By James Heinz
Recently I spoke to the person who was the longest serving lightkeeper at Milwaukee’s North Point lighthouse. In 26 years of service, she never slept a night away from the lighthouse. According to the North Point Lighthouse web site: “Each evening at sunset, Georgia Stebbins would climb two flights of steps and a final vertical ladder up the 28-foot tower to the lantern room, where she would light the lamp. Every four hours after that, she would refill the lamp with mineral oil, trim the wick, adjust the air ventilation, clean the window if needed, and wind the clockwork that kept the massive Fourth Order Fresnel lens rotating.” It is estimated that during that time she climbed 63,800 steps. For her long service, she became known as The Lady of the Light.
Of course, if I were to tell you that I interviewed Georgia Stebbins at the grave in Forest Home Cemetery, where she was buried in 1920, you would think that I was crazy. So, I didn’t really interview Georgia herself. Instead, I interviewed historical re-enactor Katharyn Kominiarek, who interpreted Georgia Stebbins at a recent historical event at the cemetery.
Georgia Green was born in New York City in 1846. When she was 20 years old she married jeweler Lemuel Stebbins. At age 27, she received a dreaded medical diagnosis: she had tuberculosis. She was told that her only chance of survival was to leave the dirty air of New York City. So, she left the Big Apple and moved to the cleaner skies of Milwaukee, where her father, Daniel Green, had been appointed the keeper of the North Point lighthouse in 1871.
Only it wasn’t the same lighthouse we see today.
In 1851 the current two acre site was acquired by the U.S. government for $1,000. The plot ran from Wahl Avenue to the lakefront. At that time the lake came right up to the foot of the current bluff. The current lake front is the result of fill dumped years later.
In 1855 the first lighthouse was built about 100 feet northeast of the current one. It was made of the famous Cream City brick and looked like an ordinary two story house with a lighthouse attached to the east end of the house. The fourth order Fresnel lens in the 28 foot tower was 107 feet above lake, the highest on the Great Lakes.
In 1868 the original lighthouse had its lantern room rebuilt and the lens replaced. Winter storms caused 16 feet of the front yard of the lighthouse to collapse into the lake sometime in the 1870s.
Just about the time Georgia Stebbins arrived.
Imagine her feelings when she arrived in 1873 at what the North Point Lighthouse web site describes as “the northern end of Milwaukee Bay, a remote plot of rocky land severed by deep ravines that dropped from the bluff to the lake below”, with 16 feet of its front yard missing. The only compensation was that her TB miraculously disappeared in the cleaner air of Milwaukee Bay.
Unfortunately, Georgia discovered that both her parents were ill. She immediately began assuming some of her father’s duties until a few months later she was performing all his duties. Her husband followed her to Milwaukee and opened a jewelry store on Mason Street.
Georgia’s father remained keeper in name only while Georgia performed all the keeper’s duties until 1881 when the U.S. Lighthouse Service recognized Georgia as the official lightkeeper.
When the 16 feet of the front yard disappeared, the government decided to build a new lighthouse 100 feet further inland. Fortunately, the only thing slower than the U.S. Congress was the process of bluff erosion. In 1886 Congress allocated $15,000 to build the current lighthouse and keeper’s quarters.
In December 1887 construction of what is now the top 39 foot tall bolted cast iron section of the current lighthouse was built on the site. The original light room and lens were placed on top. The light was lit on January 10, 1888. The current keeper’s quarters were also completed. Finally, Georgia and her family no longer had to worry about finding their life going rapidly downhill. Literally.
In 1893 noted landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead was in Chicago, working on the landscaping of the Columbian Exposition world’s fair. According to a recent lecture by local historian John Gurda, the thrifty city fathers of Milwaukee recognized an opportunity to gain the services of the designer of Central Park at a reduced rate. Since Olmstead was now only 90 miles away, the city did have not have to pay his travel expenses from New York.
Olmstead designed what is now Lake Park with the idea of using the Northpoint lighthouse as its focal point. His plan had one big problem: the Northpoint lighthouse. The two acre federal owned tract from Wahl Avenue to the lakefront divided the park into two parts, one on each side of the tract. It took the intervention of a Wisconsin Senator to get the federal government to agree to allow the carriage drive and the two lion bridges over the ravines on either side of the lighthouse to be built.
Around 1900 another flaw in Olmstead’s plan became apparent: trees. The park’s trees were growing so tall that they obscured the light from the lake. Moving at the same speed as a growing tree, in 1907 Congress responded to this crisis. Rather than simply trimming the trees, Congress simply abandoned the light. That’s one way to save money.
This solution was not acceptable to local merchants and particularly mariners who had depended on the light to save their lives. Operation of the light was taken over by locals.
It is probably not a coincidence that in 1907 Georgia Stebbins retired as light keeper, since she no longer had a light to keep. Her son Albert and two grandchildren were born there. Georgia lived until July 11, 1920, when she passed away at age 74. As noted above, she and her family are buried in Forest Home Cemetery.
In 1909 Congress reversed its decision. The Lighthouse Board resumed operating the light. And, instead of trimming the trees, Congress authorized $10,000 to double the height of the light. You could have trimmed a lot of trees for $10,000.
It took until December 15, 1917, for a steel bottom section to be built and the original bolted cast iron lighthouse was placed on top. This put the beacon 74 feet above the ground and 154 feet above the lake. The current lighthouse as we know it took its final form.
