Along the Shore

One of the most interesting relics Alanen has found, it’s purpose still unknown, was a series of mysterious stone boxes, found north of Whitefish Lake. | SUBMITTED

Modern-day historian and Ontario amateur archaeologist

By Elle Andra-Warner

THUNDER BAY—Harold Alanen, the Canadian-born grandson of Finnish immigrants, is one of Thunder Bay’s modern-day historians—the stewards of history—who explore the landscape, collect and preserve an area’s archaeological record, record people’s history and then shares their research through presentations and writings.

Officially recognized by the Ontario government as an “amateur archaeologist,” his interest in the field stretches back to age 9 at Nolalu Public School when he held an authentic stone arrowhead a classmate had brought to school that had been found in a potato field owned by the student’s grandparents.

“From that day on, I searched cultivated fields, gardens, hiking trails, campsites, lake shores, river banks, and any other places where there was evidence of human activity,” said Alanen, a retired elementary school teacher and principal. “Most of the activities I did in the area, which is north of the Minnesota/Ontario border from Pigeon River to Northern Light Lake. It took close to 50 years before I discovered my own authentic stone arrowhead. It was on a beach on Northern Light Lake.”

Reading about the history of the area led to the discovery of habitation sites.

“I discovered a ‘workshop’ site north of Whitefish Lake that had been exposed by a logger’s bulldozer when he made a road to his bush lot,” recalled Alanen. “A lot of the evidence of former human activity that I have found has been campsites on lake shores and along portage trails.”

Officially recognized by the Ontario government as an “amateur archaeologist,” Harold Alanen’s interest in the field goes back to age 9 at Nolalu Public School when he held an authentic stone arrowhead. | SUBMITTED

One of the most interesting relics of the past, its purpose still unknown, he found north of Whitefish Lake.

“Mysterious stone boxes with four sides and a lid, assembled out of flat rocks. The eleven boxes were on bare exposures of Canadian Shield bedrock, each about the size of an apple box and distributed over an area of many acres. The thick growth of moss and lichens on the stone structures indicated to me that they were very old.”

Another puzzling find was also near Whitefish Lake on bedrock.

“It was a series of petroglyphs, a portion of which included a seated human figure holding a flag standard,” says Alanen.

Alanen is part of a network of metal detectorists in Duluth, Two Harbors and Wisconsin specializing in searching for fur trade artifacts and raw copper artifacts. And each year, archaeological groups from Thunder Bay, Duluth, Two Harbors and Superior host the Lake Superior Archaeological Workshop, alternating sites between Thunder Bay and locations in Minnesota.

Well-known as a historian, he is the author of the best-selling book, "They Came From All Around: A History of the 1,200 Square Mile Area From Nolalu to Northern Light Lake."

Another puzzling find was this series of petroglyphs, also near Whitefish Lake on bedrock. | SUBMITTED

“I had been collecting and saving articles, photographs, artifacts, etc., from the area for many years before I thought about writing about it,” said Alanen. The book provides an extensive look at the area from the first people back 9,000 years to the European/Finnish immigrants arriving in the 1900s.

His research and writings have attracted world-wide interest. In 2016, Harold was invited to speak on Finnish settlers in Canada at an international conference in Finland.

Eve Graham: Memories from an assistant lighthouse keeper

By Peter Fergus-Moore

THUNDER BAY—Over a 21-year period, Eve Graham enjoyed some of the most spectacular views of Lake Superior in some of the lake’s remote places—and was paid for the privilege. Graham lived on three light stations—Angus Island, Trowbridge Island and Porphyry Island—and was assistant lighthouse keeper on the latter two. She retired only when all the stations were automated in 1989.

“The four stations around Thunder Bay were kept by couples, and the wives did the work as much as the husbands. We wives were unpaid help,” she remembers. “After some staff kept quitting from the loneliness, the Ministry of Transport finally figured it made sense to hire the wives as assistants. So, we were four women who were paid employees alongside our husband lighthouse keepers at this end of Lake Superior.”

