There were over 800 photos taken for this trip, but most of them were for the fireworks. We have pared it down to a little over 200 photos, and it will probably be pared down more. We will split this into the fireworks and everything else. This is the everything else post.

A friend of John’s invited us to go to the Lorain Lighthouse for the Fourth of July fireworks. Interestingly, she failed to mention that the lighthouse is cursed. “Do you want to see fireworks at a cursed lighthouse?” has a slightly more sinister connotation. There are attributions including being a generalized curse on the lighthouse, haunting by the past keepers, or witch’s curse over the Broadwar/Lorain area. They ever have paranormal tours at the lighthouse.

This event started at the Black River Port Authority boat landing. We arrived about 25 minutes early, so we just looked around and took pictures. Lorain was a manufacturing town, and it was economically hurt when the local manufacturing shut down. We were on one edge of the old manufacturing area, and there were piles of sand or pebbles across the river. This portion of the river is not very scenic.

Across the river is the Lofton Henderson Bridge. (Click here for a high resolution image, but you will have to go back to return to this page.)

There is also an airport nearby, but we never saw it.

In the panorama, you can see an abandoned boat in the lower right, under the Henderson Bridge. John’s friend claims that the boat under the bridge was abandoned by an “unknown” person, which at least some online sources confirm. It looks a lot like the mundane being sensationalized similar to Frankenstein’s Grave. Apparently, people abandon boats because it is cheaper than properly disposing of them. (In Maryland, this is true for washing machines, dish washers, driers, refrigerators, and couches.)

The boat is a 90 foot Canadian automobile ferry constructed in 1949 that has been dubbed the “Black River Ghost Ship”. Why clean up trash when you can make it a tourist attraction? Apparently, it has started sinking in the last few years. In the map below, we were in the upper left, and the boat is in the lower right. The bridge is across the right side of the map.

On the near side is the port authority building, bathrooms, parking lot, and not surprisingly, swallows of various kinds. The Bank Swallows were too fast to get good pictures, but the Cliff Swallows were building nests on the side of the wharf.

Just past 7 pm, a terrifyingly small boat, the Pride of Lorain, arrived to take people out to the lighthouse. John’s friend went in the first boat. We told her to text, if she survived the ride to the lighthouse^*. The second boar arrived, and we wished we went on the first one. The Disgrace of Lorain was even smaller and less seaworthy looking.

Okay, okay. In reality, the Lady Charleston looked pretty much identical to the Pride of Lorain. We went in the second boat, and it was about a twenty five minute ride down the Black River to Lake Erie with the short stops to talk about the area.

We passed under a neat train drawbridge that was down. On the way back, it was raised.

This is a typical set of pictures for anything we see; we have silhouetted, properly lit, and through Kate’s head. The only thing missing is a lens flare.

We also passed under the Charles Berry Bridge, a double leaf bascule bridge. Some people believe that it is the second longest bascule bridge in the world. There are differences in construction and measuring that make this assessment more difficult and less clear, so other people disagree that it is the second longest. The people in Lorain think those other people are wrong. (The smaller pictures are compliments of John’s friend.)

We had to pass by the water treatment plant at the end of the peninsula; a small band was playing close to the plant. We expect then to get renamed to “You Stink!”, not for their music, but for the odors their clothes absorb.

The lighthouse is not far out the mouth of the Black River just past the western breakwater. Along the western breakwater, there are privately owned duck blinds. During duck season, the hunters scare the boaters when shooting the ducks. They also have a little boat that drives out and picks up the ducks, so we assume all their hunting dogs are in the unemployment line.

In the Google Map below, you can see the Black River emptying into Lake Erie in the lower right and the Lorain lighthouse in the upper left. On the left, the western breakwater has the duck blinds. In the middle, those two black circles are the sewage treatment plant, which is right next to the Black River Beverage and Fuel Dock. We are definitely never drinking any Black River beverages.

As you leave the Black River, you can immediately see the lighthouse, but it is too small for a decent picture. It takes a good five to ten minutes to get to it, even though it is only a half mile into the lake.

Here are some arrival pictures, compliments of John’s friend. The question of the day is “Are those hat shaped drink holders or drinkable hat weights?” Either way, your head is nice and cool, when you put the hat on. Just do not lean over.

When you arrive, you pick a table and drop off your stuff. If you are Kate, you go looking for a stamp station. (FYI: It is the gift shop.) If you are John, you go take some pictures of the breakwater. If you zoom in, you might see some rectangular duck blinds on the left side of the breakwater.