The lighthouse was taken out of service in 1994 by the Coast Guard. In 2002 the Northpoint Lighthouse Friends was formed. In 2003 the Coast Guard formally transferred ownership of the two acre tract to Milwaukee County. In 2004 Northpoint Lighthouse Friends entered into a long term lease with Milwaukee County. The lighthouse opened to the public in November 2007.
And in 2010 the Friends began searching for the original lighthouse location. What had happened to it is unclear. It was apparently left standing after the new lighthouse was completed. At some point it must have been dismantled.
Which is why on June 12th, I found myself talking to Friends volunteer John Scripp and Seth Schneider, archaeologist at the Archaeological Research Laboratory Center at UW-Milwaukee on the site of the original lighthouse. Friends members had used a tape measure to guesstimate where the original lighthouse was. They explained that in 2011 John contacted archeologist Kevin Cullen at Discovery World.
Cullen organized a series of searches and excavations involving Friends members, volunteers, and Boy Scout campers from Discovery World. The excavations uncovered materials dated to the mid-1800s, like slate shingle, ceramics, square cut nails, glass, and a Cream City brick. In 2019 Dan Joyce, at the time Kenosha Public Museums Director and Curator of Archaeology, used Ground Penetrating Radar, which revealed anomalies that could be foundations.
John Scripp explained that the Friends had attempted to gain permission from Milwaukee County to conduct final, definitive excavations. The County declined the request because its bluff preservation ordinance prohibits excavations on or around any of the 30 miles of lakefront bluffs in Milwaukee County unless a certified bluff engineer can assure that the bluff will not be damaged.
This year the Friends got County permission to excavation based on a reduced excavation area. Seth and colleague Brian McConnell, Ph.D. graduate student, with a team of about 15 volunteers and other UWM graduate students, dug two 3 foot by 3 foot by 1 foot deep holes in an area east of the current lighthouse. Seth stated that they found additional historical materials that confirm that the site is the location of the original lighthouse. “In one of the holes there was a clear line of material that corresponded with Joyce’s ground penetrating radar findings, but no foundation stones were encountered. The preliminary interpretation of the line of material is that it likely represents the demolition of the old lighthouse, and the line represents the exterior and interior portions of the building.”
And then it was my turn to tell John and Seth about how they might find the Lost Treasure of Lake Park.
Many supposed lost treasures are mythical and have no evidence to suggest that they exist. But we know with absolute certainty that the Lost Treasure of Lake Park does exist.
Wikipedia tells us: “In 1982, Byron Preiss published The Secret, a puzzle book that combined 12 short verses and 12 elaborate fantasy paintings by John Jude Palencar. Readers were expected to pair each painting with a verse in a way that would provide clues to finding one of 12 plexiglass boxes buried in various parks around North America. Each box contained a ceramic box that contained a key that could be redeemed for a jewel worth $1,000. One of the ceramic boxes was found in Chicago in 1983, one in Cleveland in 2004, and one in Boston in October 2019. The remaining nine boxes have yet to be found, and reportedly Preiss was the only one who knew where they were located. He died in a traffic accident in 2005. Preiss’ family says that it will honor his promise to anyone who finds one of the treasures.
One of the allegorical paintings shows a figure standing in front of the outline of a building that is clearly Milwaukee’s city hall. The painting shows a millstone, a walking stick, and a key. Mill-walk-key.
The poem is as follows:
View the three stories of Mitchell
As you walk the beating of the world
At a distance in time
From three who lived there
At a distance in space
From woman, with harpsichord
Silently playing
Step on nature
Cast in copper
Ascend the 92 steps
After climbing the grand 200
Pass the compass and reach
The foot of the culvert
Below the bridge
Walk 100 paces
Southeast over rock and soil
To the first young birch
Pass three, staying west
You’ll see a letter from the country
Of wonderstone’s hearth
On a proud, tall fifth
At its southern foot
The treasure waits.
When he composed the poems, Preiss thought that they would be easy to decipher. So he described objects, like the “first young birch”, which probably no longer exists, and if it does, is no longer young. Preiss also did not consider that the Milwaukee County Parks Commission would not like people digging random holes in county parks.
Unless you are Josh Gates of the Discovery Channel’s Expedition Unknown. In a 2019 episode, Gates traveled across the country trying to find Preiss’ buried treasures. And one of those places was Lake Park.
The episode, which can be seen on You Tube, shows Gates digging a hole in front of the lion statue at the southeast corner of the southernmost of the two lion bridges in front of the lighthouse. Gates got an introduction to our wonderful Wisconsin weather, since he dug during a pouring rainstorm. And the remains of the filled in hole can still be seen as well. In a subsequent episode, Gates interviewed Jude Palencar, the painter, who told Gates that he had been “real close” to the Lost Treasure of Lake Park.
Whether it is the archeological relics of a long lost lighthouse, or the key to a modern buried treasure, you never know what you may find digging in the ground.
Photo at top of page: Lake Park Lion where Josh Gates dug with permission. North Point Lighthouse in back. Photo by James Heinz.
Other photos:
Photo credit: James Heinz
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James Heinz is the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society’s acquisitions director. He became interested in maritime history as a kid watching Jacques Cousteau’s adventures on TV. He was a Great Lakes wreck diver until three episodes of the bends forced him to retire from diving. He was a University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee police officer for thirty years. He regularly flies either a Cessna 152 or 172.
