Keweenaw Land Trust - Voice for protection of land and water in the Western Upper Peninsula

* The first Maintou Island Lighthouse was built in 1850, and it was the third lighthouse to be built on Lake Superior. The lighthouse was built by Winslow Lewis. He was a former New England sea captain who built many lighthouses in the first half of the nineteenth century. His lighthouses were usually built with little money, resulting in poor quality structures. Perhaps this is why the lighthouse had to be rebuilt in 1861.

* One of Manitou Island's lighthouse keepers, Nathaniel Fadden, built a still on the island and made liquor, which he sold to the Native Americans. When the Lighthouse Board found out about it, they removed him from his post and he was put in jail.

* Even though Manitou Island was considered a "stag station" - a station where only a single male could live - keeper James Corgan's family lived at the station with him, and one woman keeper, Lydia Smith, served there from 1855-1856.

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