David L. Snyder

Many Lighthouse Service employees lacked the mechanical competency to operate the new fog signal machinery. The Naval Secretary wrote to the Eleventh District Inspector in December 1905, "The Board invites your attention to the fact that trouble is apt to come when steam or hot air fog-signal plants are put into old light-stations, as the keepers of such stations are likely to have little if any, knowledge of fog-signal machinery.

The year is 1863. Abraham Lincoln defeated Stephen Douglas and became the sixteenth President of the United States. The Civil War was raging. The Confederates were victorious over the Yankees at Chancellorsville. The tide turned later that year with two northtern victories at Gettysburg and Chattanooga. In the midst of this national crisis, the United States government constructed a lighthouse in Lake Superior, on Raspberry Island.