Writing a Lighthouse Keeper’s Log

Apply your knowledge of Great Lakes shipping, weather conditions, and the duties of lighthouse keepers to create a log entry for a lighthouse keeper in the early 1900s.

Imagine living at a lighthouse in the Great Lakes region in the early 1900s, What challenges might you face? How has technology evolved? What would you observe every day?

Think creatively and apply previously learned material to an open-ended prompt to create a log entry for a lighthouse keeper in the early 1900s.

Before you start review key topics:

• Lighthouse Keepers (U.S. National Park Service)

• Fresnel Lens (U.S. National Park Service)

• Lighthouses of the National Park Service (U.S. National Park Service)

 

A template of a lighthouse keeper's journal. Print out this image or design your own and fill in the table for one day or more from the early 1900s.

NPS/A. Ruska

Directions:

Write a daily log entry as the lighthouse keeper at the Eagle harbor Lighthouse. Create a log entry for any date in the early 1900s.
Include details about:

• Observations of shipping traffic.
  • Did copper ships pass through? Where were they going?
• Weather conditions.
  • Was it storming? Were there clouds in the sky?
• Challenges.
  • Was all your equipment working?