Big Sable 2

If you have already looked at the "History" page of my website, you may recall that there I featured both Big Sable 1 and Big Sable 2.  The "1" and the "2" are simply my way of identifying the two sketches, where I sketched Big Sable 1 on September 4, 1999 and Big Sable 2 on August 12, 2003.  I have now sketched Big Sable eight times total , and you can view all eight sketches here at my website.  Big Sable 2 is my favorite view, by far, and you can see it at the bottom of this page.

Big Sable Point Lighthouse is located at the north end of Ludington State Park on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan.  You can get there by driving seven miles north of Ludington, Michigan on highway M116.  If you wish to drive your car into the park you must pay the recreation passport fee, which in 2020 is $34 for non residents and $17 for residents ($12 if you purchase the passport with your car license). 

Once inside the park you will then either ride your bike or walk another mile and three quarters to the lighthouse.  There is an easy trail with benches and interpretive displays along the way.  In years past you could also make an easy walk along the Lake Michigan beach, but as the lake level is very high this year, you won't have much beach to walk on. 

Once you arrive at the lighthouse, you will find several benches outside for you to rest.  On the north side of the lighthouse there is a faucet and bowl for your dog to get a drink.  Only service animals are allowed inside the lighthouse, but feel free to ask a keeper to watch your pet, if you want to go inside.  Downstairs you will find a gift shop where you can buy T-shirts, trinkets and snacks.  There is also a video room where you can view some artifacts (e.g. logger's dollar) and can watch a five minute video on the history of lighthouses in general and Big Sable in particular.  Sadly, the second floor of the lighthouse is off limits, as that is where the five to seven keepers who man the lighthouse live during their tour.

There is a modest $5 fee to climb to the top of the tower.  I suggest that you do make the climb, as it is just an additional 130 steps more than the 3600 steps that you walk one way to the lighthouse.  The view at the top of the tower is fabulous, as the horizon is about 13 miles away, and you can see the Badger carferry twice a day, many freighters, and lots of salmon fishing boats.  Be sure to ask the keeper at the top to take your picture.  

My wife Shirley and I joined the Big Sable Points Lighthouse Keepers Association in 2002, and we have regularly been volunteer keepers there ever since.  BSPLKA has changed over the years and is now SPLKA (Sable Points Lighthouse Keepers Association), as the organization now manages not only Big Sable but also Ludington N Breakwater, Little Sable and White River Light Station and Museum.  For more information about SPLKA, please visit www.splka.org.  

This summer at Big Sable I am part of keeper tour #5 which runs from June 8 through June 22.  In my Big Sable 2 sketch below the NW corner, second floor window is my bedroom, which is a real head banger, as part of the ceiling forms the roof.  I invite you to visit Martha, Pat, Carolyn, Pat, Tim and me during tour #5 this year, if this fits into your plans.  If you do visit Big Sable during this time, please mention that you have looked at my website.  I would love to chat with you.    

Bill Mitchell Lighthouse Art - March 4, 2020

 

Ludington N Breakwater 3

Ludington N Breakwater 3 is my third sketch of the pierhead light at the end of Ludington Avenue in Ludington, Michigan.  Interestingly, Ludington is named for James Ludington, a middle 1800s shipping and lumber entrepreneur, who never lived in the city that bears his name.  Many of the streets in old Ludington bear the names of James' family and friends. When the lumber industry died out, other entrepreneurs, specifically railroaders, realized that some shipping between Michigan and Wisconsin would be faster and less expensive if it travelled across Lake Michigan rather than around it by way of Chicago. 

Thus entered the railroad carferry period that flourished during the late 1800s and early 1900s.  Today only the Badger remains of the dozens of carferries that made that trek.  There is now no rail freight, but rather truck freight, passenger cars and people that travel US highway 10 from Michigan to Wisconsin courtesy of the Badger across Lake Michigan.  With the recent boom in windmill farms, it is interesting to watch hundred foot long turbine blades loaded on semi trailers slowly moving down Ludington Avenue either to or from the Lake Michigan Carferry docks.

The Ludington harbor and pierhead light have changed several times over the years, and the present configuration dates back to the 1920s.  Today the federal government owns the pier, the green lens and the light bulb.  The City of Ludington owns the lighthouse, and Sable Points Lighthouse Keepers Association (SPLKA) manages the lighthouse for the City.  You can climb the lighthouse for $5 when the weather is calm.  The pier is about a half mile long, and is often closed due to waves resulting from near record lake levels.  If you think the light has a bit of a tilt, you are correct.  Recent channel dredging has shifted the base of the light.   

Now that I have told you some of the general history of Ludington N Breakwater lighthouse, I want to tell you some of my family history that intersects with the lighthouse.  My great grandfather on my dad's side was John Augustus Mitchell.  He was a civil engineer who lived in Ludington in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and some of his work related to the Ludington harbor.  My grandfather Thomas Leonard Mitchell grew up in Ludington, and his son (my dad) Thomas Fribley Mitchell was born at home on Cort Street in 1910. 

Dad told me stories of his childhood, and some of those stories included his friends Ralph Samuelson and Andy Patchau.  Please excuse any misspelling of their names.  Andy, I believed, lived at a lighthouse and rode his horse to school every day.  My dad passed away in 1997, and it was never clear to me in which lighthouse Andy lived.  Was it Big Sable which is about ten miles north of Ludington, or was it Ludington N Breakwater?  While keepers did truly live and work at the former, I do not believe that keepers strictly speaking ever lived at the latter.  They just worked there.  For whatever reason I assumed that Andy lived at Big Sable, and for years I always thought it amazing that a boy would travel so far to go to school.  

So, fast forward to 2002 when my wife Shirley and I semi-retired to Ludington from Maumee, Ohio.  Immediately we got involved with the Big Sable Lighthouse Keepers Association (now Sable Points Lighthouse Keepers Association), and we took our first two-week tour as volunteer lighthouse keepers at Big Sable the following summer.  We invited some of our friends and neighbors out for dinner and an evening tour.  One of them was Russ Miller, a life long Ludington resident and a wonderful portrait photographer.  I told the group about my dad, his friend Andy Pachau, and Andy's horse ride to school every day.  Russ told me that it was a nice story but that Andy was his uncle and that Andy's dad had been a keeper at Ludington N Breakwater, not Big Sable, years ago.  Simply amazing I thought, that I would get a clarification on a story that I had heard and retold somewhat incorrectly many times.  Since then, Shirley and I have found through lighthouse keeping that there often are fewer than three degrees of separation between us keepers and our visitors.

Bill Mitchell Lighthouse Art - March 5, 2020