By Eagle Bluff Lighthouse Museum Staff
The photo used on our cover page shows the screened porch that was added to accommodate Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Workers during the depression. It was removed, probably about the same time the barn and summer kitchen were eliminated.
GREAT LAKES SHIPPING
In 1825, upon completion of the Erie Canal, the Great Lakes began to grow into a vital transportation network for products and people. Previously, there was no way for ships to get in or out of the lakes. In 1800, fifty thousand people inhabited the five mid-western states. By 1860 the area had grown to nine million which was one-third of the entire United States population. Roads were few and poor, so the primary reason for this growth was the burgeoning commerce on the Great Lakes.
As lake shipping increased, so did the numbers of shipwrecks. Unmarked shipping lanes caused vessels to wreck on submerged shoals and reefs. Further hazards were encountered in dangerous straits and narrow entrances to harbors and rivers. The increasing loss of ships and lives prompted the government to establish aids to navigation throughout the Great Lakes.
The first lighthouses of the Great Lakes were built in the 1820's. By 1900, there were 344 major lighted aids. These included hundreds of manned lighthouses. What a difference these lights made to mariners of that era. Door County, with its nearly 250 miles of rugged shoreline, boasted 13 lighthouses, more than any county in the United States.
In 1868 when Eagle Bluff Lighthouse was built, it was badly needed at this location. Just off Peninsula Park shore lies one of the two shipping channels between the city of Green Bay and points north and east. This east channel is narrow and treacherous with the park bluffs on one side and the large, flat shoals of the Strawberry Islands on the other. The second channel, west of Chambers Island, lies several miles west of the Wisconsin shore. A lighthouse almost identical to Eagle Bluff's was built on Chambers Island in the same year, to guide ships using the west channel.
Eagle Bluff Lighthouse was constructed of cream city brick at a cost of $12,000. The area was a wilderness in 1868 at the time the light was built. Building materials were brought in by boat from Detroit, Michigan and Milwaukee and landed on the north shore of Lighthouse Bay (now Tennyson Bay). The light tower is 43 feet tall, so the light shines 76 feet above the bay. An outhouse was built of the same brick and later other outbuildings were added.
THE LENS AND LAMP
The tower was equipped with a "Third-and-a-half order" Fresnel Lens, the type of lens used in all American lighthouses by that time. Fresnel lenses came in seven sizes. Eagle Bluffs was the middle size. This type of lens gathered the light from a lamp and via refraction, it was projected as a narrow bright beam visible for miles across the water. Eagle Bluff's light could be seen up to 16 miles.
The source of the light was a wicked oil lamp. In early years a variety of oils was tried. In the case of Eagle Bluff, the first oil used was lard oil. Later kerosene became the universal fuel. Kerosene was a big improvement except that it was highly flammable. To prevent fires in the lighthouses caused by kerosene, the lighthouse service built an oil storage house at each lighthouse, always a safe distance from the tower and the keeper's home. At Eagle Bluff, the brick oil house was built in 1900.
The original lens was replaced with a "Fifth Order Fresnel Lens" in 1918. This lens remains in the lantern tower although it is no longer operational. Through the years many improvements were made on the oil lamps used to create the light, but there was no need to make major changes in the superbly designed Fresnel lens. Many Fresnel lenses are still in operation today.
The light source, of course, has changed from kerosene to electricity and in some cases to solar power. Here at Eagle Bluff , there still is no electricity. The beam that shines across the bay each night is powered by energy created from a small solar panel at the top of the tower.
LIGHTHOUSE KEEPERS
For 58 years, from 1868-1926, keepers and their families lived at Eagle Bluff and tended the light. The first 15 years Henry Stanley and family lived here and were keepers of the light. For the next 35 years, from 1883 until 1918 William Duclon, his wife Julia and their seven sons were the lighthouse keepers. Peter Coughlin was the final keeper and his 8 years, ending in 1926, marked the end of lighthouse keepers at Eagle Bluff.
The light was automated in 1926, first with acetylene gas, later with batteries, and finally solar power. The next 34 years saw the automated light shining over the bay, but the keeper's house was dark, mostly empty, and gradually it deteriorated from lack of use and interest.
