Upon the onset of our mission to preserve the historic Keepers’ Quarters on Middle Island, there was a
humble beginning. The keepers’ dwelling had just been purchased from the United States Government in
July of 1989. There was little upkeep of the structure because Middle Island lighthouse had been
unmanned since October 11, 1961. The property was deeded over to Alpena County in 1973 but little was
done until the mid 1980s. There were hopes for the county to make this historic site a park for the general
public to enjoy. Around the year 1985, a preservation group had begun to tidy up the keepers’ quarters;
however, they soon realized the magnitude of the project. For lack of funds and to keep my story short, the
property was given back to the U.S. Government by the county. The federal government was now going to
sell the property to the general public via the highest bidder. On July 12th 1989, the last sealed auction
bids were taken for the the light station buildings (excluding the lighthouse). The buildings and 7.7 acres
that encompass them, were awarded to auction bid winner, Marvin J. Theut of Romeo, Michigan.
Marvin knew the buildings were in poor shape by the way they appeared from the water. He did not know;
however, the extent of interior damage because he did not wish to trespass on government property.
After an expeditionary carpenter crew went to the island to measure window openings, he got a dismal
report. The carpenters, that measured the broken-up windows, saw the damage years of weather had done
to the hard wood floors. The window jambs, trim and sashes were also in poor condition. Some of the
windows had been boarded up before but many of boards were missing or letting rain and snow get by.
Vandals had relentlessly broken into the building throughout the many years it was left unattended. The
walls were beat up and furnishings were absent. Also missing were most of the interior doors and all of the
door knobs. The desecration of the building, caused by the elements, needed to be stopped.
This brings me to the day we started to preserve the historically significant Middle Island Keepers’
Quarters. We started the preservation of the building by sealing the window and door openings with
orientated strand board (OSB). At the time, I was seventeen years old. When I was a senior in high school,
I wrote a short story of my experiences that day. I will rewrite the story, attempting to further describe the
setting, characters, and other components of the dialogue as the teacher indicated I should have done. I
hope you enjoy the story of our humble beginning with little experience on Lake Huron.
One dreary day, in August of 1989, we ventured out into mammoth Lake Huron. The sky was overcast and it
was raining in the form of a constant sprinkle. The wind was calm and the water was smooth; which I would
think was typical of a mid-summer day. I had a job to do on Middle Island, which lays about two and a half
miles off shore of Rockport Harbor on the mainland. Rockport Harbor is approximately half way between
the City of Alpena and Presque Isle Harbor, Michigan. The task, for that day, was to board up some window
openings on an abandoned United States Coast Guard building. This building is located on Middle Island’s
northeastern shore. This building was/is called the keepers’ quarters. The building housed the keepers of
the Middle Island lighthouse and their families. The crew I was going to work with that day consisted of
three other men. My brother, who was six years older than me, was going in his own boat. His boat was a
thirteen foot long aluminum rowboat powered with a Johnson 9.9 horsepower outboard motor. The brown
painted boat had an orange stripe running the length of it. The two other men I did not know nearly as
well. John, who I had seen a couple of times before, was a former employee for my father. John had short
brown hair and a strong, wiry frame, which is typical of someone that does a lot of carpentry and outdoor
jobs. Like many carpenters, John liked his Budweiser at the end of the day. So, he had a bit of a gut. The
third and final man was John’s friend, Brian, who was also familiar with carpentry work. Brian was a bit
more young and agile looking then John. The two of them were happy to be doing an easy job that was
different than what they were used. Plus, this job was in a beautiful setting. John, Brian and I were in a
larger, seventeen foot, fiberglass, open-bow boat. This boat had an eighty five horsepower Johnson
outboard motor on it. The type of boat you would expect to see running about in a small inland lake pulling
a skier or a tuber. Today our boat was pulling a twelve foot aluminum rowboat, heavily loaded with precut
particle board and some carpentry tools.
