The Grosse Point Lighthouse

At about 11:35 this morning, I was waiting for the light at the intersection of Schaumburg Road and Braintree Drive and this vehicle, or one just like it, drove by going westbound. What was the Liverpool Legends WV doing in Schuamburg on a brilliant warm April morning? Drumming up business in metro Chicago for the Beatles tribute show of that name in Branson, no doubt. Summer's almost here.

My experience with Branson is limited to lunch at a Chinese buffet while passing through back in 2001, so I missed noticing this particular tribute band's operation there, if it existed then. The act is George Harrison's sister's way of cashing in -- I mean, honoring her brother's memory and artistry -- and has spawned at least one funny commercial.

We've had two warm, dry weekends in a row here in April in northeastern Illinois, which I can't ever remember happening before. Last Saturday we drove eastward and by early afternoon had made it to Lake Michigan's shore in Evanston. Just north of the Northwestern U. campus is the Grosse Point lighthouse, located next a former mansion that's now the Evanston Art Center, a place called Lawson Park, an officially closed beach (meaning no lifeguards and no charge to get in) and a parking lot convenient to all of these but not full even on a pleasantly warm April day.

The lighthouse isn't open until June, but the grounds are -- so much so that you can wander right up to the lighthouse. But our first order of business wasn't inspecting lighthouses up close, it was finding a picnic table to inspect the flavor of the rib tips we'd bought at Hecky's Barbecue, another Evanston institution. If I've never blogged about Hecky's, I've been remiss. A former Northwestern student introduced me to it more than 20 years ago. It's carry-out only at a corner location on two busy streets. Since returning to the Chicago area, I've managed to visit once or twice a year. Hecky's motto is, "It's the Sauce!" Boy is it ever. It's never disappointed.

While the kids played at the Lawson Park playground -- turned out that Lilly wasn't too old for such, especially when it came to spinning around one of those tire swings with her sister -- I wandered off to look at the lighthouse. It's a storied structure, standing nearly 140 years now. Then again, lighthouses tend to be storied. That's just the kind of buildings they are: Man Against Nature stories mostly, to use the high-school English teacher division of story types.

Once Chicago became a major inland port before the Civil War, it became clear that the shoals around Grosse Point were hazardous without a light. According to the lighthouse's web site: "Undoubtedly the greatest tragedy to strike these waters occurred in the early morning hours of September 8, 1860, when the passenger steamer Lady Elgin collided with the lumber-carrying schooner Augusta. Not knowing the extent of the damage, the Augusta was sent on her way. But soon after, the Lady Elgin began to break apart and sink. Passengers jumped or were thrown into the water by high seas and clung to anything that floated. By daybreak, the shore was lined with townspeople from north suburban Evanston who helped when it was possible, all the while frightfully watching as survivors battled the elements in their attempts to reach land. A definite accounting of all who died isn't possible, but estimates range from about 300 to 400.

"The citizens of Evanston petitioned Congress for a lighthouse on Grosse Point but the Civil War and events afterward delayed the project. Then, in 1871, not long after the great Chicago Fire, Congress formally authorized construction of a lighthouse on Grosse Point.... Finally, on March 1, 1874, traditionally the start of the Great Lakes shipping season, Grosse Point Lighthouse sent its welcome beacon of light over the waters of Lake Michigan for the first time."

Remarkably, the lighthouse is no museum piece. It's still in use as a secondary aid to navigation. Not only that, it sports a second-order Fresnel lens, reportedly the only one of those astonishing monster glassworks still in use along the Great Lakes. I stood face-to-face with one at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum a few years ago, and I'm glad to know another is still proving itself useful.