WINTER 2018 www.RLAMPS.org From the President Wow! Where did the year go? This is the time of year where we are balancing reflection and anticipation. RLAMPS has been busy in 2017 defining the new group and having fun and riveting Education Nights. Our year in review has given us our rollout evening with the new logo, name and mission! Yippee! This past year we have been taken on a dive with Beth Fernandez down to the shipwreck Wisconsin. She let us in on her training to accomplish the dive and the subsequent comparison between the sinking of the Wisconsin and the more recent sinking of the El Faro. We were entertained by the sea shanty stylings of musician David Drake. If that wasn’t enough Richard Bennett educated us on the fascinating story behind the Raising of the Alvin Clark. We had hoped to get the true story on the recent sinking of the Palmer but we are saving that for later in 2018! RLAMPS has been trying to expand our audience in different ways. Our dioramas (so nicely crafted by Jim Charnon) are located at both the Real Racine Visitors and Convention Bureau and the Racine Public Library. We will be doing outreach lectures this year, involving the diorama on Racine’s first lighthouse. One of these will be open to the public at the Racine Public Library. Jim Charnon has also been updating and re-updating our RLAMPS website. Please check it out. So professional and informative. It is the perfect thing to do on one of our cold Wisconsin days. Another exciting accomplishment is that we have relocated some of our artifacts so they are conveniently stored in one location. This is great for insurance purposes and nice to be able to trek only to one locale when picking up items. We plan to display some of these treasures in the future. As 2018 begins, the days are getting longer and we are planning for the New Year! Our Program Committee has been working hard, getting exciting Education Nights scheduled. Our first one will be February 8th titled: “Dan Seavey - Great Lakes Pirate” as told by researcher Richard Boyd. The event will be held at 6:30 PM at Dewey’s Restaurant (Second Floor). Our next Education Night is so very interesting and we are excited to share it with you! On May 10th we will be bringing Joe Kutchera’s “Fish Empire: Commercial Fishing on Lake Michigan Then and Now”. The location will be determined in the future. This program has drawn record attendees in Milwaukee so we have to find a venue to hold it. We will announce this in the future. Another Education Night we are planning in September is the sinking of Racine’s fish tug Palmer, brought to us by our own Ron Luttrell. November will finish the year off strong with historian Todd Gordon presenting “The Eastland Disaster”, the highest loss of life in Great Lakes’ maritime history. Please be looking forward to further information on Education Night programming in the coming months. Now you can see why we are looking forward to an exciting 2018! Thank you for your support and being a member of RLAMPS. We hope you are anticipating an exciting year with us as well! Laura (Lauri) Tomasek President, Friends of the Wind Point Lighthouse dba Racine Lighthouse and Maritime Preservation Society (RLAMPS) Please visit our updated website www.RLAMPS.org Racine Lighthouse and Maritime More and more Racine maritime history is being Preservation Society. added on a regular basis. Board of Directors — Racine Lighthouse and Maritime Preservation Society President Lauri Tomasek Directors: Vice President & Ron Coutts Ron Luttrell Webmaster Jim Charnon Bob Jaeck, Historian Barb Wardius, Newsletter Secretary Marilyn Blood Lynne Jossart, Membership Ken Wardius, Newsletter Treasurer Juanita Clobes Chris Larsen Education Night: Thursday, February 8, 6:30 p.m. “Dan Seavey-Great Lakes Pirate”. In the maritime history of the Great Lakes, only one lake captain was ever arrested by federal authorities for “piracy on the high seas.” That mariner was Captain Daniel W. Seavey, who wandered far and wide across Green Bay and Lake Michigan, where his raucous exploits and pugnacious nature became legendary. Please join us with historian Dr. Richard Boyd who will narrate an informative program about this Great Lakes legend. You will not want to miss this. Dewey’s Restaurant and Sports Bar (second floor, elevator available), 600 Main Street, Racine. RLAMPS will be treating guests to non- alcoholic beverages (a cash bar will be available). Please RSVP to 414- 228-8947 (message only) or email: [email protected] Other Future Education Night Programs Thursday May 10, 2018, 6:30pm, Location TBD Author Joe Kutchera will present “Faces of a Fish Empire”, the story behind photos from his family’s Empire Fish Company in Milwaukee and the research on the demise of commercial fishing on Lake Michigan, which has almost entirely disappeared, especially in the southern half of Lake Michigan. Later this year: September 2018 - RLAMPS Board Member Ron Luttrell, Racine’s fishing tug Palmer. November 2018 - History enthusiast Todd Gordon will discuss the Eastland Disaster; the greatest loss of life from a single shipwreck in Great Lakes’ history. Bring a friend, or two!!! 2 Racine Reef Pintsch Gas Light Beacon Research, article and underwater photos by RLAMPS historian Robert Jaeck Located on the Racine Reef, the Pintsch Gas Light Beacon went into service on August 31, 1899. Displaying a red light, it warned mariners to stay away from this great navigation danger, just over a mile off the shore of Racine. This shallow, rocky shoal had caused the total loss of many vessels and damaged dozens of others between the late 1840s and 1906. This reef was such a concern and danger that in 1839 the government constructed Racine's first lighthouse south of the Root River before the harbor was even Racine Breakwater Lighthouse keepers and the tug EMMA BLOECKER developed. It warned captains away servicing the Pintsch Beacon in 1900. Courtesy GLLKA from the Racine Reef which was just east of its location. Captains knew that to reach the Root River they had to approach it from northeast of the lighthouse. This lighthouse did not eliminate vessels running onto the rocks of the reef however. A second attempt to warn mariners away from the Racine Reef was the use of one or several buoys placed on the reef that often could not be seen in poor weather or darkness. The third government effort was the building and placing into service the Wind Point Lighthouse in 1880. Built into the Wind Point Lighthouse was a second light that was red, created by a 5th order Fresnel lens, 102 feet above lake level. It projected its beam through a small window southeastward towards the Racine Reef to warn vessels away from the danger of the reef. The distance of the Wind Point Lighthouse however being several miles away from the reef, along with conditions of rain, fog, snow, and other natural Racine’s Pintsch Gas Light Beacon. Courtesy National Archives obstructions, prevented this red beam from being an effective warning method for lake captains. Vessels continued to grind on the rocks of the reef. (Continued on page 4) 3 History is vague regarding the fourth try to safeguard vessels near the reef. A little known white light projected out of the Racine Harbor Lighthouse or North Pier. It intersected with the secondary red light beam from the Wind Point Lighthouse, along with a buoy or at times multiple buoys on the reef. Unfortunately vessels keels still found the rocks of the reef, which continued to cause great damage. The Pintsch Gas Light Beacon was the government’s fifth attempt to end this danger to shipping. It was also the first time something would actually be built on the Racine Reef itself. A survey of the Racine Reef was conducted and a site selected near the shallow area of the reef in 10 feet of water. Construction started on shore in 1898 of a 40 foot by 40 foot wooden crib that was nine feet, two inches tall. Taken out to the Racine Reef site and sunk, the crib was filled with concrete and stone, the top caped with concrete. Also tons and tons of stone were placed around the wooden base to armor it from the massive waves that would strike it. The structure, tower, gas tanks, and burner were completed and the Pintsch Gas Light Beacon entered service for the first time on August 31, 1899. From the start this Gas Light Beacon did not operate as designed. Conditions at the site on the Racine Reef were at times terrible, causing the light to need continuous maintenance. It also was never as bright as expected, it went out often, so shipwrecks continued. In addition, there were dangers in filling the gas tanks on the shallow reef. These failures finally brought the government to the realization that a permanent lighthouse would have to be built and manned on the Racine Reef. The Racine Reef Lighthouse was the sixth effort to stop the shipwrecks and was built on the reef at a different location on the east end of the Racine Reef. It went into service on October 6, 1906. On this same date, the Pintsch Gas Light Beacon was removed from service and the tower and gas light equipment were sent to a new location off Chicago. Most but not all of the Pintsch Gas Light Beacon base was removed and parts of the structure can still be seen underwater out on the Racine Reef.