Wisconsin Builder | Job Satisfaction

Seeing the light

The Raspberry Island Lighthouse, one of six in the Apostle Islands National Shoreline, is undergoing a two-year restoration designed to bring the building back to its 1920s appearance.

Photo courtesy of KBK Services Inc.

Bayfield County renovates a prominent lighthouse

A November blizzard put a little crimp in the plans to tuck the Raspberry Island Lighthouse in for the winter.

It’s a weather battle contractors have been fighting since August, when they began a two-year restoration of the lighthouse tower and keepers’ quarters.

Transportation of workers and equipment from mainland Bayfield County to the islands depends on Lake Superior’s rough waters and self-made weather.

But, considering the lighthouse’s location, it wasn’t too unexpected that the wrap-up for the season had to be delayed until the churning waters subsided enough to allow the last trips to the island, said Ken Kontny, co-owner of the project’s general contractor, KBK Services Inc. of Ashland.

A construction crew demolishes the Raspberry Island Lighthouse's collapsing southeast basement wall.

Photo courtesy of the National Park Service

The lighthouse, one of six in the Apostle Islands National Shoreline, is part of what the National Park Service brags is its “finest collection of historic lighthouses.”

Raspberry Island Lighthouse is chief among its peers. The1862 structure is toured by 6,500 to 10,000 people every year, said Randy Ross, chief of facility management for the park.

But 143 years of Lake Superior winds, waves and winter took a toll on the unheated structure, he said. Paint was peeling. Plaster was falling. The roof was failing.

Until a few years ago, the island itself was giving way to the lake’s persistent waves. The park service finished a $1.4 million shoreline stabilization project in 2003.

The restoration of the buildings will ring in at $1.3 million and be completed by the end of 2006, Kontny said.

When the lighthouse project is finished, interpreted tours will open for the structure and the south keepers’ quarters. Both buildings will be restored to their 1920s appearance — the earliest time for which comprehensive documentation of the structures’ appearances can be found, Kontny said. The north quarters, originally built for the lighthouse keeper’s assistant, will be turned into usable living quarters for park staff.

Thus far, work at the island has concentrated on exterior work. Utility lines were installed, a well was dug, a portion of the foundation was rebuilt, and a septic system is in place. In addition, a new drainage system will direct water away from the lighthouse.

“Every joint we struck had to be similar to what was there from the 1860s,” Kontny said. “It was more time-consuming than unusual.”

Thus far, logistics and weather have proved the hardest part of the project.

“You don’t just have a semi drop off your pipes,” Kontny said. “You have to arrange barges and rafts.”

At times that meant finding a boat ride to work for 50 people and equipment, and the island is not served by ferry.

Also, the island is 35 feet to 40 feet above Lake Superior, making the unloading of materials and equipment another time-consuming process.

For instance, although the project called for a relatively small amount of sand and rock — about 350 yards of sand and 250 yards of rock — to be brought in, moving those materials to the work site took weeks rather than hours, Kontny said.

“We put in two conveyor belts and used that to move sand and rock up to the lighthouse,” he said. “We put it in hoppers and zigzagged it up the island.”

Power sources are hard to come by on the island as well, and if park staff members are to live in the building, the showers, sprinkler systems, the well and other aspects of the facility will need a better solution than fossil fuel-fed generators.

Solar panels will be installed to provide that power, with generators available for backup, Ross said.

“We use quite a bit of that on the islands,” he said. “They hold up pretty well. It’s usually the batteries that give up first. They usually last about six to seven years.”

Work will resume in late April or early May, whenever the weather allows, Kontny said. Next year, the crews will get to work on refinishing and restoring the hardwood floors and window trim to 1920s specifications. They also will replace the roof and paint and install a new floor on the tower’s observation deck, among other projects designed to make the building historically accurate and aesthetically pleasing.

The structure will be open for tours again in 2007.