HERITAGE


What those with a direct link to Whitefish Point have to say:

"My late husband, "master Chief, E.B. Mace" of the U.S. Coast Guard, was assigned as officer in charge of the Whitefish Point Light Station during the late 1950's. We lived at the station over five years. Such a beautiful site. People would drive up just to watch, look, and listen, as I did after making our permanent home in the area. However, it has been several years since I have been there. It's just too saddening to see what has happened there. So much of the pristine and historic quality has been lost and can never be replaced. It has become a very commercialized endeavor. With so much expansion all else is lost. It makes one wonder what our elected officials - local, state and federal level - were thinking and doing when they allowed the "few" to commercially develop such a unique historic site at Whitefish Point. I believe it's a shame to all who could have prevented it reaching this point, but did nothing. I truly hope someone will step up and stop all expansion. So much has already been lost."

-- Mrs. Edward Mace, widow of U.S. Coast Guard Master Chief E.B. Mace, 2005



Big & Little Lois coming home to the Whitefish Point Light Station in 1959.


"Having lived, in my early teens, as the Whitefish Point lighthouse keeper's daughter, I can personally speak for the original pristine beauty and sensuous simplicity of the Whitefish Point Light Station. The dunes, nearby woods, and shoreline were my home and how fortunate I was to share a beauty and purpose which was then worthy of poetic verse but has been so encroached.
How easily this historic site could have been preserved if not for the fateful design which placed it as a pawn in a master plan for personal and commercial gain. Cannibalized by new buildings, excavation, parking, concrete, food services, resort lodging, meeting facilities and the uncontrolled impact of tourism, development hides behind the bureaucratic term "historic interpretation". Clearly, this site has been a convenient guise and a front for commercial enterprise.
I commend any work to truly preserve our few remaining lighthouse sites and still hope for a way to restore to the Whitefish Point Light Station, the historic integrity and truthful setting which has been so deceptively shrouded by the ongoing commercial transformations."

--Lois M. Beach, daughter of U.S. Coast Guard Master Chief E.B. Mace, 2005

Little Lois at Whitefish Point in 1958 with her father, Chief Ed Mace, and her uncle, Ed Morris.

"For the last two years we haven't bought a yearly pass. It is demeaning to me, personally, to see all the commercialization because I know what it really used to be like. There is just too much stuff there and now they are serving food!"

-- Carol Hagstrom, daughter of lighthouse keeper Carl Hagstrom, 2005

"I have had a family presence in the Whitefish Point area for over 125 years. Since that time the essence of the Whitefish Point Light Station has helped define our family heritage. Now, sadly, the very fiber of that heritage is being threatened by over-commercialization.

-- Lynne Carmody, member of Whitefish Point Preservation Society Steering Committee, 2005

 

See more about Whitefish Point and its Historic Light Station

Whitefish Point Preservation Society Steering Committee member Lynne Carmody’s mother at the Whitefish Point Light Station in 1937.
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