month, Keeper George Genry of the Grand Island North Lighthouse sailed to Munising for provisions and to visit his wife, who lived in town. Keeper Genry had a reputation of being difficult to work with, and assistant keepers under his command moved to other posts with great frequency. Assistant Keeper Edward Morrison, who had just come to the island station two months earlier, operated the station while the keeper was ashore.
Keeper Genry returned to the station on June 6. Not too long afterwards a sailboat was discovered not too far from Au Sable. According to the logbook from Au Sable Point on June 12, 1908, Keeper Thomas Irvine wrote, “The second assistant returned at 9 a.m. Mr. William Van Dusen of Grand Marais had reported a lighthouse boat ashore with a dead man in her about 9 miles west of this station. Keeper Irvine sent the first assistant to report it to the life saving station, whose crew arrived here at 9 p.m. He went up with them and brought the boat to this station and they took the body to Grand Marais. The man apparently died from exposure, as he was lying under the forward deck. The foremast was gone, but the mainmast was standing. The boat was in good shape with only one small hole in her. When discovered, the body was so disfigured that those who found it had difficulty identifying it. According to the New York Times, he had been “beaten to a pulp.” Come to find out it was the body of Edward Morrison.
Munising officials sailed out to Grand Island to tell Keeper Genry of the tragic death of his assistant, but the officials found the station abandoned and a second station sailboat missing. That boat was later discovered tied ashore at a pier near Munising. Keeper Genry was never to be heard from again.
Many speculated that Keeper Genry and Assistant Keeper Morrison had gotten into an argument, and that Genry had killed Morrison and set him adrift. Keeper Genry then had fled and perhaps disappeared into Canada. What really happened at the Grand Island North Light that June day will never be known, though circumstantial evidence certainly points to Keeper Genry as the murderer.
Despite the monotonous work and isolation, the job of a lighthouse keeper can truly be a rewarding one. I owe a debt of gratitude to my family for staying with me through the whole experience and helping me with the daily tasks that this job demands.
Being a lighthouse keeper means that I am a jack-of-all-trades. I am a doctor, mechanic, carpenter, painter, and gardener for the station. I don’t know what it means to have a day off. Performing my duties at the station meant being on the job seven days a week. In the end, I am just like you, working for a living to support my family and trying to do the best job I can. I just lived a different lifestyle here as a lighthouse keeper on the Great Lakes. How is your life similar to mine?
Narrator: You have now completed the last podcast in this series. If you missed any of the other podcasts you may listen to them in any order that you like. These other Podcasts are “Sudden Storms” (Episode One), “Why Here?” (Episode Two), “Family Matters” (Episode Three), and “Unexpected Visitors” (Episode Four). If you are leaving John Brooks and me now, we have enjoyed your company during the journey.
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