The Toledo Harbor Lighthouse is in Lake Erie, about a few miles northeast of Toledo Harbor, so it’s difficult to get close enough to take a good photo of the building.
Getting a close-up photo of the lighthouse’s original Fresnel lens is a much easier task, as I discovered during my recent visit to Maumee Bay State Park Resort.
“Are you getting any good photos like that?”
A member of the lodge’s cleaning crew curiously asked me that question when she spotted me with my camera lens poised mere millimeters from the glass case protecting the large lens.
My new best friend, Ruth peered at the images I showed her in my camera’s tiny preview window as I explained liking the abstract view I got by moving in close to a subject and taking a photo of only part of it.
Ruth turned out to be a bit of a lighthouse fan herself, and we traded stories about our lighthouse travels.
I’d spotted the Toledo Harbor Lighthouse in the far distance as I took a walk earlier that day at the Maumee Bay State Park Nature Center.
Construction on the Toledo Harbor Lighthouse started in 1901, with the complex project completed in 1904.
The Army Corps of Engineers originally dredged the shipping channel at the harbor to accommodate large freighters traveling to Toledo at the dawn of the 20th century.
The Corps then created a foundation for the lighthouse by crafting an artificial island large enough for a brick lighthouse with enough room to house one keeper and two assistants, as well as a small fog signal building attached to the main building.
The lighthouse’s original 3-½ order Fresnel lens provided a beacon for Lake Erie travelers, even after becoming automated with an electric motor in 1966 and seeing the full-time Coast Guard crew leaving the lighthouse.
That departing crew left at least one costumed mannequin behind to make the lighthouse appear occupied. “Sarah” still stands guard in a second story window in the three-story lighthouse, and her presence may account for tales of ghost sightings over the years.
A more modern lens powered by solar cells and backup batteries replaced the original lens in the late 1990s, and the original went on display at the COSI Museum in Toledo.
By late 2007, the Toledo COSI closed due to lack of funding, leaving the lens seeking a new home (although Lucas County voters recently approved funding for the late 2009 opening of a new science center).
Also in 2007, the Toledo Harbor Lighthouse Preservation Society officially gained the deed to the lighthouse. The Society moved the Fresnel lens to the lobby of Maumee Bay State Park Resort in 2008, where I found it enclosed in a large glass case earlier this year.
Ruth told me the lens will stay in the lobby for five years before going back to the lighthouse, although I couldn’t find confirmation of that elsewhere.
The Society stages an annual Toledo Lighthouse Festival during the weekend after the Fourth of July at Maumee Bay State Park to raise money to preserve, restore and eventually make the lighthouse publically accessible.
A U.S. Department of Energy grant for $500,000 helps implement the Society’s plan to supplement the solar cells at the lighthouse with wind-generated energy and a geothermal heating and cooling system.
The Society raised another $40,000 to install an aluminum dock and ramp in late 2008 to facilitate public access, but the dock and ramp disappeared in April 2009.
The Society offered a reward seeking return of the dock and ramp to prevent delaying planned public visits and restoration of the lighthouse’s interior.
Sue at Lighthouse News speculated that the price of aluminum wasn’t enough to spur thieves to make the herculean effort to haul away the ramp and sell it for scrap, suggesting instead that the water surrounding the lighthouse might be deep enough to hide the dock and ramp from view if vandals simply cut the bolts attaching them to the lighthouse.
Sue’s speculation turned out to be spot on as she reported the ramp’s recovery in a July 2 blog post. Toledo Fire and Rescue and Jerusalem Township divers found the 40-foot, 1,200-pound ramp in slightly damaged, but still serviceable, condition. The 8-foot by 28-foot dock is still missing.
Meanwhile, the Society plans to enhance security measures at the lighthouse this year.
© Dominique King 2009 All rights reserved
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