White River Light Station

Keeper Robinson was given the task of finishing some of the detail work on the main lighthouse. He began by painting the inside of the main lighthouse and completed the work several weeks later when he painted the inside of the lantem room.

The lighthouse Service inspected each lighthouse about once every three months, and the first inspection of the new main lighthouse was made by Commander McCann on Aug. 19, 1876.

Later, Keeper Robinson wrote a letter to Commander McCann: "I would respectfully call to your attention to the state of the enclosed grounds, there is no fence. On the west side, the cattle come onto the grounds and trample the place bad.

Likewise, there is much need of a good drain cut from the house to the west bank, the cellar is very damp. I have had great trouble to keep them dry. Also, I would call your attention to the state of the foot-walk between the shore and the elevated foot-walk, there is a great deal of difficulty in getting out in heavy gales of south west winds, the water has risen this year which makes it worse. n

No immediate action was taken on keeper Robinson´s requests. He put down some wooden plank foot-walks on his own, and the Lighthouse Service finally supplied a cistern and drainage in 1880, fencing in 1894 and improved the walkways, with poured concrete, in 1902.

The lighthouse was re-painted in September 1878, when Mr.
Trecodwell and his assistant arrived and painted the complete lighthouse and out buildings both inside and out.

The complete lighthouse site was re-surveyed by A. R. Flint in late May 1883. In June of the same year, the Lighthouse Service sent in a six-man working party for a period of ten days to make general repairs.

The drainage remained poor around the lighthouse, and during early July 1883 there was a heavy rain lasting for a few days that caused the cellar to flood and some other damage. The rain was so heavy that the Duck Lake Dam, a few miles south of the lighthouse site, burst. It took keeper Robinson almost two weeks to empty the water from the cellar. There was an almost exact repeat to this flooding in 1905, and the drainage remains bad to this day. During the heavy rains in late May and early June of 1996, the cellar again was flooded.

In August 1886, a new water pump was installed and on Aug. 20, 1887, Keeper Robinson built a new sidewalk from the dwelling to the privy.

In 1896, the Oceana Telephone company was formed in the town of Shelby, a few miles north, and began to install business and private telephones and run telephone wires south into the towns of Montague and Whitehall and along the shore of White Lake. The White River Light Station had a telephone supplied by the government eight years earlier, and was one of the first locations in the area to receive a telephone. Keeper Robinson reports in his log for May 23, 1888, "A telephone instrument was put into the main lighthouse dwelling today."

The roof of the main lighthouse dwelling had to be repaired in late April of 1890, and in June 1891, W. H. Dennis and Son put in a new force pump. During the summer of 1883, two United States employees came to repair cracks in the main lighthouse tower.

On Nov. 15, 1898, Mr. Brust, the U.S. foreman, arrived and put in new tile drains he spent two weeks at the site and also repaired the eaves of the main lighthouse dwelling.

Keeper Robinson moved the Kerosene from the former oil room in the basement of the dwelling into the new oil house on July 21, 1902.

In 1904, a Filtcraft sewer system was installed, and in February 1905, Mr. James Fitzgerald came and put in new water pumps. In 1908, carpenters arrived and re-shingled the woodshed and cemented the top of the cistem. During the summer of 1910, many repairs were made and new floors were put in the dining and sitting rooms of the dwelling, new screens were provided and a new sink was put in the kitchen. On June 21, 1910, the small water pump house burnt down and had to be re-built. In May of 1911, plumbers arrived and installed in-door plumbing and a bathtub. The privy remained for a few years and was then torn down. In 1914, J. C. Peterson, the new U.S. foreman, arrived and his crew re-built the porch. The winter was extremely cold in 1914, and on Feb. 13 the water pipes into the house froze and remained that way until March 14, 1914.

Electricity came to the light station in stages. First in June 1918, a jute-covered electric cable was laid from the north, under the White Lake Channel to the lighthouse tower. An electrically operated incandescent bulb replaced the Kerosene lamp used in the main lighthouse tower on Aug. 12, 1918. In May 1924, electric power was installed in the keeper´s dwelling. In 1944, electric power was supplied to the inner channel light at the east end of the concrete channel pier, and finally in 1949, electric power was supplied to the South Pier-head Beacon light.

A major renovation of the main lighthouse roof was made during the summer of 1939 when the original chimney was removed and replaced, and the complete roof of the dwelling and the storage building were re-roofed and shingled.

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

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