The Sweetwater Lady
The romance of lighthouses and their mission continues to excite our imagination through the years. As we look at them, we can imagine the often lonely men and women who have climbed wooden ladders and spiraling staircases to keep the whale oil or kerosene lamp burning. They are the ultimate symbols of communities caring for their fellow men.
The Marblehead Lighthouse has been called ‘’Sweetwater Lady’’ by the sailors who have depended on her light through the years since 1822. She is the oldest continuously operated lighthouse on the Great Lakes. After the War of 1812, President Monroe and Senator Henry Clay were looking for ways to increase trade on the Great Lakes. The Erie Canal was being built and they had great hopes for that connection to the lakes.
The Marblehead Lighthouse was built on Rocky Point, the eastern tip of Marblehead Peninsula. There the shoreline is especially shallow and treacherous. As far as 400 feet from shore, the water is only 10 to 12 feet deep.
The stuccoed, round, white lighthouse is built of limestone quarried in the area. It is 25 feet in diameter at its base with four-foot thick walls. It tapers to 12 feet at the top with two feet walls. As a visitor sees it today, it is 67 feet tall. The top which houses the lantern and the observation deck is painted bright red as are the shutters and the trim on the lighthouse keeper’s residence. A white picket fence surrounds the residence. Altogether, it is a calm and picturesque sight. It has been painted and photographed many times.
The first keeper was Benajah Wolcott, a Revolutionary War veteran. He not only kept the wicks of the 13 Argand whale lamps burning, but he was required to keep a log of the weather and passing ships. He was responsible for organizing rescue efforts when ships crashed on the rocks.
On May, 1875 The ship Consuela wrecked in a violent storm off Kelleys Island. The Lighthouse keeper at that time, George McGee, recruited two brothers, Hubbard and Ai Clemons, to take a lifeboat out in the churning waters. They were able to pull two of the ship’s sailors to safety. They were awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism for rescue of persons in distress upon American waters.
At the turn of the century an additional 15 feet was added to the tower. An 87 step iron spiral staircase replaced the wooden ladders that led to the beacon, and a clock-like mechanism was installed to rotate the lantern, creating the appearance at sea of a brilliant flash of light every 10 seconds. An improved Fresnel lens was ordered from Paris. This device uses a series of prisms to bend and concentrate the light from a single oil lamp to create a powerful signal visible for several miles. The rotation of the light required the lighthouse keeper to crank the weights every three hours to keep the lantern turning throughout the night.
It was not until 1923 that an electric light replaced the kerosene lantern. This increased the candle-power of the light from 42,000 candles to 350,000. During World War II, the lighthouse became strategically important for national defense and the U. S. Coast Guard began patrolling the shores. The Coast Guard assumed responsibility for the beacon in 1946 and automated the light in 1958 with the installation of an electric time clock. No longer did the keeper have to climb the 87 winding stairs. In 1969 the light fixture was replaced with a modern 300-millimeter plastic lens. It projects a flashing green signal every six seconds and is visible for 11 nautical miles.
Governor George Voinovich assumed ownership of the nine acre grounds and the lighthouse for the state of Ohio in 1998 and it became the 73rd state park. This season It opened for the first time on May 27, and we and our daughter-in-law Cindy were among the visitors. The roller coasters of Cedar Point were easily visible from the observation deck, and if it had been a clear day we could have seen Perry’s Monument.
The lower floor of the keeper’s house is a museum. There you can see a replica of the bulb changer which automatically rotates and places a new bulb in place of one that has burned out. Also you can find paintings and photographs of the lighthouse for sale, and a painting of the Edmund Fitzgerald and of other shipwrecks in the Great Lakes. A commercial fishing trap and other fishing equipment is also on view.
Visitors from Tiffin can travel State Route 53 to Port Clinton and then turn east on Route 163 past the roads to Catawba Island and East Harbor State Park out to the point. The circle route around the Marblehead peninsula is very pleasant.
– Mary and Percy