August lecture to celebrate 150 years of Thunder Bay Island Lifeboat Station
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ALPENA -- A free lecture by author Steven Tongue on Thursday will highlight 150 years of the Thunder Bay Island Lifeboat Station.
The lecture will take place from 6 to 7 p.m. at the Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center.
Tongue, author of "Lanterns and Lifeboats – A History of Thunder Bay Island," takes a deeper look into the cradle of Alpena's history. It is co-hosted with the Thunder Bay Island Lighthouse Preservation Society.
Sue Skibbe, secretary for the society, said that Tongue was an Alpena resident for a long time and will be coming from Colorado for the lecture. He is also a historian for Thunder Bay Island.
Tongue will give an overview of the island's fascinating connection to our rich Great Lakes maritime heritage.
Those who venture to remote Thunder Bay Island today will find remarkable features such as:
The second oldest lighthouse still standing on Lake Huron, remains of a lifesaving station that assisted in the rescue of over 1000 lives, a coast littered with the remains of numerous shipwrecks, limestone rock carvings dating back to the 1800s, evidence of a fishing colony that was home to the earliest settlers, and rare flora and fauna which thrives in the island's unique "alvar" ecosystem.
The lifesaving station on the island is 150 years old this year, and the lighthouse will be 200 years old in six years, Skibbe said. Thunder Bay Island is a long, narrow island. The lighthouse is on the east side of the island, and the life saving station is on the west.
The lighthouse on the east side helped warn mariners as they traveled, Skibbe said.
The lecture will coincide with national lighthouse day, which is also on Thursday.
Skibbe said that she hopes the lecture will give people some more information about Thunder Bay Island.
"We wanted to spotlight it," she said.
Reagan Voetberg can be reached at 989-358-5683 or rvoetberg@thealpenanews.com.