A watery triangle. No mystical, supernatural, or scientific explanations are posited. Nor any time warps or black holes. Nevertheless, it is curious that travel within this restricted triangular region had deadly consequences for several early Marquette area lighthouse keepers.

Isaac P. Bridges was born in 1815 in Maine. In 1868 he was assigned as the first keeper of the just constructed Granite Island Lighthouse. “Isolated” hardly described his new post. By 1872 all four of his assistant keepers had either resigned or been fired.

Still, he had his family; and on August 30, 1872, they were on the island awaiting his return. He left Garlic Point on the mainland in a small boat, rowing homeward in heavy seas. On the way the craft capsized, and the horrified family could only stand, watching helplessly as he slipped beneath the waves.

Thirteen years later, in 1885, William Wheatley became keeper of the Granite Island Light, while his father, James, became his assistant. Born in Illinois in 1860, Wheatley was hired by the U.S. Lighthouse Board in 1882 and served as 2nd assistant keeper at the Huron Islands Lighthouse. The next year, he was appointed keeper at the Green Island Light in Green Bay, before transferring to Granite Island. In 1893, the younger Wheatley became the keeper at Lighthouse Point and his father advanced to fill his old position.

The Marquette Lighthouse is seen from the point. (Photo courteshy of the Marquette Regional History Center)

On Saturday afternoon, April 30, 1898, William Wheatley and Will Brandon, a pressman for The Mining Journal, set out in a small sailboat to visit friends at a camp near Saux Head Point. Brandon sat in the bow looking shoreward while Wheatley navigated. About a mile north of Little Presque Isle, they were hit by a sudden squall which capsized the craft, throwing them both into the frigid lake.

Brandon heard Wheatley say, “This looks bad, Will!” Brandon replied, “I’m going to try for shore, Willy.” And, after pulling his foot from entangling rigging, he struck out toward land. Exhausted and freezing he finally crawled ashore. Looking back, he saw only the capsized craft but no sign of Wheatley.

After various delays word reached Capt. Cleary of the U.S. Life-Saving Service on Lighthouse Point. He and the lifesavers loaded their surfboat on the tug Theora and headed north, but all they found was the overturned boat. While they were occupied, the captain of the tug steamed over to Granite Island to break the news to Wheatley’s father, who came back with them to Marquette.

The lifesavers continued searching but to no avail.

Two months later, three young boys, David Hume, Louis and Arthur Oudotte, discovered the Wheatley’s remains off Presque Isle. The Mining Journal wrote of Wheatley, “He leaves a wife half-crazed with grief and four young children, all girls … In addition to his insurance, he leaves them some little property.”

The small insurance sum was through a fraternal organization.

There is an ominous sentence in the 1890 edition of The Modern Light-House Service which goes some way to explain what happened next. “The Board has made no attempts as yet to pension those who become maimed or worn out in its service.” Shortly after the body was found, Mary Anne Wheatley and her children left Marquette. Instead of a pension, Mrs. Wheatley was given the newly opened position of keeper at the Eagle Harbor Range Light. Wheatley’s father, James, remained keeper of the Granite Island light until his retirement in 1914, when he was 81.

A stained-glass memorial window at the Marquette Hope United Methodist Church, First Campus in Marquette bears the simple inscription at the bottom: Captain Wheatley.

In 1902 John D. McMartin transferred to Granite Island where he was assistant keeper under James Wheatley. McMartin already had numerous experiences on Lake Superior. From 1895 to 1899, he served as assistant keeper at the Raspberry Island Light in the Apostle Islands. In late November 1896, at the close of the navigation season, he and the head keeper, John Eddy of Marquette, left in a sailboat to cross the 14 miles to Bayfield, Wisconsin.

They quickly found themselves at the mercy of the wind and ice floes. Continually driven aground, it took them four days of island hopping to reach land. They subsisted on flour and water baked in a washbasin which they cooked in a fishing shanty on one of the deserted islands. Upon reaching the mainland, both Eddy’s hands and feet and McMartin’s ears were frozen.

In 1890, McMartin was the assistant keeper in Marquette but from June to August, he briefly served as a replacement acting keeper at the Big Bay Lighthouse, shortly after the assistant keeper, George Prio,r died and the head keeper, his father William Prior, disappeared. Whatever he thought about this peculiar situation is unknown, for there is no mention of it in the Big Bay logbook entries in his cramped handwriting. Then, it was back to Marquette for the rest of the season.

The Granite Island Lighthouse logbook for Oct. 2, 1903, reads, “At 8 AM Mr. J. McMartin went to boathouse got boat and started to sail around south side of Island…going to Marquette. Fierce wind from NE Sea caught boat and dashed it against front of rocks: boat smashed…and Mr. J. McMartin drowned. Nothing was seen of [the] body.”

While the job of a lighthouse keeper may seem romantic, it was often a difficult and dangerous one. In just 31 years, the triangle between Garlic Point, Granite Island and Little Presque Isle had claimed the lives of three Marquette area lighthouse keepers.