As authors of Women Who Kept the Lights, we’re pleased to introduce you to one of our female keepers. (Earlier on page 31 you met Kate Walker at Robbins
Reef.) Keepers were instructed to report all problems to their District Superintendent, and Georgia Stebbins dutifully did
so. She also wrote to ask whether she was required to board workmen who were needed at her station. Her father had kept the
light before her. She was uncomfortable having strange men sleeping in her house when she was all alone.
Sperm oil, which comes from the sperm whale, became expensive in mid-century, and many lighthouses switched to lard oil.
Kerosene proved a much cleaner illuminant, and many lighthouses switched to kerosene in the 1880s. An incandescant oil vapor
lamp was very similar to the Coleman lantern that many people take camping.
Georgia Stebbins was not the first female keeper at North Point Lighthouse
Lighthouse Maps
Lake Michigan Detail of Eleventh Lighthouse District
Can you find North Point (Milwaukee) Lighthouse on this map? (Although this is an 1881 map, it shows the location
of the earlier tower.)
Click on map to view larger image
Source: 1881 Annual Report of the U.S. Light-House Board
This Reader's Guide is intended to be used with Lighthouses Short and Tall, a book for readers 11 and up written by Mary Louise and Candace Clifford. It is available from the publisher,
Cypress Communications, by using their book order form.
