- Dates
- circa 1980-10 – circa 1981-04
- Kind
- Construction
- Where
- Beaver Island Light Station
- Eras
- Modern era
- Concepts
- heritageeducationenvironmentcommunity
- Within
- Beaver Island
Summary
The Beaver Island Lighthouse Project reported fall 1980 work at the Beaver Head Lighthouse. Julie Cordano and Kim Blystone were completing hiking trails by marking routes and installing signposts, while preparing an interpretive booklet for a nature-trail loop. Paul Cole was drawing illustrations for the booklet.
The project also included winter preparation at the station: window and storm work, closing the kitchen-cafeteria complex, storing canvas tents, collecting firewood, and ordering supplies. The winter focus was planned to be the Fog Signal Building, with a classroom/field-laboratory facility and library as the intended result.
The report says that project staff were also collecting historical information, interesting stones, facts, and other data about the lighthouse and grounds for a future visitor booklet. That is a documented research and interpretation effort, not evidence that the booklet or every planned facility was completed.
Evidence and limits
The source identifies an October project report published in December and gives the names Julie Cordano, Kim Blystone, Paul Cole, Bill Strauss, and an unnamed or first-name-only “Larry” in the work narrative. It does not establish their full identities, employment contracts, project sponsor, property or title, funding, permits, final trail alignment, booklet publication, or completion of the Fog Signal Building conversion.
Open questions
- Who formally administered and funded the Lighthouse Project in 1980?
- Was the interpretive booklet published, and what route and features did it document?
- What work was completed in the Fog Signal Building, and when did the planned classroom, field laboratory, or library open?
If you can answer any of these, or correct anything above, the archive wants to hear it — see Corrections.
Sources
- Remote OCR used for page-level reading; the scan remains the visual source. The article labels itself October while appearing in the December issue, so the date is kept approximate. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1980-12_Beaver-Beacon
- Contemporaneous issue scan reporting fall 1980 work at the Beaver Head Lighthouse, including trail marking, interpretive-booklet preparation, winterization, firewood collection, and planned Fog Signal Building classroom/field-lab and library work. It does not establish project ownership, a complete staff roster, budgets, permits, final completion, or present condition. The held eighteen-page issue scan is paired with the OCR source and does not expand source-specific claimsdata1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1980-12_Beaver-Beacon
- Reports the winter program continuing on weekends with seven town workers, restoration and cafeteria and Fog Signal Building work, cedar collection at Lake Geneserath for a planned log cabin, and a CEJA extension. It records ongoing work and hopes for completion, not final completion, title, funding, or a complete work roster. The holding institution's portal restricts automated access; the archive holds a copy of this issue and can provide it on request.data1 · beaver-island-archive · beaver_beacon · 1981-03_Beaver-Beacon
- The held eighteen-page combined March and April issue PDF is paired with the canonical OCR source and confirms the Lighthouse Project follow-up.data1 · beaver-island-archive · scans · beaver_beacon · issues · 1981-03_Beaver-Beacon
Added 2 August 2026 · revised 4 August 2026. Recent changes
Cite this article
Beaver Island Archive, “Beaver Island Lighthouse Project advances trails, interpretation, and Fog Signal Building work, 1980”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/events/beaver-island-lighthouse-project-trails-and-fog-signal-work-1980/, accessed [date], citing Beaver Beacon, December 1980, remote Chandra OCR, “The Beaver Island Lighthouse Project (October).” (and 3 further sources listed on the page).
Last revised 2026-08-04. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.
BibTeX for “Beaver Island Lighthouse Project advances trails, interpretation, and Fog Signal Building work, 1980”RIS for “Beaver Island Lighthouse Project advances trails, interpretation, and Fog Signal Building work, 1980”