Contrary to a popular notion, lighthouse staff did not work only at night and sleep in the day. A station typically maintained a 24-hour lookout, especially in stormy weather conditions, around flexible eight-hour shift schedules. Later, when 12-hour shifts were instituted, they were responsible only for the day shift. From the end of March to two weeks before Christmas every year for 21 years, Eve and her husband Gordon maintained light stations for the safety of Lake Superior shipping. The remoteness and relative lack of access to the station islands brought special challenges to the families.

“I called Angus Island ‘Alcatraz’ because it was so difficult to get in and out of there,” Eve says. “It was barely large enough to have the lighthouse, the fog alarm building, the boathouse and the keeper’s houses on it. Gordon loved the isolation, but after about four months, I didn’t. I loved having people to talk to, so when we could have visitors, which was rare, I would invite them in for coffee and cinnamon buns that I’d baked myself.”

The weather and isolation also meant that supplies had to be bought in bulk and brought in by Coast Guard boats, or station boats when the weather allowed it. When the Grahams had children (Neil and Kevin), Eve added to her lighthouse duties by acting as their teacher, with resources provided by the Lakehead District School Board.

In addition to maintaining the light, the Grahams were also responsible for the annual repainting of the buildings, keeping the lighthouse machinery (including three diesel generators on Trowbridge) running, and maintaining channel markers for marine craft approaching the island. Eve took diesel shop and small engines courses at Hammarskjold High School during the winter. They had to keep everything in good working order.

Eve Graham with a photo of Trowbridge Island Lighthouse. | PETER FERGUS-MOORE

Eve has hundreds of memories from her time on the lighthouses, but two dramatic ones stand out. In the late summer of 1978, her then-3-year-old son Kevin caught pneumonia.

“The emergency helicopter from Thunder Bay came for him,” she says. “The paramedic tried to ease Kevin’s mind, telling him that he was getting an experience most children never got—a helicopter ride!”

Little did the paramedic know that Eve’s son, like the rest of his family, was a veteran of many such rides. “Just never lying down,” Kevin breathlessly quipped.

Another dramatic memory came from a few years earlier. In November, 1975, Lake Superior was the scene of a perfect storm—and the tragic sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

“The weather bureau told us that there were two storms coming in, to collide with one another, making a very large storm,” Eve remembers. “On the 8th and 9th, we observed the waves getting stronger. We pulled everything in that we couldn’t tie down. There were 45-gallon fuel drums fastened to steel clamps set in the concrete platform, chained down.”

By Nov. 9, the waves were strong enough to wash over the island, which prevented Gordon from mounting the exterior stairs of the lighthouse tower. He kept watch thereafter from the second storey window of the keeper’s house. By then, the spray from the waves was washing up over the two-storey house, higher than the roof. The entire northwest side of the house was ice-covered, rendering the windows useless for visibility.

“We hadn’t actually seen the Fitzgerald, because it had passed south of Isle Royale,” Eve remembers. “By the night of the 10th, when the ship was lost, we couldn’t see out our windows—the whole south side of the house was covered with ice.”

The Grahams were not prepared for the sight that awaited them when they were able to emerge safely from their house the next day.

“It was normal for storms to rearrange the beach, with rocks and driftwood, and stuff washed up. We often used to go beachcombing after a storm,” Eve says. “But that storm had changed everything! It even deposited a huge boulder right on the helipad, and the gas drums were all ripped away. We never saw hide nor hair of them again.”

Eve is emphatic that that experience was the most dramatic of her 21 years in lighthouse keeping.

When the lighthouses were all automated in 1989, the Grahams moved to Thunder Bay, taking other employment. They deliberately chose to build their house on Lakeshore Drive, east of Thunder Bay, where they could still look out on the Lake.

“From the upper storey of the house, we could still see the light of Angus Island,” Eve says.

Solar Co-op can make your Solar Dream a Reality

SPONSORED BY SOLAR UNITED NEIGHBORS

Agne Smith has been interested in sustainability and the idea of solar power for quite some time. “I’ve always liked the idea that you can harvest the sun and use it for electricity— it’s amazing,” said Smith, a longtime resident of Grand Marais and a solar owner.

