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CRISP POINT LIGHT

HISTORICAL SOCIETY Newsletter 54 April 2018

450 W. Marr Road, Howell, Michigan 48855

Rick (517) 230-6294 or email: cplhs@sbcglobal.net Website: www.crisppointlighthouse.org

Editor: Jamie Rolfe jamie.rolfe27@gmail.com (616) 204-1729

CPLHS Facebook group page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/crisppointlighthouse/

May 25-28, 2018: CPLHS Family Camp Weekend

By Cameron Lovett

This is a CPLHS members only family camping weekend. All CPLHS members

are welcome to attend and set up your camp for the weekend. This is the

only time each year we allow open camping to members. There will be some

active projects you can help with if you desire. If you plan on attending

please e-mail or call Rick Brockway to let him know (cplhs@sbcglobal.net or

517-230-6294).

Friendly Reminder: Please let us know when there is an address change. We do resend to new

addresses when we can find them but this process takes time and requires additional funds.

Your attention to this is greatly appreciated.

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“CRUISING”

By Shelley Guy

The great Crisp Point cruise of 2018 is now in the history book,

filled with fun, laughter, friends, and memories made with many

stories to be told. I knew from the first moment that I heard about

this cruise that I wanted to go so I told my family. My daughters,

Stephanie Schepper, (Keego Harbor) and Stacilyn Wolters

(Holland), wanted to have this adventure with their Mom. Next, we

knew that Aunt Carolyn DeBoer and friend Ronda Bruursema of

Zeeland wanted to join the fun and excitement of planning. So, in

the upcoming months the “Fabulous Five” began planning the fun.

The four of us from Zeeland decided to drive after working all day

to New Orleans. We left town at 7:30 PM and off we went. Things

were going well until we got south of Memphis, TN when the

heavy heavy downpour of rain really slowed us down but it was much warmer. We had to pull off several

times at truck stops and wait for the rain to ease up. That didn’t dampen our adventurous spirit. We arrived in

New Orleans; gassed the car and purchased refreshments for the hotel suite. Stephanie arrived an hour later

from the airport and the fun and laughter continued. We spent Friday night checking out Bourbon Street, Sat-

urday we secured a ride on the electric trolley to view the cemetery tour (on our own), checked out the Pan-

cake House (oldest in New Orleans), did some shopping, and back to the French Quarters for food and re-

freshments via of an Uber (another first for us)!! We listened to several bands and danced away. Stephanie

ordered a buggy/bicycle for Aunt Carolyn and Ronda to ride back to the hotel! Now it wasn’t the refresh-

ments that they were partaking in, it was Carolyn’s bad ankle and given the streets and sidewalks have lots of

missing pieces! We discussed going on a bayou cruise and made reservations for Sunday. We totally looked

like ‘real’ tourist when arriving as we had shorts and sandals on for a rainy 62 degrees, thank goodness Ma-

ma had blankets in the car! That was the best two and half hour cruise, taking in the bayou, the “camps”

along the river edge and ones that were falling in, the alligators came in all sizes, the feral pigs were nasty

looking, not to mention mean looking.

So Monday morning came along and we felt that we should be heading home, NOT, but called the New Orle-

ans vacation #1

and #2 was just

ahead of us. The

fun was only go-

ing to intensify.

Sitting in this

huge terminal

waiting to board

the ship we talked

to a couple who

was on their 17th

cruise and re-

ceived some great

tips. In walks the

rest of the Crisp

Point cruisers.

Photos courtesy of: Rick Brockway and Shelley Guy

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The cruise was much more than we ever thought! The ship was huge, just

learning our way was a challenge, somehow we did find the refreshment bar

without any trouble!!! The crew were awesome and very helpful, our rooms

were larger than I had thought, now the food, well, it was more than awesome,

fantastic, and delicious! Our evening meal was somewhat formal as it was a

time to enjoy other Crisp Point attendees tell about their day while dining on the

delicious food with the wait staff who were great.

We ported two different times. The first in Cozumel, where my daughters

planned a snorkeling trip with a catamaran ride. The second stop was Progres-

so, where we took a quad/jeep and my girls drove some thirty miles to visit the

salt fields, the Mayan ruins, and landed on a beautiful beach resort for lunch, a

swim, and walking the beach collecting shells.

