Wisconsin's Sly Timber Tribute: Rawley Point Light

Nestled in the Point Beach State Forest, Wisconsin, Rawley Point Light is the loftiest wooden lighthouse along the Badger State's shores. Named after the local chap, Peter Rowley, this guiding beacon has quite the yarn to tell. It made its first sunrise in 1853 as a 75-foot pole structure, but it wasn't long before a wooden dwelling and tower took its place. Jump ahead to 1894, and a more substantial building was raised to take the reins. This chap boasted a brick home and a linked tower, decked with a third-order Fresnel lens at the summit.

The light came on December 7, 1874. In 1890, a steam fog whistle was added, and in 1893, an oil house rounded out the crew. The brick tower, however, wasn't as fortified as it seemed and was reinforced in 1892. For the growth-minded, the authorities swapped out the existing tower with a skeletal one from the old Chicago Harbor Light, erected in 1859 but dismantled when its successor arose from the embers. This new tower received a pair of trusswork stages at its base, as well as a fresh service room beneath the lantern.

The new lens was a carbon copy of the old one, and the light was switched on November 20, 1894. In 1919, the fog signal was upgraded to a diaphone, and in 1920, the beacon was plugged in. The Fresnel lens took a tumble in 1952 and was replaced with twin DCB-36 Aerobeacons. A fire in 1962 gave the place quite the char, but it was later restored. The station was switched off in 1979 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons