DARRELL MAKIN FELL IN LOVE WITH LIGHTHOUSES 20 years ago, when he kayaked from the Sibley Peninsula across the gaping mouth of Black Bay and landed in a grassy cove on the west side of Porphyry Island. After hiking a kilometer from the landing to the lighthouse grounds on the island’s tip, Makin had his first introduction to Maureen Robertson—two 1950s-vintage automobiles, sporting fresh pink and purple paint. The Coast Guard had issued the cars to the lightkeepers, ostensibly to make it easier for them to get around. Now, they were central to Robertson’s landscaping. “The place was in great shape,” recalls Makin, an outdoor educator and author of a guidebook to paddling the Lake Superior National Marine Conservation Area. “Maureen made people welcome out there. It was an eye-opening encounter with a part of maritime history.” After Robertson moved to Trowbridge, Makin witnessed the slow demise of the
Porphyry Island lighthouse with sadness. Unkempt grasses overtook the grounds and vandals damaged both the main keeper’s two-story house and assistant
keeper’s bungalow. “As a kayaker, I felt I had an additional responsibility to protect Lake Superior’s heritage,” says Makin. “Lighthouses are icons.” The silver lining of the Coast Guard divestment is the Heritage Lighthouses
Protection Act, which enables citizens like Makin and a handful of like-minded cottagers from the Thunder Bay area—who collectively formed a non-profit known as the Canadian Lighthouses of Lake Superior (CLLS)—to acquire lighthouse properties from the government. The organization received ownership of Porphyry and Island Number 10, a tiny outpost midway along the paddling route from Sibley to Rossport. In 2014, hundreds of volunteer hours were committed to drywalling, painting, replacing windows and tending the grounds at Porphyry, and sprucing up the light tower and installing a pit privy at Island Number 10, a popular campsite. The overall goal, says Makin, is to keep Lake Superior lighthouses accessible
to the public. Similar grassroots initiatives on the Great Lakes have saved lighthouses on Manitoulin Island and at Lake Erie’s Point Dover. This year, Makin anticipates operating Porphyry’s two-story residence as a bed-and-breakfast, with
THE ORIGINAL FRESNEL LENS (BOTTOM) AT TROWBRIDGE ISLAND, WHERE MAUREEN ROBERTSON SPENT 14 SUMMERS. PHOTO: CONOR MIHELL
62 PADDLING MAGAZINE
PHOTO: CONOR MIHELL
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76