In conclusion, there are many more stories to be told. The “Fab Five” personal-

ly has not stopped talking about all the fun, food, and fellowship we had on this

first Crisp Point Cruise.

Stacilyn getting a fish pedicure

Presenters/Guest Speakers Needed By Shelley Guy

We are not having our annual conference in July this year, as the Great Lakes Lighthouse conference

will be held in Paradise at that time, I am searching/looking for one or two names of people who might

want to talk at our 2019 conference. That date will be Saturday, July 20, 2019. They could speak on any

topic pertaining to Crisp Point Lighthouse, anything having to do with the area, or the "big" ships that

pass the area. It could even be one of our keepers and their experiences and how they became ac-

quainted with Crisp Point. Maybe you might know of someone who would be willing and could pass

their name on to me. For more information, please contact me via of phone 616.994.3144 or email me

at hdbluedevil@chartermi.net

Ink Cartridge Recycling

If you have empty printer ink cartridges, please think of donating them to CPLHS. We can save up to $400 a year

by turning them in to be recycled. The money is used to purchase office supplies, along with paper towels, toilet

paper and cleaning supplies for the Visitor Center. Mail them to Rick at the address on the front page, or drop

them off at the Visitor Center in warmer weather.

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2018 Michigan Light House Festival

Hi everyone, have you marked your calendars for the 2018 Michigan Light-

house Festival being held in Paradise Michigan the first weekend in August

yet?

The event will feature the three area lighthouses, Crisp Point Lighthouse,

Whitefish Point Lighthouse and the Point Iroquois Lighthouse.

Friday night we will kick off the Festival in Brimley with a Dinner and Con-

cert featuring the Gordon Lightfoot Tribute.

Saturday and Sunday there will be activities at each of the lighthouses as

well as the Whitefish Township Community Center in Paradise.

On Saturday and Sunday at 12:30 pm we will have a speaker at Crisp Point

that will present: Crisp Point: MORE THAN JUST A BEACON OF

LIGHT. Our speaker, Neal Lockwood, will present the History and Stories

of the Crisp Point Lighthouse area including Culhane and Bodi Lakes.

Saturday evening at the WFT Community Center from 7:00 to 9:00 pm, The

Crisp Point Light Historical Society and the Great Lakes Shipwreck Histori-

cal Society will co/host a Free Music Event (donations accepted). The Music

Event will Featuring the Mighty Hiawatha Band who prides themselves with

a high energetic variety of music. They play old country to newer country,

classic rock and a little blues to boot. There are 5 members in the group who

are all well rounded musicians with years of entertaining under their belt.

Greg Vieau plays lead guitar and vocals as well as other instruments. Greg

grew up in music and played since a young boy. Ron Vieau plays drums and

also grew up in and around music since a young boy. Dan Price plays lead

guitar and vocals and also grew up in the music life and has been playing in

various bands for many years. Jane Price plays Bass, keyboards and guitar

and vocals as well. The Band strives to put forth GREAT music and sounds

that every one of all ages will enjoy.

For more information and times please visit the Festival web site at:http://

www.michiganlighthousefestival.com/index.html

Hope to see you all there.

Note: if you plan on making Hotel or Camping reservations you need to do

them ASAP. This is a very busy time of year in the Paradise area and there

is another event scheduled for that weekend.

By Rick Brockway

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Merchandise is available through our

website:

www.crisppointlighthouse.org

Clare-Gladwin RESD Students

Produce Candles for CPLHS

This year Ms. Galliher’s classroom at the Clare-Gladwin Area School in

Clare, Michigan started making Crisp Point candles for our Visitor Cen-

ter Gift Shop at the lighthouse and for our fundraising page on

our web site. The Area School serves students in Clare and Gladwin

counties who are eligible to receive services under the categories of

moderate and severe cognitive impairments, severe multiple impair-

ments, autism spectrum disorders and traumatic brain injuries. Crisp

Point Light Historical Society provides the wax, colors, scents, wick, a

Crisp Point Light mold, and other supplies for the students to use in

making these candles. With the help of their teacher and paraprofes-

sionals and under their supervision, the students were taught how to

melt down the wax, add colors or scents if needed, place the wick in the mold, attach a metal wick holder at the

bottom of the candle, pour the wax into the mold, and remove the candle once the wax has cooled. We think the

students are doing a great job making the candles and we appreciate their help! Also, thank you to Jerald Moore

and other volunteers that have been involved in making the candles for us in the past!