We put our boat in at Rockport Harbor were there was a ramp to launch the fiberglass boat by trailer. After
launching the boat, I slowly steered it out of the narrow outlet and into open water. There was a little fog
but the water looked practically like glass. We must have thought that the fog would clear because there
was no apprehension about finding our way back. Halfway between the island and mainland we met my
brother in his smaller boat. Mark left the mainland from a couple miles to the south. Although Mark had
some weight in his rowboat, the one we were towing had about twice the load. We all had life jackets on
because the lake, even though calm, was still only about 65 degrees. We took our time and arrived in front
of the light station on the northeastern shore. The larger boat I was piloting had to be anchored in deeper
water so it would not bounce off the rocks if the waves should increase. Mark took John, Brian, and I, one
at a time, to the island’s shore. Mark’s boat could be pulled right up onto shore. We didn’t even have to
get wet.
The shore has a steep embankment of broken up limestone formed by the many years the powerful waves
and ice slammed against the shore. The hardest part of our job was getting the boards and tools up to the
keepers’ quarters which is a rocky twenty foot climb with another three hundred foot bumpy walk after
that. The keepers’ quarters is situated in the center of the light station. The lighthouse is 375 feet to the
southeast and the fog signal building is in line about 200 feet to the Northwest. All the buildings are
connected by concrete sidewalks. The former owner of these buildings, the United States Coast Guard, did
not secure or maintain the buildings for almost twenty eight years, leaving a playground for vandals and
kids. Inside the keepers’ quarters the plaster was falling off from the high humidity levels. The most
malicious of vandals had shot 22 caliber bullets through many of the light fixtures, probably from outside.
We felt good because we were going to prevent more damage by getting the boards up today. Mark and I
handed John and Brian the pre cut boards to be put up. While on ladders, John and Brian hollered to Mark
and I what sizes they needed. While we were measuring, John and Brian were screwing the boards into
place. When we counted the boards, we found out that we were six short. It was decided that John and I
would go back to the mainland and get the missing boards while Mark and Brian continued to install the
boards that were already there. We took the bigger boat because we wanted to get back in a hurry before
Mark and John finished screwing in the boards they had. We got the missing boards and were back to the
island in forty five minutes. We even had time to pick up some snacks. On our way back, we noticed the
waves were a little bigger but thought nothing of it. All the boards were initially cut to the right size and no
further cutting was done that day. We got our job done so quickly, we decided to take a walk and explore
the very old life saving station on the other side of the island.
About an hour later, after we had checked out what was to be seen at the life saving station, we ventured
back to the north shore. To our surprise, the waves were now 3-5 feet in height and the trees were
swaying in the wind along the island’s shore. Without haste, we made the 1/3 mile hike to our boats along
the shore. We quickly loaded our boats and began to make our way from the shore. Mark brought me to
the big boat. Brian and Mark were going to ride in the powered rowboat, while John was going to ride in
the small rowboat I was towing. John and Brian were horsing around, pushing on each others’ boat. The
waves at this time had to be all of four feet tall and were crashing on the shore as we were trying to get
through them. Only a minute after we started off, we decided to turn around because it looked too rough.
After turning my boat, I looked back. The boat I was towing was nowhere to be seen. As quickly as a wave
came, John’s boat had sunk. All that could now be seen was John in the water with a panicked look on his
face. We were in the surf zone and wave after wave tossed our boats around. John had prescription
glasses on and could not see clearly because of the water splashing him in the face. To make matters
worse, John had on heavy work boots and even though he had a life jacket on, he felt as though he was
sinking. Mark and Brian were close to John, so they tried to get close enough to pick him out of the water.
