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Split Rock Lighthouse

Split Rock Lighthouse lit at sunset, 2010
Location	Split Rock Lighthouse State Park, Beaver Bay Township, Lake County, Minnesota
Coordinates	47°12′00″N 91°22′01″W / 47.20005°N 91.3669°W / 47.20005; -91.3669
Tower
Foundation	stone
Construction	brick
Height	54-foot (16 m) tower on a 130-foot (40 m) cliff
Shape	Octagonal
Heritage	National Historic Landmark, National Register of Historic Places listed place
Light
First lit	1910
Deactivated	1969
Focal height	40 m (130 ft)
Lens	3rd order, bi-valve type Fresnel lens
Range	22 nautical miles (41 km; 25 mi)
Characteristic	0.5-second flash every 9.5 seconds
Split Rock Lighthouse
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
Nearest city	Two Harbors, Minnesota
NRHP reference No.	69000073
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	June 23, 1969
Designated NHL	June 23, 2011
History Museum in Two Harbors, Minnesota USASplit Rock Lighthouse museum
Visitors at Split Rock Lighthouse. Fog Horn House in the foreground.
Established	1969
Location	3713 Split Rock Lighthouse Rd., Two Harbors, Minnesota USA
Coordinates	47°12′00″N 91°22′01″W / 47.20005°N 91.3669°W / 47.20005; -91.3669
Type	History Museum
Visitors	160,000
Employees	Hayes Scriven, Lighthouse Keeper
Website	https://www.mnhs.org/splitrock/

Split Rock Lighthouse is a lighthouse located southwest of Silver Bay, Minnesota, US on the North Shore of Lake Superior. The structure was designed by lighthouse engineer Ralph Russell Tinkham and was completed in 1910 by the United States Lighthouse Service for $75,000, including the buildings and the land. It is considered one of the most picturesque lighthouses in the United States.

History

Split Rock Lighthouse was built in response to the great loss of ships during the famous Mataafa Storm of 1905, during which 29 ships were lost or damaged on Lake Superior. One of these shipwrecks, the Madeira, is located just north of the lighthouse.

The lighthouse stands on a 133-foot (41 m) sheer cliff eroded by wave action from a diabase sill containing inclusions of anorthosite. The octagonal building is a steel-framed brick structure with concrete trim on a concrete foundation set into the rock of the cliff. It is topped with a large, steel lantern which features a third order, bi-valve type Fresnel lens manufactured by Barbier, Bernard and Turenne Company in Paris. The tower was built for a second-order lens, but when construction went over budget, only enough funding remained for the smaller third-order lens. The lens floats on a bearing surface of liquid mercury which allows near frictionless operation. The lens is rotated by an elaborate clockwork mechanism that is powered by weights running down the center of the tower which are then reset by cranking them back to the top. When completed, the lighthouse was lit with a kerosene oil vapor lamp.

At the time of its construction, the area had no roads. All building materials and supplies arrived by water and were lifted to the top of the cliff by crane. The lamp was first lit on July 31, 1910. The lighthouse soon became a tourist attraction for sailors and excursion boats thanks to its scenic location. So much so, that in 1924 a road (now Minnesota State Highway 61) was built to allow land access.

In 1940, the station was electrified, the lamp was replaced with a 1000-watt electric bulb, and the incandescent oil vapor lamp was moved to Au Sable Point Lighthouse in Northern Michigan. Split Rock was upgraded with a fog signal housed in a building next to the light tower. The original signal was a pair of sirens driven by two Franklin 30 hp (22 kW) gasoline-driven air compressors manufactured by Chicago Pneumatic Tool Company. In 1932 gasoline engines were replaced with diesel engines. The steam sirens were replaced with a Type F-2-T diaphone (be-you) type signal in 1936. The station and the fog signal were electrified four years later, but discontinued in 1961.

The light was retired in 1969 by the U.S. Coast Guard. The lighthouse is now part of the Split Rock Lighthouse State Park and is operated by the Minnesota Historical Society. The site includes the original tower and lens, the fog signal building, the oil house, and the three keepers' houses. It is restored to appear as it did in the late 1920s. The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1969. Notwithstanding its retirement, every November 10 the lighthouse emits a light in memory of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald which sank on that date in 1975. On June 30, 2011, the lighthouse was designated as a National Historic Landmark.

The lighthouse keeper, Lee Radzak, worked at the lighthouse from 1982 to 2019, the longest tenure of any lighthouse keeper at the site.

