White River Light Station

Keeper Robinson began to build a new, small oil store-house near the South Pier-head Beacon Light in July 1874 to replace the one destroyed in December 1873. This store-house was completed by early August and he moved the oil butts into it.

The new storeroom was a temporary building used to store oil for the beacon light until the main lighthouse was built in 1875. In early 1876, this temporary building was dismantled, and the oil was moved to the basement oil-room in the main lighthouse.

One of the first problems to befall the South Pier-head Beacon Light occurred on July 28, 1875, when the paddle steamer John-A-Dix struck the south pier end with her paddle-box. The keeper reported, "The force of the blow shook the beacon light severely

It appears the wooden pile pier and cribs were rather poorly constructed and not able to withstand the constant heavy lake storms, winter ice damage and ships running into the pier or elevated foot-walk. On Jan. 2, 1876, keeper Robinson wrote in his log: "The filling of the new pier cribs was greatly disturbed by a storm today. The outside of the South Pier-head Beacon Light is settling a great deal." By October, conditions worsened and he wrote: "The South Pier-head Beacon Light is in very unsafe condition. The crib is breaking up. n No immediate action was taken and several other problems occurred to further complicate the situation, and damage or weaken the pier. On Aug. 15, 1877, Robinson wrote: "The steamer Tempest entered this harbor and a spark from her smoke stack fell into the pier and burnt the foundation of the frame of the South Pier-head Beacon Lighf, and on April 24, 1878, he wrote: "The schooner Hercules, of Chicago, hit the South Pier and got its jib-boom broken off in the elevated foot-walk. n Two years later the Lighthouse Service began the first of several reconstructions of the pier, and over the years the pier was repeatedly re-built, strengthened and extended.

The south pier and elevated foot-walk continued to be battered and broken, as can be seen from the following entries in the Keeper´s Log:

11-19-1879 The bark H. B. Moore ran her jib-boom into the elevated foot-walk and broke off about forty-eight feet of the foot-walk

11-22-1879 The schooner Bates hit the elevated foot-walk today

11-22-1879 The schooner Little Belle hit the end of the North Pier today.

Again in August 1885, the schooner Dan Davis hit the South Pier elevated foot-walk causing some damage. The poor original construction and frequent damage caused the pier cribs to settle and the South Pier-head Beacon Light began to tilt. Mr. Lango and several men arrived from the Lighthouse Service in July 1887 to level the South Pier-head Beacon Light and make other repairs. While the South Pier-head Beacon Light was repaired and leveled in 1887, it continued to gradually tilt as the pier crib settled further and various ships crashed into the pier.

Settling continued, and the South Pier-head Beacon Light had to be repaired again in November 1893, when workmen began the installation of a new sill under the light.

In September 1900, the first cribs were sunk to extend the north pier-head. By the end of November, all of the new cribs had been placed for the north pier-head and new piles had been driven for the piers on both sides of the channel.

This was the last move for the South Pier-head Beacon Light; in all, it had been moved four times from its original position, each time moving to the west farther into the lake. As shown in the following drawing:

In December 1904, a section of the elevated foot-walk was broken by a log thrown up by the strong waves on the lake. In August 1911, the elevated foot-walk was hit by lightning and about five feet of it had to be replaced. In July 1916, the Beacon Light itself was struck by lightning and damaged. In February 1915 and January 1918, ice piled over the elevated walk and did damage.

Excerpted with permission of the author from:
  White River light Station
  by Thomas A. Tag
  Copyright @ 1996

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