Qualla: Split Rock Lighthouse

Split Rock Lighthouse: Introduction

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ralph Russell Tinkham, Public domain. Every November 10, a light that has been officially retired since 1969 burns again. Split Rock Lighthouse, perched on a sheer 130-foot cliff along Minnesota's North Shore, rekindles its third-order Fresnel lens in memory of the 29 crewmembers of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, lost on Lake Superior on that date in 1975. It is a fitting gesture for a lighthouse that owes its own existence to catastrophe. The Mataafa Storm of November 1905 wrecked or damaged 29 ships across the lake, exposing the lethal gap in navigational aids along this stretch of basalt and iron coastline. The United States Lighthouse Service responded by commissioning engineer Ralph Russell Tinkham to build a light on one of the most inaccessible sites on Superior's shore. The result, completed in 1910 for $75,000, is now considered one of the most photographed lighthouses in America.

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Image: Ralph Russell Tinkham | Public domain

Split Rock Lighthouse: Built by Crane, Lit by Kerosene

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit A. E. Crane, U.S. Department of Transportation, Public domain. In 1909, the cliffs southwest of Silver Bay had no roads. Every brick, every steel beam, every sack of concrete arrived by boat and was hoisted to the clifftop by derrick crane. The octagonal tower that rose from that rock is a steel-framed brick structure on a concrete foundatio...

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Image: A. E. Crane, U.S. Department of Transportation | Public domain

Split Rock Lighthouse: Sirens, Diesel, and the Diaphone

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Noah Glynn, CC BY-SA 3.0. A lighthouse is only half the warning system; fog demands its own voice. Split Rock's fog signal building, adjacent to the tower, originally housed a pair of sirens powered by two Franklin gasoline-driven air compressors built by the Chicago Pneumatic Tool Company. In 1932, the g...

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Image: Noah Glynn | CC BY-SA 3.0

Split Rock Lighthouse: A Keeper's 37-Year Watch

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Myotus, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Minnesota Historical Society took stewardship of Split Rock in the 1970s, restoring the entire complex -- tower, fog signal building, oil house, and three keepers' dwellings -- to its appearance in the late 1920s. The site was designated a National Historic Landmark on June 3...

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Image: Myotus | CC BY-SA 4.0

Split Rock Lighthouse: The Light That Remembers

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The original uploader was Pmarkham at English Wikipedia., CC BY 2.5. Split Rock's retirement was never quite complete. The annual November 10 ceremony, honoring the Edmund Fitzgerald and all mariners lost on the Great Lakes, has become one of the most powerful traditions on Lake Superior. The Fitzgerald, a 729-foot ore carrier, sank in a storm rou...

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Image: The original uploader was Pmarkham at English Wikipedia. | CC BY 2.5