In art

The United States Postal Service issued a stamp that featured the light on June 17, 1995. It was one of five lighthouses chosen for the "Lighthouses of the Great Lakes" series postage stamp designed by Howard Koslow in 1995. There was one lighthouse chosen on each of the Great Lakes. The five lighthouses are Split Rock Light on Lake Superior, St Joseph Light on Lake Michigan, Spectacle Reef Light on Lake Huron, Marblehead Light (Ohio) on Lake Erie and Thirty Mile Point Light on Lake Ontario.

Because of its picturesque form and location, it has been the subject of many photographs and postcards. The lighthouse was also in the 2013 film The Great Gatsby.

Gallery

• Interior stairs in Lighthouse
• Distance view
• Aerial view
• Lighthouse keepers' dwellings
• Fog signal building
• Lighthouse in winter
• Construction, 1909
• Light illuminated
• 3rd-order, Fresnel lens
• Mercury bowl and float of Fresnel lens
• Lighthouse lens crank
• September 1968

Records

Original, microfilmed, and photocopied records of the lighthouse keepers, containing daily entries on station activities and upkeep; expenditures; weather; shipping conditions; visitors; and social events on Lake Superior's north shore during the shipping season are available for research use at the Minnesota Historical Society.

See also

• List of National Historic Landmarks in Minnesota
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Lake County, Minnesota

References

1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
2. Kerr, Euan (April 10, 2019). "36 years of shining a light on Split Rock's history comes to an end". MPR News. Retrieved November 12, 2020.
3. Ibrahim, Mohamed (October 14, 2019). "He's a keeper: Split Rock Lighthouse gets new boss". MPR News.
4. ^ Pepper, Terry (2003). "Split Rock Light". Seeing The Light: Lighhouses of the western Great Lakes. Retrieved January 16, 2010. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help)
5. Ojakangas, Richard W.; Matsch, Charles L. (1982), Minnesota's Geology, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, p. 173, ISBN 0-8166-0953-5
6. Buchta, Jim (2010). "Beacon on the shore: On its 100th anniversary, Split Rock Lighthouse remains one of the state's most popular tourist attractions". Star Tribune. Retrieved May 9, 2010.
7. "AMERICA'S GREAT OUTDOORS: Secretary Salazar Designates 14 New National Historic Landmarks". June 30, 2011. Retrieved July 1, 2011.
8. Desmond, Declan (February 16, 2019). "Split Rock Lighthouse's longest-serving keeper retiring". Bring Me The News. Retrieved February 18, 2019.
9. "Stamp images, Great Lakes Lighthouses".
10. "Split Rock Lighthouse stamp". Archived from the original on May 7, 2006. Retrieved November 30, 2018.
11. "Postage stamp artwork, Split Rock Lighthouse Stamp".
12. Postage stamp artwork, Spectacle Reef Lighthouse Stamp.
13. Postage stamp artwork, Marblehead Lighthouse Stamp.
14. "Postage stamp artwork, Thirty Mile Point Lighthouse Stamp".
15. Split Rock Light postcard collection Archived 2011-07-19 at the Wayback Machine
16. "SPLIT ROCK LIGHTHOUSE: An Inventory of Their Records at the Minnesota Historical Society". Minnesota Historical Society. Retrieved July 11, 2018.

External links

• Media related to Split Rock Lighthouse at Wikimedia Commons
• Split Rock Lighthouse on the World List of Lights
• Minnesota Historical Society: Split Rock Lighthouse
• Split Rock Lighthouse Weblog - Official Blog
• Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) documentation, filed under Off Highway 61, 38 miles northeast of Duluth, Two Harbors, Lake County, MN:
  • HAER No. MN-43, "Split Rock Lighthouse", 8 photos, 4 color transparencies, 2 photo caption pages
  • HAER No. MN-43-A, "Split Rock Lighthouse, Keeper's Cottages", 1 photo, 1 photo caption page

v t e Lighthouses of Minnesota
Main: List of lighthouses in the United States
Duluth North Pier Light Duluth South Breakwater Inner Light Duluth South Breakwater Outer Light Grand Marais Light Minnesota Point Light Split Rock Lighthouse Two Harbors Light Two Harbors Breakwater Light

• Historic American Engineering Record in Minnesota
• Lighthouses completed in 1910
• Lighthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota
• Minnesota Historical Society
• Minnesota state historic sites
• National Historic Landmark lighthouses
• National Historic Landmarks in Minnesota
• Octagonal buildings in the United States
• National Register of Historic Places in Lake County, Minnesota
• 1910 establishments in Minnesota