Volunteering for the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore can create once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Cynthia Howk spent the summer of 1986 on Outer Island as part of the Volunteers in Parks (VIP) program of the National Park Service. She documented her experiences on Outer Island in a series of letters to friends, recently rediscovered by her brother Neil, who worked as a ranger in the park at the time, and who currently serves on the Friends of the Apostle Islands board of directors. Cynthia’s letters provide some fascinating insights into the life of a volunteer four decades ago.

6/13/86

Greetings,

I’m writing this from my summer vacation spot in Wisconsin. You won’t believe what I’ve managed to do this year. I’m working for the National Park Service for the month of June as a volunteer-in-park bald eagle observer/acid rain collector on Outer Island in Apostle Islands National Lakeshore! I’m stationed on the most remote (20 miles off the mainland) of the 22 Apostle Islands along the south shore of Lake Superior.

I’ve been out here since June 2, although the planning for all this dates back to March when I found out I had a lot of vacation time to use by the end of June. I submitted my volunteer application and in April I got a call from the park ecologist offering me this position. I couldn’t believe my luck.

This is absolutely paradise! It combines so many ‘fantasies” all in one…1) being alone on an island, 2) living on a bluff by a lake, and 3) studying wildlife in the field. (I’ve been reading about Jane Goodall studying animals in the wild all these years.) Most of the time I’m alone on the 7-mile by 2-mile island except for occasional visits by park staff, researchers, or intrepid/crazy sailors who wander out this far into the lake.

I keep in touch with park headquarters with a 5-watt radio. I check in each morning at 8:05 am during “morning round-up” when all park staff in the islands report weather, work plans, etc. It’s a learning experience.

Speaking of work, as it turns out, this position isn’t all sun-bathing and reading trashy novels! Because of a lack of volunteers, I was told on my first day that, “oh by the way, you’re going to be the lighthouse keeper too!” When they dropped me off on the island, I got a 10 minute crash course from the maintenance foreman on “machinery 101” including operating/fueling/oiling a 15-horsepower diesel engine, a winch, a water pump (brings water from the lake), power and riding lawn mowers, changing propane tanks, firing-up the gas stove and refrigerator, and working the mechanical tramway (“donkey cart”) that hosts gear, etc. up the 97 steps from the dock to the top of the bluff. Just call me “Molly Mechanic”. I love having to be so self-reliant. If something goes wrong, you’ve got to figure it out – maintenance can’t run out to fix it. A storm buried the pump on Wednesday so I’m hauling water in buckets from the lake and up the tramway, then boiling it to prevent Giardia.

6/18/86

I’ve had some “residents” here in recent days. Two college interns (a photographer and a biologist studying purple loosestrife in the park) and two researchers looking for potential sites for white pine and hemlock reproduction – a pet project of the park superintendent who’d like to return more of the “virgin timber” species to the park, as little is left due to intense logging from the late 1800’s through the 1940s.

Yesterday the Wisconsin DNR eagle banding team came to the island with the park ecologist and Karin Kozie, the grad student who’s been studying the Outer Island eagles for the past two summers. There are three active eagle nests in the park. Outer Island has just one eaglet while Devils Island and York Island nests each have two eaglets. The Outer Island nest had its first successful eaglet in 1983 – after no baby eagles in the park since 1966. Karin, the two eagle banders and I bushwhacked to the nest a half mile south of the lighthouse going through dense undergrowth, thickets of Canada yew, and crossing two beaver dams with precarious footing. What a workout! The nest tree is a magnificent white pine, approximately 100 feet tall and five to six feet wide at the base. The nest is 90 feet up, but you can’t see much from the woodland floor. The mosquitoes were unbelievable! Karin and I put our hoods up and hid our hands in our jacket sleeves but felt like we were being eaten alive.

While one eagle bander climbed the tree, we checked around its base and the base of two nearby perch trees for food remnants, feathers, etc. The entire time we were there, “mother” eagle circled around overhead making her “alarm” call – a strange sound I’d never expected: a sort of clicking, squeaking sound, like a hinge that needed oiling. I expected more of a screech. Krin said that this softer call was their sound and she knew this was the female of the pair. It was quite an experience to finally hear them making noise after watching them (in silence) from the lighthouse tower for two weeks. It really was thrilling being so close! I wish I had a decent camera and lens as it’s just about impossible to get any photo of the eagles with my camera.

6/19/86

Today the two researchers left, so I’ll have till Monday to enjoy being alone on the island. Monday my relief lighthouse keeper will arrive and also probably the next volunteer eagle observer for the month of July. Unbelievable how quickly this all goes by. I just have one week left out here at this positively glorious location. You’d certainly have to go a long way to invent something more breathtaking, romantic and wonderful than this lighthouse! Towering 130 feet above the lake on a bluff with views of the islands Minnesota’s North Shore and Lake Superior. I never tire of being up in the glass cupola and watching the eagles and sunsets every evening- with light lingering on till 10 pm or so. Oh – it will be awful to leave this!

View of the Outer Island fog building and shoreline from the top of the light

6/23/86

All on the island is not idyllic, however. This Saturday evening, word came over the radio that we were under a tornado watch/severe storm warning till 3 am. I went out to tell visiting scuba divers to get to shelter at Stockton Island, ran up the tower to close and bolt the hatch to the outside catwalk, then scurried down the metal 107-step spiral staircase as lightning flared overhead. Talk about adrenalin flowing! We had gusts of 75 mph, trees thrashing, thunder, lightning, slashing rain…I figured any minute a funnel would drop out of the sky. I sat in the kitchen with the hatch to the cellar open, ready to jump down into the basement with my flashlight and radio at any second. The storm kept up all night. I didn’t get much sleep. Not a lot of fun – and when you’re alone with nowhere to go…I’m glad it’s over.

Well, as I sit here in the tower with my notes, 7 x 35 binoculars, Celestron telescope, sunglasses, 5- watt radio, 35 mm camera, and FM radio (who says Beethoven, Bach, and Bald Eagle watching aren’t compatible) looking at the eagles and avoiding the voracious flies and mosquitoes down in the yard, I’m glad to have had this unexplainably wondrous opportunity. I’m tempted to describe it as “once-in-a lifetime”, but I’d like to be optimistic and hope to do this again.

Cynthia’s brother Neil says she first visited Bayfield in 1983 as he started his job as a seasonal naturalist in the park. That’s when she learned about the VIP opportunity. She visited Neil and the islands many times over the years. Neil says, “We paddled to the sea caves, kayaked to Sand Island, she camped on Stockton, hiked the mainland trail, toured the Hokenson Fishery at Little Sand Bay, and took numerous island cruises. This included trips to the lighthouses on Devils and Michigan Island during the annual lighthouse celebrations (where the photos of Cynthia were taken.)”

At the age of 74, Cynthia Howk passed away this summer after a brief illness. She had a distinguished 40+ year career in historic preservation with the Landmark Society of Western New York.

The organization offered this tribute: “Cynthia was at the heart of The Landmark Society’s mission, dedicating her knowledge, passion, and spirit to preservation…. Cynthia’s legacy is reflected not only in the buildings and neighborhoods she helped protect, but in the people she mentored, encouraged, and inspired. She was a colleague, a friend, and an irreplaceable voice for preservation.”

During her time on Outer Island, Cynthia’s volunteer efforts made a difference too. The Volunteers in Parks (VIP) program continues to this day in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. Many volunteers step up year after year. Opportunities for the 2027 season will be posted on volunteer.gov when they become available. You can learn more about the program on the National Park Service website. Another way to support the park is to sign up to volunteer with Friends of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore by filling out this form.