Death & Lighthouses on the Great Lakes
Date/Time
Date(s) - Sat, Nov 4, 2023
2:30 PM - 3:30 PM
Location
Harrison Township Public Library
Categories
Website
www.htlibrary.org/
Dianna Stampfler of Promote Michigan will be presenting “Death & Lighthouses on the Great Lakes”.
Losing one’s life while tending to a Great Lakes lighthouse — or any navigational beacon anywhere in the world for that matter — sadly wasn’t such an unusual occurrence. The likelihood of drowning while at sea or becoming injured while on the job ultimately leading to death were somewhat common back in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Death by murder, suicide or other unnatural and tragic causes, while rare, are not unheard of. In fact, more than dozen lighthouse keepers around the Great Lakes met their maker at the hands of others – by fire, poisoning, bludgeoning and other unknown means. A handful of these keepers, either because of depression or sheer loneliness, took their own lives. A few we may never know the true story, as the deaths now 100 or more years ago, weren’t subjected to the forensic scrutiny that such crimes are given today. In the pages of Death & Lighthouses of the Great Lakes: A History of Misfortune & Murder – coming out in March 2022 from the History Press – you’ll find an amalgamation of true crime details, media coverage and historical research which brings the stories to life…despite the deaths of those featured.
Harrison Township Public Library, Harrison Township