Strawberries and Keepers

Michigan gets its feet wet in four of the five Great Lakes, including Superior, Michigan, Huron, and Erie.  Our 3,288 mile shoreline — which includes 1,056 miles of island shore, and in length is second only to that of Alaska — resulted in Michigan having more lighthouses than any other state in the Union.  We also had more female lighthouse keepers than any other state.

Over a period of 100 years Michigan was blessed with fifty women who tended the navigational aids on the Great Lakes and the Detroit River.  "From Catherine Shook, who raised eight children while maintaining the Pointe Aux Barques light at the entrance to Saginaw Bay; to Eliza Truckey, who assumed responsibility for the lighthouse in Marquette [in the Upper Peninsula] while her husband fought for four years in the Civil War; to Elizabeth Whitney, whose combined service on Beaver Island and in Harbor Springs totaled forty-one years — the stories of Michigan's 'ladies of the light' are inspiring." (University of Michigan Press)

One of those women keepers was Presque Isle's own Anna Garrity.  Daughter of Patrick and Mary Garrity, who kept both the Old and New Lights for nearly 40 years, Anna became keeper of the Harbor Range Lights in 1903 and held that position for two decades.  In the "man's world" of lighthouse keeping, Anna and her colleagues were trailblazers.

That story has been told by Patricia Majher, former director of the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame in Lansing, in Ladies of the Lights: Michigan Women in the U.S. Lighthouse Service.  Ms. Majher also developed the Ladies of the Lights traveling exhibit which this month will be in residence at the New Presque Isle Lighthouse.  The author herself will be here on Saturday, July 19, to give a talk and sign copies of her book.

I have six quarts of berries to prepare, plus shortcake.
This will keep me busy all afternoon!

The exhibit opens tomorrow, July 4.  This evening the Presque Isle Township Museum Society is offering its members an exclusive preview.  We hope this will help members recognize how vital their support is to the Museum Society, which operates Presque Isle's two lighthouse parks and its museum.  We hope, too, that these members-only events will attract new members.  In August or September, for example, we plan to offer a "moonlight lighthouse climb" during the full moon, weather permitting.

My contribution to tonight's preview is strawberry shortcake for... who knows?!  Maybe 5 people.  Maybe 50 people.  Oh, well, what I don't use, I'll freeze.  Or eat.... •••