They were unsuccessful. Mark couldn’t keep up with the maneuvering needed to counter the relentless
waves. The water was violent, we were all scared. I yelled to Mark that I would try and back up to John with
my boat and help him out by the transom (stern). Mark told me to take his oar and give one end to John. I
took the oar from Mark and slowly backed my boat towards John’s bobbing head. John looked terrified and
I couldn’t blame him. John was yelling that he couldn’t see anything. I put the engine in neutral and
without hesitating, went to the back of the boat with oar in hand. I told John to take the oar. I quickly
pulled John to the transom where the motor is. He struggled to grab hold of transom at first. Once he got
hold and partially raised himself up, I was able to help him the rest of the way in. He was happy to be
aboard. We didn’t waste any time anchoring the bigger boat in somewhat shallow water. Shortly after I got
John out of the water, Mark took Brian to shore. I asked John if he wanted to swim for shore. He
immediately replied, “No I would not!” He was still shook up. We signaled Mark to pick us up by waving our
arms. As soon as Mark got into deep enough water to start his motor, he gave it a pull. He no sooner put
it into gear when his boat dipped into a breaking wave. His boat now lied in shallow water and was full of
water. “Well,” I told John, “now we have no choice, we have to swim for it.” We jumped from the stern of
the boat and were relieved to land upon an outcropping of rock where our feet could touch. We now felt
safe.
Once out of the water, we were now thinking of the best place to get warm and dry. The keepers’ quarters
was sealed up tight and the only other good shelter, we thought, was the fog signal building. After we
made it to the building, all of us talked at once. John explained how he thought he would drown because
water rushed into his boots and made it hard to swim. If not for the life jacket, he would have been done
for. He was grateful I was able to get to him. Mark couldn’t believe how fast it got rough. After we all
calmed down a bit, we looked around for some wood and a place to start a fire. We finally got one lit in an
old wheelbarrow behind the chimney stack. The three foot-square chimney was not wide enough to stop
the wind blowing through the open windows and doors of the former fog signal building. Smoke was
blowing in our eyes and it was hard to stay close enough to the fire to dry off. We kept looking at the boat
outside to see how it was doing. The waves were getting bigger and bigger, smashing into the bow of the
boat. The anchor had a firm grip but the anchor line was much too short to withstand the jerking motion of
the boat. Finally, the anchor line snapped. The boat was soon on the rocks and waves were filling it with
water. We appeared to be stranded with no way back to the mainland!
Somebody had said that we were going to be there awhile, so we might as well take off one of the boards to
the keepers’ quarters. We can try to get a fire going in there. We then went over to the southeastern side
of the house and took off one of the boards we put on only a few hours before. John examined the inside
of the fireplace chimney flue with a lighter to make sure it would be safe to light a fire. The inside of the
flue looked good. We started a fire, thoroughly dried off and finally warmed up. There was no more wind to
hassle us. We found a couch and some chairs to sit on. The others joked around while I sat there,
nauseated, from the smoke I inhaled in the fog signal building.
My parents were expecting us to be back a couple of hours ago, so we knew they would be worried. We
must have only been sitting there for an hour, when out of the blue, we hear a loud ship’s horn. John ran
to the door and said, “Oh my God, it’s a coast guard boat!” Sure enough it was. It just stayed stationary
about three hundred yards off shore. It was rather impressive to all of us. Perhaps, it was 120 feet in
length. I had never seen a U.S. Coast Guard boat so close before. We all waved to them but after some
thought, realized they weren’t going to pick us up. The water was too rough and they didn’t have a smaller
boat to come ashore. By now the northeast wind was blowing six to eight foot waves that were crashing
into the shore. Even the large coast guard vessel you could notice dipping down and bobbing up from
time to time. So, we went inside because we felt they knew we were here but couldn’t do anything for us.
We couldn’t have been sitting there for more than twenty minutes when we heard a low pitched thumping
noise. It sounded like a helicopter. We went out onto the porch but couldn’t see it. Thirty seconds later
we heard it again. It was circling us! An orange and white coast guard helicopter, the size of a bus, passed
by the front of the house at about eighty feet! It was looking for a place to land. We were going home!
The helicopter had carefully landed in front of the house. The wheels were adjusted to meet the contour of
the land below. We were greeted by the coast guard personnel who asked us several questions. They
asked us our weight, age, etc. to make exactly sure we were the people they were looking for. We all got
into the monstrous aircraft. Even though they gave us earmuffs, it was loud when we left the ground! It
was a smooth, comfortable ride. We passed right over our cottage from a low altitude. We soon were at
Alpena Regional Airport. It was a fun trip: however, it was time to face reality…….. my dad.
My humble beginning on middle island
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