Greetings!

We started the long awaited restoration work at Eagle Bluff Light Station. We actually took a first step April 11 when our electrical contractor drilled a hole through the lighthouse foundation for getting electricity into the light house. EBLS never had electricity so this is a big deal. Incidentally after he drilled the hole he measured the thickness of the foundation. It is 19 inches!

The electric utility, Wisconsin Public Service, will be installing about 4000 feet of underground feeder from the closest connection at Welker’s Point Campground to the lighthouse. That is expected to happen sometime around May 23.

In 2016 we revived the restoration committee for EBLS. Restoration plans were in the making as far back as 2010. We completed a Historic Structures Report in January 2020 but nothing much happened after that. Restoration gained traction and became a reality when Amy Frank became the DCHS executive director in September 2022.

We are working with National Restoration to do restoration work that is in immediate need of being done. John Fletcher is the owner of National Restoration based out of Michigan. National Restoration is a prominent name in lighthouse restoration. They have done restoration work at 25 to 30 percent of Michigan lighthouses, including two of EBLS’s sister lighthouses. That is a lot of lighthouses when you consider that there are approximately 130 lighthouses in Michigan.

Kurt Fosburg removed the Fresnel lens from the lantern room Tuesday morning April 16. Kurt crated the lens to protect after it was removed from the lantern and put in storage for later reinstallation and restoration once back in the lantern. It is necessary to have the lens out of the lantern so it is not damaged when the inside of the lantern is restored.

John Fletcher’s National Restoration crew arrived Wednesday, April 24. They will stay and work for 10 days straight to get all the immediate stabilization work done. Then they will transition to a 4-day/week schedule for the remainder of the work. Likely another 2-3 months.

The Door County Historical Society’s Eagle Bluff Light Station Committee is the overseer for all things at EBLS. Five members of that committee form the Lighthouse Structures Committee. We are tasked with overseeing all things involved with the restoration of EBLS. I and Chuck Baum, another member of the Structures Committee, will be onsite during the restoration work. We will be documenting all the work being done.

There is more. We are also planning on reconstructing the historic barn and summer kitchen that was once at EBLS. I found copies of the original Lighthouse Service barn plans. We also have pictures and other documentation for the barn and summer kitchen. We working with a noted lighthouse and maritime preservation architect in Marquette Michigan to get us bidding and construction plans for these buildings. Ken has gotten us a draft of the plans that we will be finalizing. We hope to begin construction later this summer.

Thanks,

Ed