• Saturday-What'sUP February 20 - 08:55 am

Unless you've been out on a boat in the summertime, you probably haven't caught this angle of the Eagle Harbor Lighthouse, with the old Coast Guard Station in view too. Either Paul Talvensaari was in an ice cutter or he has a good zoom on his shutterbox, since those harbor waters look to be just a bit too chunky to be actually out on. With all that ice hugging the dock and breakwall so snugly, I'd have to surmise that the 36' Motor Life boat, teed up and ready, won't be going out on any missions for awhile. Actually those boats were once the backbone of the Coast Guard and are now history. Don Nelson has documented the saga of these vessels that would right themselves if turned over in heavy seas and were self-bailing thanks to the scuppers on the side above the water line. If you have a bit of time, jump on over to Don's webpage for a chronological lesson on these "unimmersible" life boats.

Up for an early morning ride in fresh snowfall - - Boy, the trails are humming in the upper-Upper Peninsula this long 3-day weekend. Have a good one!

Good morning from Mishawaka IN. I love this picture. It has all the things that I love. A Lighthouse, old Coast Guard Station, water, lifeboat and beauty. It doesn't make any difference what the season is. Thanks Paul. Great picture.

Isn't there part of a sunken ship sticking out of the water in front of that lighthouse, possibly the boiler?

As an Eagle Harborite a GREAT PICTURE.

See http://deyampert.com/gallery/album02/Coast_Guard_Eagle_Harbor_MI for a closeup.

In the late 30s or early 40s I can remember going to Eagle Harbor to visit friends of the family. The man was in the Coast Guard stationed there and living in a small cottage near the Station.
He had to go on duty while we were there and showed my dad and I where he had to report. It was a small lookout tower, east of the Coast Guard station on the shore of Lake Superior, probably about 2 stories tall.
I wonder if this lookout was used for maritime or national security?

To Gus LL, the small lookout tower you are referring to was
called just that, a lookout tower. These towers were at all shore
Life Saving Stations going back to the 1870s and continued to
be used when it became the Coast Guard in 1939. They were
primarily built for a crewman to be able to observe all visibility
for a boat, vessel or person in distress. If one was located, he
would notify the main station in person or later by telephone.
He would also sound the hand rung bell rapidly to alert the
station crewmen of an emergency and man a boat to go out to
rescue.

They were manned 24 hours a day during navigation season.
Generally each crewman would man the watch tower 4 hours at
a time. He had binoculars and a high powered telescope to
watch for distress flares.

During war time they also scanned for national security,
especially on the east and west coast, when additional towers
were built along the coast.

The Eagle Harbor tower was moved to a park about a mile up
the hill south of Eagle Harbor at a road side park. Some towers
were a part of the Coast Guard Station if located near the
beach with good vision. Most have been torn down.

To, Don Nelson, Thanks a lot for the very interesting information.

fantastic pictures

Correction - I meant 1915 when the Life Saving Service became
the Coast Guard.

The Eagle Harbor CG station was the last station built by the
Life Saving Service in 1912.

Hello from Surabaya Indonesia, It is about the exact opposite from the Copper Country here but I enjoy imagining the cold! It is Sunday afternoon here.

In the late 70's, when I went to the Harbor for the weekend, with my mother's boyfriend. His nephews and I used to walk on those ice chunks, granted they were big enough to hold us up. Now I Think about how dumb that was. But there is not alot to do at the harbor in winter and we were board