But with the cost and hassle, actually getting solar panels installed on her home felt like a long shot. “It always seemed so expensive, I just didn’t know when I would be able to get to it,” she said.

Then, in 2020, that changed when she heard about the Solar United Neighbors (SUN) Duluth and Arrowhead Solar Co-op. SUN is a national nonprofit that helps people go solar and has completed over 350 solar co-ops helping over 7,500 people go solar. Locally, the Cook County Local Energy Project (CCLEP), Minnesota Interfaith Power and Light (MNIPL), and One Roof Community Housing partnered with SUN to promote the solar co-op.

At a SUN solar co-op info session Smith learned the basics of solar technology, the economics of solar, and how the solar co-op works to save members time and money.

“All of the sudden, it seemed doable,” said Smith. So, she joined the solar co-op.

Key to the process is that the solar co-op leverages group purchasing power to get the best price and service on solar installs. SUN solicits bids from solar installation companies in the area. A committee of solar co-op members reviews the bids and picks the best offer.

“Going through the process hundreds of times has allowed SUN to perfect the bidding process”, said Bobby King, Minnesota State Director for SUN. “Competitive bids from reputable installers saves solar co-op members time and money.”

For Smith’s solar co-op, the selection committee chose Wolf Track Energy of Duluth as the installer.

Smith sent Wolf Track information about her electricity usage and they created a proposal for rooftop solar for her home.

Smith purchased her home through a program run by One Roof Community Housing that helps low and moderate income residents become homeowners. Because of that SUN helped secure additional funding for her project and One Roof staff worked closely with her to make sure it was financially viable. With the discounted group rate on panels and this additional funding, she realized she could make it work. Smith signed the contract and a few months later, panels were being installed on her roof. Due to her roof size and household energy consumption, she ended up getting a 3.33 kWh system that includes nine panels (three on the upper roof, six on the lower roof).

These days, her energy costs are much lower and she sees electricity credits from her utility for her solar production on her monthly bill. For most months, solar covers about half of her bill. In the sunnier months, it’s a lot more. “Almost all of my August bill was covered by the sun,” Smith said. Her smaller bills are a result of using the solar power and the credit she receives from the utility company for the net electricity generated.

Similar to other Minnesotans with solar, her array is connected to the electric grid. When her panels produce power that her home isn’t using, it’s diverted to the grid and shared with neighbors. She’s paid by her utility for the power that’s sent back to the grid for use by others. This process is called “net metering.”

“When the sun is out and you are producing energy, the electricity you don’t use literally goes to your neighbors,” King said. “Net metering encourages homeowners to go solar and recoup their investment in solar. It encourages distributed solar which is essential to a more sustainable and resilient electrical grid.”

Smith’s experience with the Duluth and Arrowhead Solar Co-op demonstrates the reason the group exists in the first place; to make going solar easier and more affordable—and to make solar dreams a reality!

Even though the cost of solar has fallen dramatically in the last decade, it has still felt out of reach for many families. Not to mention that figuring out if your home is good for solar, how many panels you’ll need, what your electricity bill will look like after solar, how long it will take to pay off the system, and finding an installer who you trust can all feel like a giant headache.

Before joining the co-op, Smith had questions like, “How much is it going to cost? How am I going to get everything organized?” But joining the co-op gave her “all of the resources and knowledge” she needed. She suggests that anyone interested in solar check out SUN’s solar co-ops.

And with the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in August 2022, the federal solar investment tax credit was increased to 30 percent and extended for another 10 years. This means that 30 percent of the cost of going solar can be used as a credit against federal income tax owed. The IRA also expands this incentive to entities that don’t pay federal income tax like schools, local governments, and churches by offering a cash reimbursement. The IRA includes other clean energy incentives, like home battery storage and electric vehicle chargers.

The solar co-op helps folks get solar and solar helps lower electricity bills. But it does more than that. It lets people have agency over where their power comes from. It also supports the growing clean energy economy in Minnesota. And, it creates a more resilient electricity grid and generates energy locally.