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Discover the Park – Places

National Park Service advances plans to relocate Chequamegon Point Light Tower

National Park Service advances plans to relocate Chequamegon Point Light Tower

(Apostle Islands National Lakeshore News Release) BAYFIELD, Wis. — Apostle Islands National Lakeshore has awarded a $167,400 contract for the deconstruction and removal of the historic Chequamegon Point Light Tower on Long Island due to structural failure.Long Island light in water - NPS photoThe National Park Service announced in May 2026 that the 42-foot tower cannot remain in its current location. Shoreline erosion and storm damage have caused significant structural failures, including failing footings, severed anchors, and damaged structural braces, leaving the tower at imminent risk of...

Friends volunteers tend historic gardens on Raspberry, Michigan islands

Friends volunteers tend historic gardens on Raspberry, Michigan islands

More than a century ago, Apostle Islands lighthouse keepers and their families planted gardens as sources of food, beauty and pride. The traditions continue today, with help from Friends of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.This month, two volunteer crews joined the National Park Service to plant and maintain gardens on Raspberry and Michigan Islands. The process involves loading locally-purchased plants, tools and supplies onto a Park Service boat, unloading and hauling everything up the stairs and getting to work. The gardens are designed to be historically accurate. The vegetable...

National Park Service to deconstruct Chequamegon Point Light due to structural failure

National Park Service to deconstruct Chequamegon Point Light due to structural failure

(Apostle Islands National Lakeshore News Release) BAYFIELD, Wis. — Apostle Islands National Lakeshore plans to dismantle and remove the historic Chequamegon Point Light Tower on Long Island in summer 2026. The National Park Service (NPS) announced the deteriorating 42-foot tower can no longer be preserved in place. Shoreline erosion and storm damage have caused significant structural failures, including failing footings, severed anchors, and damaged structural braces. The tower poses an imminent safety risk. If not addressed, it threatens to collapse into Lake Superior. “Protecting public...

Love Our Lakeshore: So much to do on Sand Island

Love Our Lakeshore: So much to do on Sand Island

During this challenging time of change for our nation and for our national parks, Friends of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore wants to shine a bright light – a lighthouse beacon if you will – on this very special place and on the people dedicated to protecting the national lakeshore for future generations. That's the goal of our series entitled “Love our Lakeshore." In this report Friends of the Apostle Islands board member and former NPS ranger Neil Howk tells us what it's like to be a volunteer for the National Park Service, stationed on Sand Island or Waabaabikaa-minis. He says...

Love our Lakeshore: Why I wore my water shoes to work as a Sand Island volunteer

Love our Lakeshore: Why I wore my water shoes to work as a Sand Island volunteer

During this challenging time of change for our nation and for our national parks, Friends of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore wants to shine a bright light – a lighthouse beacon if you will – on this very special place and on the people dedicated to protecting the national lakeshore for future generations. That's the goal of our series entitled “Love our Lakeshore." In this report Friends of the Apostle Islands board member and former NPS ranger Neil Howk tells us what it's like to be a volunteer for the National Park Service, stationed on Sand Island or Waabaabikaa-minis. Sand Island...

Friends of the Apostle Islands attends “Wisconsin Lighthouses” premiere

Friends of the Apostle Islands attends “Wisconsin Lighthouses” premiere

The spectacular lighthouses of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore are featured in a new PBS Wisconsin program entitled "Wisconsin Lighthouses," to be televised statewide for the first time on December 2nd at 7 p.m. Invited guests, including two Friends of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore board members and family members attended a premiere screening and related events in Manitowoc on November 14th.PBS Wisconsin says, “Since the mid-19th century, our state’s lighthouses have guided generations of mariners to safe harbors. Wisconsin Lighthouses” illuminates the power and appeal of...

Dark Sky Week: from the first lighthouse beacon to the starry skies of today and beyond

Dark Sky Week: from the first lighthouse beacon to the starry skies of today and beyond

Michigan Island Lighthouse - 1913 - NPS photoThe first brilliant beam pierced the ink black skies over the Apostle Islands like a lightning bolt. The year was 1856, when the first keeper lighted the lamp atop the original Michigan Island lighthouse for the first time. In the years that followed, keepers lit a constellation of new lights on Long, Raspberry, Outer, Sand, Devils and Michigan Islands.All of the light stations built in the late 1800s and early 1900s were designed to help mariners navigate their way around the Apostle Islands while avoiding dangerous shoals in the dark of night....

Marigolds, lighthouse keepers and perseverance – the rest of the story

Marigolds, lighthouse keepers and perseverance – the rest of the story

Several weeks ago, Friends of the Apostle Islands ran a story featurng the Edgar Guest poem connecting lighthouses, the age of automation and the end of an era for caretaker families who brought life, meaning, human touch, and memories to the stoic buildings that dot our shores.The poem ends with the line, “And will ever that automatic thing plant marigolds in early spring?” And the story noted my tradition of planting marigolds on my deck each spring, as homage to those families.Well, I have a new family to introduce to you. Ever get the feeling you’re being watched? From under the canopy...

Marigolds: A simple tribute to a different era in the Apostle Islands

Marigolds: A simple tribute to a different era in the Apostle Islands

If you are ever lucky enough to be invited to sit on the deck at photographer Mark Weller’s home, you may notice a small planting of marigolds. Flowers on a deck are nothing unusual and you may not give the potted flowers a second thought. But look again. These flowers have more than beautiful blossoms: they have a story.“I am a lighthouse man,” Mark Weller says. “Over the past decade, I and a team of talented photographers have traveled to the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore to photograph the Milky Way behind some of the park’s famous lighthouses. We sell the images to support the...

Senator Tammy Baldwin tours Apostle Islands National Lakeshore

Senator Tammy Baldwin tours Apostle Islands National Lakeshore

Big things happening on Sand Island. Friends of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore toured several projects on the island with Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin on Thursday, September 2nd. The tour, led by Park Superintendent Lynne Dominy, including seeing dock work at East Bay, the accessible boardwalk project and more. The 2-mile-long boardwalk will connect the dock and accessible campsites, picnic areas, water sources and privies at East Bay with the Sand Island Light. The project is about halfway completed. It will be a major step forward in making the islands accessible to all. Friends...