
She said the most surprising finds at the sites were domestic objects relating to families and family life. She wrote, “How did their health affect their daily lives and mental well-being? How did social trends in medicine influence their own perceptions of well-being?” Surface-Evans’ own chronic illness motivated her to use archaeological evidence such as the remains of medicinal objects, food and personal items, as well as documents, to discover how people living and working in lighthouses managed their health. Clair County now maintains Fort Gratiot, the first Great Lakes light station.Įach Great Lakes lighthouse “represents a broad swatch of maritime and lighthouse history from the 1820s to the 1940s,” when the last of them were automated, Surface-Evans said in an interview. McGulpin Point was decommissioned in 1906 and sold in 2009 to Emmet County for restoration and reopened to the public. Clair River and Lake Huron in Port Huron.Ĥ0 Mile Point, automated in 1944 and transferred to Presque Isle County in 1984, is now a museum. Her research focused on three Michigan sites: McGulpin Point Lighthouse, 40 Mile Point Lighthouse on Lake Huron between Alpena and Cheboygan in Rogers City and Fort Gratiot Lighthouse at the junction of the St. She began exploring the archaeology of Great Lakes lighthouses in 2011 as a Central Michigan University faculty member. “While lighthouses housed people, they were primarily built as workspaces and not necessarily designed with the comfort of living in mind,” she wrote. The work “required round-the-clock attention and a military-like routine,” as well as an assumption the keepers were physically fit, according to Surface-Evans. Their arduous duties included climbing the many steps to tend the light, assisting ships in trouble, carrying heavy loads and shoveling coal. Physical evidence unearthed at the site in Mackinaw City included bones from butchered pigs, spent ammunition, dolls and doll-sized dishware, canning jar fragments, marbles and “multiple pepper sauce bottles, which could have been used to store ketchup, vinegar or relish.”ĭavenport, who staffed the lighthouse three miles from the nearest town for 27 years, “was very focused on maintaining the well-being of his children through access to both food and play,” Surface-Evans wrote.ĭavenport’s experience reflects how tough life was for lighthouse keepers in remote locations around the Great Lakes. “The challenge of caring for his remaining eight children probably weighed heavily on Davenport,” senior archaeologist Sarah Surface-Evans of the State Historic Preservation Office wrote in a recently published study of the well-being of keepers and their families at three Great Lakes lighthouses.ĭavenport used his “paltry annual salary” to buy toys for the five girls and three boys, gardened, maintained an orchard, raised pigs and hunted to feed the family. Seven years later, his son drowned when falling through the ice in the Straits of Mackinac.

#Lighthouse keeper salary plus
The job pays £26,893 a year, plus a benefits package and Civil Service pension, an amount of annual leave described as 'generous' and a childcare voucher scheme.įull details and an application form can be downloaded from applications must be received by midnight on May 13 and interviews will take place in St Just on May 21.LANSING - The wife and newborn daughter of longtime McGulpin Point Lighthouse keeper James Davenport died during childbirth in 1891. “A relevant technical qualification is essential, as is a high aptitude for working with IT.”



McDonald's Monopoly job that pays £45 an hour.“Previous experience of basic site supervision would be advantageous, as would an understanding of construction, design and management regulations. “You must be adaptable and flexible with a general understanding of building and planning regulations as applied to modern and listed buildings,” the specification says. The post will involve extensive UK travel and extended time away from home and from the depot. Tasks of the role include the replacing tower-top helicopter platform safety nets.