RESTORATION OF EAGLE BLUFF LIGHTHOUSE
In 1960 the Door County Historical Society selected Eagle Bluff Lighthouse to research, restore, completely furnish and open as a museum. It is thought that theirs was the first lighthouse restoration in the country.
The restoration took 4 years including some very difficult and often discouraging times. Chairperson of the restoration committee was Mrs. D. E. Bay, an antiques dealer from Sturgeon Bay. She was a capable and motivated leader. She and the other volunteers worked faithfully, winter and summer, returning the house to its original floor plan including the removal of additions, partitions, and as much as 80 coats of government-issued paint.
After repairing, removing paint, varnishing, wallpapering, and cleaning, the house was then furnished with choice examples of furniture and artifacts of the period. Members of the Duclon family, now greatly expanded with the addition of two and even three generations, participated in the restoration, contributing photos, documents, artifacts, and information on how the house was furnished and arranged, as well as stories about the lives of William and Julia and their seven boys.
The most important family member involved in the restoration was Walter Duclon, the youngest of the Duclon boys, who was just over a year old when the family moved to this lonely outpost back in 1883. Though nearly 80 years old during the restoration, Walter Duclon was very interested and most helpful in recalling in great detail how the house was furnished. He was even able to recover some of the original artifacts.
As an antiques dealer, Mrs. Bay had stripping tanks and other equipment for refinishing furniture so she personally refinished a great many of the items placed in the house. She searched widely to find just the right pieces as described by Walter Duclon. Most of the beds in the house were found under people's porches and dipped into the stripping tanks and refinished.
Mrs. Bay's expertise and the knowledge and interest of the Duclon family, particularly Walter, made this restoration very special. It stands today, just as it was restored in the early 1960's, as a landmark representing the way our pioneer ancestors lived and worked before the turn of the century.
In 1970, Eagle Bluff Lighthouse was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The Door County Historical Society continues an unbroken span of operating the lighthouse as a heritage attraction for more than 40 seasons.
LlGHTKEEPER'S FAMILY LIFE
Enthusiastic tour guides who interpret the Eagle Bluff Lighthouse story enjoy telling about the lives of William and Julia Duclon and the activities of their seven spirited sons. Due to the isolation of their home, they had to be very self-sufficient. Julia did most of the educating of her boys, particularly in the early years before there were schools within walking distance.
In addition, she gave them a love of music and taught them to play several different instruments including the beautiful Rosewood piano displayed in the music room along with some of the other instruments. The boys assembled their own family band and they entertained at various gatherings throughout Door County. They took their own instruments, including the large piano.
As the boys matured, their enterprising activities included commercial fishing, search and rescue, ice fishing, a tugboat business, and ice boating. Their father expected considerable help operating the lighthouse, and the boys took pride in keeping it tidy, repaired and painted.
Julia Duclon was, of necessity, a spinner, weaver of cloth, seamstress, and maker of beautiful quilts. Her handwork was widely acclaimed. Cooking for her family as well as for inspectors, lighthouse service workers, and the occasional visitor kept her busy indeed.
The Lighthouse Service provided a delivery of food staples, fuel and supplies during the navigation season. Food was stored in the basement and the kerosene in the fuel house. The garden provided fresh vegetables and wild game abounded in the surrounding woods, with the bay providing unlimited quantities of fish.
The living quarters contain a kitchen, dining/living room, formal parlor, music room, master bedroom and a hallway that leads to the attached tower. The stairs lead downward to a fuel storage room and ascend to the second floor and on up to the lantern room.
On the 2nd floor is a small guest bedroom that was also used as a sewing room during the Duclon era. The large bedroom at the end of the hall housed all seven of the boys in their youth. A closet is located on this floor and housed supplies and cleaning materials for the lantern.
Following their retirement, William and Julia Duclon moved into a small cottage in Fish Creek and spent their remaining years in the village. Julia died in 1922; William died in 1926; both are buried in Blossomberg Cemetery, located nearby within Peninsula State Park.
More coming soon...