Duluth, Minnesota - September 18, 2000

Some of us look at an abandoned lighthouse ravaged by wind and water and we shake our heads and say, “Isn’t that a shame? What can be done?” But members of Crisp Point Light Historical Society looked at the decaying tower of one of the most endangered U.S. lighthouses and said, “Isn’t that a shame. What are WE going to do about it?” 

“The Crisp Point Light Historical Society has created a model for how to save the aging towers that once guided inland seafarers,” says Paul Hayden, editor of Lake Superior Magazine. “Using a potent mixture of elbow grease, determination and partnerships, society members are achieving the impossible with the lighthouse tower located near Paradise, Michigan. For its efforts, Lake Superior Magazine gives its 2000 Achievement Award to the Crisp Point Light Historical Society.” The Achievement Award is given to a community, organization or person who has made a lasting contribution to the whole of Lake Superior. The award has gone to international organizations, cooperating groups, cities and individuals.

About 300 members joined the historical society, which is shoring up shoreline at the lighthouse’s base (an attached building was lost). Last year members bleached and painted the 96-year-old, 58-foot-tall structure. This year they planted 90 pine trees to help reduce erosion and are raising funds for more work. The society has wooed local and national support from such partners as the Bay Mills and Sault Ste. Marie bands of Ojibway (which provided initial and crucial beach protection), the American Lighthouse Foundation (with the first grant to a light outside of New England), from other private donors and, in the biggest relief of all, from the Luce County Board, which agreed to fund - in partnership with the historical society - a seasonal road to make the lighthouse accessible for needed equipment and volunteers. The county owns the lighthouse and has arranged a 40-year lease to the society. 

The fight to save the Crisp Point Lighthouse is far from over and similar battles continue around Lake Superior by groups dedicated to save Grand Island’s East Channel Light in Michigan and at Raspberry and Outer islands in Wisconsin, among many others.

The award is announced in the current issue of Lake Superior Magazine, a full-color consumer publication issued six times a year in Duluth, Minnesota. The magazine is available by subscription, at newsstands and from the publisher's office at 325 Lake Avenue South, Suite 600, Duluth, Minnesota 55802. For more information, call 888-BIG LAKE (244-5253). www.lakesuperior.com/