Lighthouses of the Seaway Trail
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NEW YORK’S SEAWAY LIGHTHOUSES New York’s Seaway Lighthouses OPEN Underwriters: Announcer: New York’s Seaway Lighthouses is made possible by grants from: The Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of WPBS-TV and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Department of the Interior. And by Cornell Cooperative Extension of Jefferson County operating Taste NY at the North Country Welcome Center overlooking the 1000 Islands Bridge. Foods and gifts made by local farmers and producers. Breakfast, lunch and dinner available on-site or on-the-go. Online at ccjefferson.org/tasteny Dissolve from black: Narrator: The Seaway Trail stretches nearly 500 miles along the shores of the St. Lawrence River, Lake Ontario, the Niagara River, and Lake Erie. America’s longest designated National Recreational Trail, The Seaway Trail runs from Massena, New York, to Erie, Pennsylvania. It was designated a National Scenic Byway in 1996 and is designed for motorists, boaters, and bicyclers. Along the shores of the Seaway Trail, from Ogdensburg, New York, to Erie, Pennsylvania, are approximately twenty-five lighthouses. These lighthouses are each unique in architecture and history. Some were built to welcome ships into a busy harbor; others built to warn mariners of rocky shoals or islands. Whether protecting ships from peril or marking the entrance to a port, a lighthouse was always a welcome sight to the sea-weary mariner. Early lights on the Great Lakes were built mostly of stone materials and housed the Winslow- Lewis lamp. This lamp was a variation of the Argand lamp, developed in Switzerland. It contained a circular wick, a mantle, a spherical reflector, and a green glass lens. The lens and reflector were not very effective, and the powders used to clean them wore the lens out quickly. A new system was desperately needed. In 1822, in France, Augustin Fresnel developed the Fresnel lens. The light was refracted by prisms at the top and bottom of the lens, creating a single pane of light, which was then magnified many times by a powerful magnifying glass. This method produced a concentrated beam of light visible for several miles. But it took a full thirty years before the United States government decided to convert American lighthouses to the new innovation. The decision was made after realizing that the lens could be paid for in three years with the savings in whale oil, used as fuel for many of the lights. 1 A first-order Fresnel lens is about ten feet high and is used mostly in ocean lights. From there, the lenses decreased in size. The fourth order lens is about 3 and a half feet tall. Third and fourth order Fresnel lenses, about midsize, were commonly used in the Seaway Trail lights. Though the lenses on each lighthouse were basically the same, the light emitted was not. Each lighthouse had a certain characteristic in it’s light. It might be on for thirty seconds and off for thirty, or on for fifteen and off for thirty. Those characteristics let a ship’s navigator know exactly what port was nearby. In 1789, Congress passed, and President George Washington signed, the Lighthouses Act, which established The United States Lighthouse Service. A scandal resulted in a complete revamping of the Lighthouse Service and in 1851, the Lighthouse Board was established. The Lighthouse Board renovated most working lighthouses in the U.S. to house the Fresnel lens and established strict standards for lighthouse keepers. In 1939, the Coast Guard took over from the Lighthouse Service, assuming responsibility for all aids to navigation (Dip to black; dissolve from black to map with location of lighthouse) Ogdensburg Harbor Lighthouse, Ogdensburg, New York Narrator: The Ogdensburg Harbor Light, constructed in 1870, is the second to occupy this low rocky point where the Oswegatchie River joins the St. Lawrence River. The original lighthouse, which dated to 1834, was demolished in 1871. DO NOT INCLUDE IN DOCUMENTARY (owner of lighthouse has asked not to mention anything about Fort La Presentation, as he is involved in a fight with them): Lighthouse Point was also the site of Fort La Presentation, established by the French in 1749 to control the passage on the St. Lawrence River between the Great Lakes and Montreal. However, less than a year later, the fort and two vessels anchored offshore were burned by the Mohawk Indians. Later, during the War of 1812, the British captured the city of Ogdensburg. For about 25 years, Lighthouse Point was an island. Trees and shrubbery had died away as water washed away the soil and cut a channel between the lighthouse and main shore. An