This illustrated history describes the setting and construction of the replica lighthouse at the Inland Seas Maritime Museum on the southern shore of Lake Erie. Topics include an overview of lake history, descriptions of building and erecting the Vermilion Harbor lighthouse in 1877 and of the design and erection of the replica lighthouse in 1991, and a number of Lake Erie stories.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
The author was born on the second floor of the present Inland Seas Maritime Museum when the structure was the home of his family. He need only look north from his window to see the 1877 Vermilion Lighthouse, so naturally he has the fondest thoughts of this now long gone structure.
In the preface Dr. Wakefield recounts the lighthouse was in his play area as a boy, and coming from a yachting family he early welcomed its warm, red light. His maritime interests result from owning eight boats from a punt to an auxiliary ketch and three iceboats before he matriculated in college. For all, the 1877 Vermilion Lighthouse was a rendezvous, summer and winter.
As a seventeen-year-old Wakefield sailed in the U.S. Merchant Marine steamship Helen of Wilmington, Delaware from whose decks he again became familiar with lighthouses and light-buoys. Subsequently, he would attend the University of Michigan and there earn B.A. and M.S. degrees, and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering. On graduation, Wakefield was employed in the Photometric Laboratory of the General Electric Company, and finally began teaching electrical engineering at the University of Tennessee. He subsequently ran a company in Skokie, Illinois, involved in the manufacture of nuclear instrumentation, and until his retirement, a company in Evanston, Illinois, involved in the manufacture of experimental electric vehicles.
Dr. Wakefield has written a number of books on subjects related to electrical engineering, including The consumer's electric car (Ann Arbor Science Press, 1977), The history of the electric automobile: Battery-only powered electric vehicles (Society of Automotive Engineers, 1994), and The history of the electric automobile: Hybrid powered vehicles (Society of Automotive Engineers, 1998). He currently resides near his daughter in Silver Spring, Maryland. Please address correspondence to the publisher.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
from Chapter 1: Geologically speaking, the Vermilion river is a relatively recent stream dating to only the most recent ice-age, the Wisconsin Advance of the Pleistocene Epoch some ten thousand years ago. A talisman is the sharp, lofty shale banks some two miles upriver. In deposits of this period skeletons of early mankind and of mankind-like animals have been found.
The first riffles on the river's placid surface could have been made by fish schooling along its weedy banks. Wandering muskrats migrating from an older stream might next have disturbed its waters. Then some few thousand years ago Indians exploring for an overnight campsite as a respite from the boisterous lake could have broken the surface with their paddles. Later migrants going upstream discovered the ochre clays which gave the name of Vermilion to the river.[Insert figures 1 & 2: Maps of Lake Erie and the lower Vermilion river.] The Erie Indians, almost exterminated by the Iroquois in 1656 whose hunting grounds bordered the area, gave the name to this large body of water.
Lake Erie, being the most southern of the Great Lakes, was missed by the exploring and ambitious French. Vogageurs passed, with their provision laden batteaux, from the more northern lying Saint Lawrence river, up the Ottawa river, then the Mattawa river, Lake Nipissing, French river, continuing across Georgian Bay, through theNorth Channel, up the St. Mary's river and finally into the great waters of Lake Superior. Animal furs were their quarry; the Indians their ally. This voyage, made during the French period, is alluded to in Appendix A as is a 1656 map of Lake Erie. The last Vermilion Indian, Fred Platte, well known to the author, is characterized in Appendix B.
Theodore Dunmore Wakefield of Vermilion, Ohio, cognizant of this French exploration, in 1987 offered a one-thousand dollar prize for the name of the discoverer of Lake Erie. Seized upon by historians, the reward encouraged Conrad Heidenreich to discover a trace of the lake on animal skin dated 1641. This relic has been displayed in the Huronic Museum at Midland, Ontario. Its unveiling by the Governor-General of Canada and its presentation to the public was a recent historical high point.
The American westward movement continued, two hundred miles a generation. Ohio became a state on 1 March 1803. With the waning of Indian influence, the lake fish population being so plentiful, fishermen soon settled on the banks of what became known as the Vermilion river. First they used along-shore seines. Then, venturing father onto the lake, they would set pound and gill- nets from large, flat-bottomed, easily built rowboats.
