It was Radzak who, in 1985, began the annual tradition of lighting the lantern on Nov. Reportedly they were so loud up close that they would knock people to their knees if they were foolish enough to walk in front of them. Using a gas-powered air compressor the horns could be heard 5 miles away. On days when they couldn't see, they sounded the foghorns. The 252 cut-glass prisms in the lens focused the light into a 7-foot beam visible for 22 miles. The keepers lit the lens with a kerosene lamp to warn ships away from the rocky shore. "But we were fortunate that they knew it would be protected by the state of Minnesota so they left it in place and we still have it here now." "Usually the Coast Guard pulls all the working apparatus out of a lighthouse when it is retired," he said. The Minnesota Historical Society took over the lighthouse after the Coast Guard decommissioned it in 1969.Īt the top of the lighthouse is what Radzak calls Split Rock's crown jewel - a huge Fresnel lens made by French glassworkers. There's 50 people standing there listening to you talk, or climbing the steps to the lighthouse.' " "And then you want to say, 'Look behind you. "If my wife and I are sitting on the front porch they say, 'Do you live here?' Yes. "My wife and I just got married a couple of months earlier and we were ripe for a change so it worked out great."įor lighthouse lovers - and apparently there are a lot - Split Rock seems to evoke solitude, at least based on the questions Radzak has fielded again and again. People marvel at the lighthouse standing sentinel on the 160-foot cliff looking out across the breathtaking expanse of Lake Superior. Split Rock has been drawing visitors since the 1920s, when Highway 61 opened. Lee Radzak, who will retire Friday after 36 years at the iconic Split Rock Lighthouse on Lake Superior's North Shore, might argue there are few jobs that people misconceive more. There may be few occupations considered more romantic than being a lighthouse keeper. Radzak is retiring after 36 years as the longest-serving manager of the iconic Minnesota lighthouse. Lee Radzak looks over the Lake Superior at Split Rock Lighthouse located near Two Harbors, Minn.
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