early keeper was Samuel Penfield, who came in 1888 and died in 1914. Later keepers were James Gunn, who was there when electric lights were installed in the 1920’s, and Harold Cook, who lived there until 1942, when the lighthouse was decommissioned. Narrator: Not everyone was happy to see the old lighthouse torn down and the new one built in 1870. Some did not like the design of the new building. The Ogdensburg Journal in 1870 compared the new structure to the old lighthouse and announced the new lighthouse a “most contemptible structure.” Fortunately, the newer lighthouse is as endearing to the residents of today’s 2 Ogdensburg as the old one was to the residents of 1870. Later, in 1900, the lighthouse’s attached tower was raised to 63 feet to increase its visibility. It was decommissioned in the early 60's. The lighthouse is now privately owned. The family of the current owner purchased the property at a government auction in 1964. Blair Roethel, Ogdensburg Harbor Lighthouse: “This was pretty well dilapidated. All the windows were broken, lot of vandalism. € There’s a lot of maintenance with the place. I’ve renovated quite a bit of it, plumbing, wiring, heating, fixed up the structural part of it, made it livable year-round.” Narrator: The tower still needs refurbishment. In 2011, the Coast Guard placed a light back in the tower, and it is once again a navigational beacon. Blair Roethel, Ogdensburg Harbor Lighthouse: “My mom and dad always wanted to have it to benefit the city and the surrounding areas for tourism, to help draw people into the community. And so I've tried to help out with that. Property's always open to people. We have weddings. People come down, take their pictures.” Crossover Island Lighthouse, off Chippewa Bay, New York Narrator: Crossover Island was so named because at this point, ships traveling the St. Lawrence Seaway crossed from the American Channel to the Canadian channel. Crossover Island Lighthouse was constructed in 1848 of inferior materials and had to be rebuilt in 1882. When the lighthouse was built, the island was practically bare rock with a few trees on it. A solid rock wall was constructed along the southeast part of its waterfront. The keeper’s dwelling was rebuilt in 1882 with the lighthouse. The boathouse was built in 1869 and re-built after a fire destroyed it in 1890. In 1899, the color of the lighthouse was changed from brown to white. Obed Robinson was the light’s first keeper. He was followed by Samuel Whitney in 1851, and E. C. Robeson in 1856 Daniel Hill, a career keeper for the Lighthouse Service, served at the Buffalo Reef, Thirty Mile Point, Ogdensburg, Huron, and Crossover Island Lights. He was keeper of Crossover Island from 1909 to 1931. He kept detailed logs. During his career, he rescued more than 400 stranded mariners, the most dramatic occurring when a small biplane crashed just off the island. As the three passengers were safely brought ashore, the plane exploded and burned. The keeper’s four children attended a one-room schoolhouse on the mainland, rowed by their father across the three-quarter mile channel in a St. Lawrence River skiff. The ash house doubled as a smoke house where his wife smoked hams, fish, and particularly, eels. The Hill family harvested up to 200 eels nightly. The light was discontinued on April 10, 1942. In 2013, Don and Kathleen Berg purchased the property, and began substantial renovations. 3 Don and Kathleen Berg: Owners, Crossover Island Don Berg: “Well it wasn't something we were actually looking to do. We just sort of stumbled upon it on the internet and called a realtor and they said, "Well why don't you come up and take a look?" We thought, "Well it would be a nice drive and a boat ride" so we came out here and looked and the place needed a lot of work. My wife, Kathy, wasn't too enthused but I was enthused. It's kind of a neat place, I thought. That's how it happened.” Kathleen Berg: “It was a jungle. Crossover was an absolute jungle. The weeds were six to nine feet tall, the paint was peeling, there was not a redeeming quality about it except for the glint in his eye that you just knew that you couldn't say no.” Kathleen Berg: “Also, I think we care about nature and history and this was going into disrepair and although many people had been out to look at it, Don and I were the only ones who really ventured forth to offer to really do it. This is kind of saving history, it's part of this river's history and it's just part of this community. I think that's kind of who Don really is, you know? He looks and sees something and says, "If we don't do something it's not gonna happen." Narrator: Today, the privately-owned light is no longer in service.