After this, we ditched John’s friend and went on the tour. (No, we did not actually ditch her. They announced the tour, and we told her we were going. She was focused on the drink selection, and she did not hear the announcement or us.) While outside, the tour was difficult to hear due to the boat traffic. We ended up taking pictures instead. The boaters and jet skiers were starting to arrive to watch the fireworks from the water. In the second two pictures, you can see the new unmanned lighthouse in the lower right.

The fact that they have their own flag made John wonder if they are going to secede from the United States like Key West did in 1982. (You can read more about the Conch Republic here on Wikipedia.)

The main thing we remember from the outside is that the lighthouse was built in three parts – the wooden cradle, the platform, and the lighthouse. They have a model and picture of the model inside.

The inside tour was a little more interesting, but we were still only half listening. The beam in the center has the hoist on it, and it is how they get stuff into the lighthouse. It use to extend 5′ over the water, but it had to be shortened to be out of the through fare. The doors in the ceiling is how stuff is hoisted to the second floor. The little plumb bob is the weight mechanism used to mechanically spin the light, similar to a grandfather clock. It runs about 8 hours before someone had to manually reset it. This was later replaced with an electric motor.

This floor also has what looks like an old car that was converted into a generator. The second generator was actually the original, and it was brought back to the lighthouse to be refurbished, after 50 years.

The second floor is where the operators stayed during their shifts. When the lake thawed, they would be called in to man the lighthouse. They did not live here full time, they worked rotations similar to a firehouse. This floor has a small living, dining, and sleeping area, and extra room. The entire floor is nor more than about 25’x30′. In the past, the living area held the giant foghorn air tanks. This floor has ancient technology that was last used in, probably, the stone age. The monitor for that computer is so bulky that it will not even fit on the desk!

The kitchen/dining/galley has the oldest appliances John has ever seen.

The bedroom is pretty small and spare.

The third floor is the foghorn and access to the light cupola. Here we learned that the light and foghorn at each lighthouse has a unique pattern. The Lorain Lighthouse is three seconds on and three seconds off. The fog horn runs for 60 seconds with two identical 30 second patterns. A little copper disk (between lighthouse model and the foghorn) controls the horn pattern.

This floor has the ladder stairs to the cupola. Sadly, the guides felt that they needed to explain how to use it. We assume that someone used it wrong once.

We went up to the cupola, which was cooler and had better views. Towards the sun, they sky was turning golden yellow. Away from the sun, it was still blue.

The shoreline was starting to darken. After a quick text to “look up”, John’s friend realized where we went. (“Look out below” would have been better.)

This is a panorama of the Lorain shoreline viewed from the lighthouse cupola. (Click here for a high resolution image, but you will have to go back to return to this page. It may take a minute to load, it is large. On the left side, you can zoom in to see the truck unloading fireworks on the Mile Long Pier. You can also see the bascule bridge, train bridge, and the sewage plant!)

After this, it was back down to food and waiting for fireworks. We ate, watched the sky darken, and took pictures of the Great Blue Heron and boaters.

Shortly after eating, they announced a cargo ship coming through. We expected it to pass a half mile away, but it was only 50 to 100 feet way. It looked as tall as the lighthouse. One the Black River, they had to raise the bascule Bridge and the train drawbridge. We later found that it stopped at a dock before the train drawbridge, so that raising the train bridge might have just been a precaution. In the last few pictures, you can see the ship heading up the Black River and the fireworks on the shoreline have started.

The ship was the Algoma Innovator. The Algoma Innovator is a 650 foot Equinox class freighter built in Croatia in 2017 and owned by Algoma Central Corporation. It is a self unloading dry bulk freighter designed for the Great Lakes. It carries aggregate, grain, and salt without relying on dockside equipment. We did not see anyone on board, so maybe this is a Tesla self-driving car-go ship or the real Black River Ghost Ship. (Click here for a high resolution image, but you will have to go back to return to this page. It may take a minute to load, it is large. See if you can find anyone on board. Ooooh, spooky!)

After the food and fireworks, we rode the same-ish boats back. At night the ferry ride was less terrifying because you can not tell that you are about to die. Also, they shine red and blue lights on the lighthouse to make it look more patriotic. On the Black River, we had a few kayaks paddle up near us with Christmas lights on their boats.

The lighting being more uniform on the iPhone picture is a nice effect, but is it a bit over done. It makes the lighthouse look like it is glowing with the anger of the ghosts of the past keepers instead of just lit up for the holiday. The picture below has the exposure adjusted to show the colors more uniform than what we saw. It would be nice if there was a bit more water showing the reflection of the lights.

^* Not really, but we would have, if we thought of it.