On March 16, 2018, Crisp Point Light Historical Society members Carl Jahn, Marcia Jahn, and Cameron Lovett gave a

presentation to the students about Crisp Point Lighthouse that included why lighthouses were built and that many

are being restored and preserved. Students were given a Michigan Lighthouse Guide (which is also available for

purchase on the fundraising page of our website) which is a map of all of the lighthouses in Michigan and infor-

mation about them, a Crisp Point Light brochure, and other lighthouse handouts to take home. The Jahns also

brought with them miniature examples of the different types of Fresnel lighthouse lenses and other lighthouse re-

lated items for the students to view.

Some examples of candles made by the students at the Clare-Gladwin Area School

Story by: Cameron Lovett Photos by: Ms. Galliher

Students intently listen to CPLHS Member Carl Jahn speak about light-houses. Carl was dressed in an authentic lighthouse keepers uniform. Some questions asked by the students during

the presentation were “How far away is Crisp Point Lighthouse?” and “How many light-

houses are there in Michigan?”.

Continued on page 6

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THE CANDLEMAKING STEPS:

A student adds water to a heating unit to make a wa-

ter bath for the wax. A student adds wax to

be melted. A student stirs the wax

while it is being heated to ensure uniform heating of

the wax.

The wick is inserted into the candle mold.

The two halves of the mold are secured together.

The wick is cut from the roll prior to adding the

melted wax into the mold.

A metal wick holder is added to the bottom of the candle. The holder is removed after the wax cools and reused for

the next candle.

The melted wax is care-fully poured into the

mold.

The wax has to cool inside the

mold. The final trimming of the

candle wick on the bottom of the candle.

The two halves of the mold are ready to be taken apart.

The two halves of the mold are taken apart and behold, an or-ange Crisp Point Light candle

appears!

The last step, a student adds a little bit of love to the candle.

We just received another batch of Crisp Point Lighthouse candles from the classroom at the Clare-Gladwin RESD Area School in Clare, MI that has agreed to make these for us this year. We provide the wax and supplies and they provide the people power and TLC! We think the students have been doing an outstanding job with these. The colors so far have been very vi-brant! They will be available at the lighthouse visitor center later this year once it opens for the season and are currently available on our fundraising web site at http://www.crisppointlighthouse.org/itemsviapaypal.html for $5 each. For more info about the Clare-Gladwin Area School, see their web site here: https://www.cgresd.net/Page/97.

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Crisp Point Web Site and Facebook Update

By Cameron Lovett

The Crisp Point Light Historical Society web site is a great place to get information about Crisp Point 24

hours a day, 7 days a week. Some things we have on the web site are a brochure request form, a down-

loadable brochure (includes a map on the back), driving directions, history, volunteer keeper schedule and

information on how to become a volunteer keeper, events schedule, information on how you can help

Crisp Point, fundraiser items order form, newsletter archives, area lodging and restaurant information,

photos, videos, related links, and much more! Check it out at http://www.crisppointlighthouse.org!

In January 2018, we were able to find a photo of Second Assistant Lighthouse Keeper Lloyd Robins. The

photo also included his wife Gertrude and son Clarence. The Forest Hill Cemetery / Duluth Cemetery As-

sociation also shared a photo of his family’s grave marker with us. Both are now featured on our web site

on Lloyd’s page at http://www.crisppointlighthouse.org/robins.html. We are hoping to get a photo of

Lloyd’s grave marker in the spring when all the snow is gone. Some interesting facts we learned from re-

searching about Lloyd this winter, are that his son Clarence ended up working for the US Coast Guard and

became a lighthouse keeper. Apparently lighthouse keeping was contagious in the Robins family!

As many of you may know, we also have two Facebook pages. One is a group page (Crisp Point Light His-

torical Society at https://www.facebook.com/groups/crisppointlighthouse) and the other is a regular page

(Crisp Point Lighthouse at https://www.facebook.com/crisppointlighthouse). As of 1/28/18, our group

page had 2,380 members and our regular page had 2,720 follows and 2,763 likes. One recent change to

Facebook Group Pages is the ability to ask three questions to people who are asking to become members

of the group page. This is another tool for us to be able to pre-screen Facebook accounts before we allow

people to become a member of our Facebook group page. Sometimes it can be difficult to know which

are spam/bot accounts and which are real people. So if you haven’t become a member of our Facebook

group page yet and you click on the button to join, please answer the three questions to help us know you

are a real person. The questions are: 1) How did you hear about Crisp Point Light Historical Society? 2)

Have you visited our web site at www.crisppointlighthouse.org? 3) Have you visited Crisp Point Light-

house? Accounts that we cannot rule out as potential spam/bot accounts will not be allowed to join.