In the spring of the year, water from the many emerging farms surrounding the river would cascade into rivulets, form into runs, combine into creeks, swell into branches, and finally flood into the Vermilion river causing a freshet. At such time pig- sties, fence posts, and even chickens living in the valley of the river might be swept into the maelstrom. The current carried them rapidly downstream into the lake, the flotsam and jetsam being deposited on nearby beaches.
After the flood had subsides, the waves and long-shore-currents in the lake would carry sand from the beaches and largely close the little river. As a result sailing and oared fish boats could no longer easily reach their docks to unload the catches. A period map of the Vermilion river is enclosed. In 1838 the citizens of the small town of Vermilion, led by the fishermen, erected wooden stakes at the harbor entrance. On these supports they secured an oil-burning beacon.
To maintain the navigable harbor after the freshet the fishermen petitioned their congressman and through him to secure a congressional appropriation. These funds would allow the U. S. Corps of Engineers to dredge the river and build two piers to both constrict the river and prevent the long-shore currents from filling the freshet-opened channel. A chart of the river and nearby soundings is also enclosed.
The operation completed, Vermilion now had a government- maintained harbor. Please see Appendix F. With this transformation in 1847, fourteen years before the American War Between the States, the U. S. Lighthouse Board placed a more permanent beacon at the porthead. In his researches with the U. S. National Archives, Theodore D. Wakefield writes:
"According to William F. Sherman from the Archives, the Vermilion Lighthouse . . . 'was built on a pier in 1847, rebuilt in 1859 and again in 1877.' Letters from the Tenth Light House District to the Light House Board show that the tower and lantern were shipped from Buffalo to Oswego and transported to Vermilion in the Tender Haze, assigned to the jurisdiction of the District Inspector. The Engineer suggested using the lens formerly used at Erie Harbor for the Vermilion lighthouse, or ordering a new one, but I found no indication of which was done. The sixth order lens used in 1859 was replaced by the fifth order Fresnel lens made by the Paris firm of Barbier and Fenestre, but I have not been able to find out whether it was ordered in the 1870's or was already on hand at the Light House Depot in Norfolk.
"I have also found from the records that the lighthouse was moved in 1893 closer to the end of the pier, and that in 1919 the oil lamp was replaced by an acetylene lamp in stock at Buffalo. I did not find out from the records what was done with the oil lamp at the time the change was made. The Vermilion light was put under the care of the assistant keeper at Lorain, and in the early 1920's the house that had been used as the keeper's residence in Vermilion was sold to the Masonic Lodge in that city."
As the result of this harbor improvement, facilities were eventually constructed for building schooners, transporting fuel, wheat and supplies. The reader should view the map showing this improvement. A major activity near the mouth of the river was the unloading of schooners bearing limestone. Cleveland, capable of serving the increasing size of vessels, gained in ascendancy. Commercial activity along the Vermilion river waned. Only fishing continued unabated, there being some dozen steam tugs and several sailing vessels. . . .
BUILDING THE 1877 VERMILION LIGHTHOUSE
As the river and pier were now under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Government, a new group from the U. S. Corps of Engineers noted the dilapidated condition of the lighthouse. In 1866 the Congress appropriated money to place an iron lighthouse on the west pier end of the Vermilion river. A government architect designed the lighthouse.
A contract for building the more permanent beacon was let to an iron-casting company in Buffalo, New York, a cite astride the western terminus of the Erie Canal. Using sand molds, three tapering rings, octahedral in shape, were cast. . . .
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Nice addition for lighthouse and Great Lakes collections,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Lighthouse That Wanted to Stay Lit (Paperback)
A fast read and old-fashioned sounding written account of the Vermilion lighthouse and the replica in 1991 that finally replaced it. There are also some local Vermilion, Ohio tales at the end of the book that make an interesting read, although they were probably added since information on the original lighthouse is quite scarce. A sure add to your Great Lakes and lighthouse book shelf.
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