Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2016
                           All Rights Reserved
                        USGenNet Data Repository

        Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page:
                <http://www.us-data.org/fineprint.html>

Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott
for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/
===========================================================================
Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott
All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded.
===========================================================================
The Emmet County Democrat
Friday, October 19, 1883


                            Waugoshance Light.

           The last of the working party employed in repairing the light-
         house and erecting a fog signal house at Waugoshance Pier, Straits
         of Mackinac, have arrived in Detroit, having been on the pier two
         months. There were thirty-nine men in all employed at the work,
         though not all for the whole time.
           This pier is on the most exposed point on the whole lakes, a
         southeast wind throwing spray twenty feet over the lantern which
         is about ninty feet above the lake. In freezing weather the ice
         envelopes the whole pier and in winter the only thing visible is a
         great mound of ice, with nothing but the upper half of the tower
         in sight, the house, pier and boat houses being covered. The
         action of the ice cut into the brick work throwing down large
         pieces of mason work, and by crushing in the crib threatened the
         destruction of the structure. Sixteen years ago the foundation was
         renewed by sinking a caisson and building up with cut stone from
         fifteen feet above the lake. On this was built the dwelling house.
         The old pier, 100 feet square and ten feet high, still surrounds
         the stone work, though a few seasons will see the last of it so
         loosened that it strikes against the stone work in a heavy sea.
           It was decided to repair the tower and dwelling by building
         a casing of three-eighth-inch boiler iron around the whole,
         leaving space enough for holding on the rivets and filling the
         space with concrete. The job was done by contract, the bids being
         opened July 1, the Buhl Iron Works being the lowest bidder at
         $23,000. Accurate measurements were taken and the sheets of boiler
         plate were all punched and bent at the shop in this city. There
         were about 24,000 holes punched, only four of which had to be re-
         punched, at the pier.
           The materials used in the job were 136,000 pounds of iron, 120
         barrels of patent cement, 350 barrels of sand, 360 pounds of
         stone, 20,000 brick, fifty barrels of lime, two boilers 42 x 12,
         two fog signals engines 4 x 6, with all the valves, pumps, pipes,
         whistles and other tools and appliances for erecting the work, be-
         side the large amount of provisions consumed by the men. The
         difficulties of the work were great, every rain or heavy sea
         driving the men from the pier, and as the scaffolds were sixty
         feet high work could not be carried on in a high wind. At one time
         the weather was so bad that two weeks elapsed during which no com-
         munication could be had with the shore a mile and a half distance,
         from which sand and stone were obtained, and no mail or materials
         could be bought from Mackinaw. But in spite of these obstacles and
         a large amount of sickness on the pier, six men having to be sent
         home on that account, the job is at last completed three weeks
         before the specified time. The fog signal house is of three-
         eighths boiler iron, tightly riveted and calked. It is in a radius
         of twenty feet, the center of which is the tower, being fifteen
         feet wide and two-thirds of a circle, the coal bumpers occupying
         the corners.
           The whole structure is painted with a coating of brown mineral
         paint. The boiler iron casing of the tower is sixty-two feet high
         from the stone foundation. The fog signals are duplication with
         boilers set in brick work. They are so arranged that they make two
         blast of about four seconds duration in a minute. The whistles are
         ten inches in diameter, a duplicate of those used on the lake. The
         fog bell which was heretofore used has been removed. It would seem
         that the light-house on this more exposed situation was now
         finished for generations, as nothing but an earthquake or tornado
         can effect it, and it would be safe to give the light-house the
         odds against an average tornado. - [Detroit Free Press.]

===========================================================================