County Road 412 Repair

Through a generous donation from a Lifetime Member of the CPLHS designated for road repair, the CPLHS has entered into an agreement with the Luce County Road Com-mission to have some work done on the last two miles of CR-412 leading to Crisp Point Lighthouse. This work is scheduled for late May into early June and is weather depend-ent. There may be some periods of road closure during this construction. Please check our Facebook Page for updates or call if you plan on visiting during this period. This work will not effect the CPLHS Family Camping Weekend.

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Support Opportunities for Crisp Point Lighthouse

In addition to the support Crisp Point has been re-ceiving through the E-Bay Giving Fund program, we can now receive support from Amazon.com and the Kroger Company, Kroger.com. Whenever you shop at Amazon.com just log into the site using this new web address: www.smile.amazon.com. You will need to select the Crisp Point Light Historical Society as the Non-profit Group you support and shop as you normally would. For each qualifying purchase a small portion will be directed to the Crisp Point Light Historical Society to help with the restoration projects at Crisp Point. All the Michigan Kroger Stores with the exception of the Lambertville and Sturgis stores are participating in the Kroger Community Rewards Program. If you have and use a Kroger Rewards Card, you can now support Crisp Point Lighthouse every time you use your card. Please note Kroger Community Rewards starts fresh every May 1st, so you will have to re-sign up each April 1st to support the program. If you already have a Kroger Card, simply register your card online at krogercommunityrewards.com. The Crisp Point Light Historical Society Non-Profit Num-ber is: 67149 If you do not have a Rewards Card please consider getting one when you shop at Kroger’s and then register CPLHS as the Non-Profit you would like to support.

If you are not already participating in the PayPal Giving Fund when you are selling items on E-Bay please consider doing so. Please visit: http://charity.ebay.com/charity-auctions/charity/crisp-point-light-historical-society/42940/ to get start-ed selling and supporting Crisp Point Lighthouse.

Visitor Center Donation Sherolyn Smith

Ron & Andrea Shafer

Ronald & Kathryn Marvin

Carl & Marcia Jahn

Carl & Nancy Cornwell

Yvonne Brown

Thomas & Tonya Stanforth

Welcome New Members

Nan & Fred Gaunt - Newberry, MI

Linda & Morris Johnson - Chelsea, MI

Elizabeth & James Frank - Homosassa, FL

Sharrie Steinbach - Cedarville, MI

Jon & Mary Klever - Bowling Green, OH

Ken Rouston - Grayling, MI

Susan Boynton - Grosse Pointe, MI

Kerry Laycock & Barbara Bushey - Hillsdale, MI

Ronald Kemp - Alcoa, TN

Rodney & Judy Carbary - Lewiston, MI

Dorothy Shephard - Haslett, MI

David Heitz - Grand Rapids

Ellen & Al Lasky - Sterling Heights, MI

Joseph & Harriet Moulder - Otsego, MI

William Ramsey - St Johns, FL

Tim Zink - Ft. Wayne, IN

Daryl George - Westlake, OH

Sharon Lesperance - Trenton, MI

Sandra Greig - Westland, MI

Todd & Laurie Strauss - Central Lake, MI

Carolyn DeBoer - Zeeland, MI

Jeff & Lin Sanborn - Caledonia, MI

Peggy Roth - Bannister, MI

Jena Priebe - South Pasadena, CA

Ed & Judy Duda - Goodrich, MI

Patricia Sanders - Clinton, MI

Danette Narregan - Three Oaks, MI

Michael & Teresa McGill - Central Lake, MI

Paul & Renee Peterson - Grand Marais, MI

Laurie Miller-Raven - Livonia, MI

Cynthia Piehler - Wyoming, MI

Jane Reagan - Williamston, MI

New Lifetime Members Richard & Molly Hoeg

Luke Schepper

Tad & Brenda Malpass