Lighthouse Keeper Eric Klein

By definition, lighthouses are in pretty places: along shorelines, at the tip of promontories, on remote islands, or above dangerous rocky reefs, looking like islands themselves! Forty-Mile Point Lighthouse, just north of Rogers City, is no exception.

Forty-Mile Point Park comprises all the original buildings of a U.S. Life-Saving Service (USLLS) Station. There is the Lighthouse and Lighthouse Keeper’s Residence, which are one building; the Foghorn Powerhouse — foghorns, powered by a steam engine, blasted a baritone note to offshore ships when they could not hope to spot the light; the Boathouse, for sending “surf boats” with highly trained crews of seven men through raging inshore surf, out to ships stranded in the shallow water near the point, to save the crew and passengers; the Bunkhouse, for the crew of oarsmen; the Oil house, for securely storing the highly flammable signal oil, shipped from the Lighthouse Depot in Detroit, which the crew brought into the compound on the same narrow-gauge railroad track that took the surf boats from the Boathouse to the beach; even the Outhouse survives! In addition, there is a one-room schoolhouse that was in continuous use from the 1880s until 1960.

Fittingly, a 1905 shipwreck reposes along the beach near the lighthouse.

Amazingly, the lighthouse has a real-live Lighthouse Keeper, who dresses in the dapper blue uniform of the USLLS, circa 1896: coat, vest, bow tie, and cap with the USLLS insignia (a lighthouse in gold braid). Mr. Eric Klein was born and grew up at Forty-Mile Point, the son of the Keeper, and grandson of the previous Keeper. (The USLLS merged with the Revenue Cutter Service in 1915 to form the Coast Guard.)

Mr. Klein said Forty-Mile is the last lighthouse equipped with an operating Fresnel (fren-ELL) lens, an enormous magnifying glass invented by a French engineer. It can concentrate the illumination from a single flame of signal oil, and beam it many miles across the water, where navigators spot it to find their location on a chart. There are five “orders” of Fresnel lenses indicating the power of their beam; the Fifth Order is most brilliant. Forty-Mile’s Fourth Order Fresnel Lens sends its signal 15 miles out across the lake: three seconds on, three seconds off, a pattern indicated by abbreviations on the nautical charts that captains on ships consult, down to the present day. Except now they are computer files — paper copies are obsolete.

Fresnel Lenses are exceedingly rare and expensive. There’s a 7-foot tall, Second Order specimen on eBay for $75,000. Free shipping!

Mr. Klein told me that when he was 13 years old, after his family had been forced to move out when the Coast Guard automated the lens, he used to prowl around his increasingly dilapidated former home. One day, he discovered that the last Coast Guard visitor had left the door unlocked! He entered and headed straight for the circular stairs leading to the tower, with its spectacular views across Lake Huron, the beach, and the forest.

There he found the prized lens in woeful condition. As he knew from his father and grandfather, the beauty of Fresnel’s invention is that it glows more intensely when it is most highly polished by a diligent Keeper. But the USCG had allowed the lens to become dusty and blurred, like a masterpiece painting in a dark church, obscured by the smoke of incense.

Tapping into a sense of duty too deep for most people to understand, Mr. Klein fetched the needed supplies from a room in the Residence, and set to work burnishing the enormous chunk of glass in the tower. When he finished, he slipped away unseen.

Prowling there again, as usual, a few days later, he was lucky to encounter a trio of USCG employees heading into the Lighthouse. They allowed him to tag along up to the tower with them — after all, he hadn’t been there for so long … Reaching the top, the lieutenant immediately noticed the change in the Fresnel, and demanded of his two ensigns, “who polished this!?” They shrugged, confounded.

Then young Eric spoke up, admitting his act, risking a charge of trespassing on U.S. Government property. The dour officer glared down at him, then softened and said, “Good job.”

Eric had part-time employment from then until he went off to college at age 21 — the official Lens Polisher of Forty-Mile Point Lighthouse!

When the USCG divested lighthouses into the care of local caretakers, the Presque Isle County Historical Society acquired Forty-Mile’s lease. It hired Mr. Klein to be Lighthouse Keeper, the third generation of Kleins to hold the job, in a vanishing profession.

Now Eric lives back in his birthplace, along with his family, often hosting his sister and aunt, who were also born and raised in that lovely, remote spot.

Eric Paul Roorda, Ph.D., is an author, artist, and college professor. More importantly, he is a cartoonist and occasional columnist for The Alpena News. His political cartoons appear on Mondays, and “The Whitetail Family,” a coloring book in serial form, appears on Saturdays on the Outdoors page. You can order the coloring book for $15 at eproorda@gmail.com.