ASHLAND BREAKWATER LIGHTHOUSE-ASHLAND, WISCONSIN

Situated on the southern side of Chequamegon Bay, the City of Ashland was incorporated in 1887. Several docks and piers were built along the shore at Ashland to support the export of brownstone, lumber, and iron ore, an important part of the city's economy. Between 1889 and 1893, a mile-and-a-half-long breakwater was constructed northeast of the harbor at Ashland to protect it from northeast storms. To strengthen the breakwater, built of piles capped with a concrete slab, riprap was placed along its length between 1903 and 1909 to form a rubble mound breakwater. A fixed lens lantern was established on a new pierhead crib off the western end of the breakwater on July 1, 1911. Three hundred and fifty tons of rock were placed atop the pierhead to hasten its settling, and by the spring of 1913, it had settled 3.16 feet, with only 0.01 foot of settling in the last six months. With the pierhead having reached a fixed position, the rocks were removed, and a concrete cap was poured on top of it. After Congress appropriated $25,000 on October 22, 1913, construction commenced on a reinforced concrete lighthouse atop the pierhead in 1914 and continued until weather conditions forced the work to be stopped for the winter. Work resumed the following year, and the tower’s fourth-order, Sautter, Lemonier & Cie Fresnel lens was placed in operation on October 15, 1915. The Lighthouse Service gave the following description of the lighthouse: The tower is hexagonal in plan and pyramidal in shape with a cylindrical watch room.The materials of walls are of reinforced concrete throughout except the watch room which is steel. The first story of the tower has vertical walls, the pyramidal section starting at the second floor level. In plan the base of tower is 21 feet overall, tapering to extreme dimensions of 13 feet 6 inches at the base of the watch room. The cylindrical watch room is surmounted by a fourth-order helical bar lantern with a focal plane 55 feet above the top of the pier. the outside walls are left natural concrete finish. Provision has been made in the base of the tower so that the entire superstructure can be releveled, should this ever become necessary, by means of hydraulic jacks. Living quarters are provided in the second and third stories of the tower, to be occupied in case of necessity. The pier is provided with a derrick for handling the keeper's launch. Commercial power was run to a control station at the boat house to where it was transformed from 2200 volts to 220 volts and 110 volts. An armored submarine cable led from the control station to the eastern end of the breakwater and then followed the breakwater to the lighthouse. A common sign flasher in the control station produced the light's flashing characteristic of two seconds of light followed by a one second eclipse. An electric siren fog signal was located in the tower's watch room, from where a galvanized sheet metal trumpet protruded to concentrate the sound. The fog signal produced a four second blast in every twenty seconds. The total cost for the lighthouse came to $24, 944. The light was automated in 1962, and the Fresnel lens was removed from the lantern room and replaced by a modern optic in 1980. In 2014, a measure in the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act transferred Ashland breakwater Lighthouse to the National Park Service. The breakwater lighthouse thus became the ninth lighthouse included in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.