Patty Loew:
The first US government lighthouse in Wisconsin still stands like a beacon nearly 160 feet above the water's edge. Today it's on the national register of historic places. One man made it his mission to open the lighthouse doors to the public. It's a doorway to Wisconsin's rich maritime history in Door County.

Tim Sweet:
Rock Island might be one of Wisconsin's best kept secrets.

Patty Loew:
Located on the state's northeastern-most tip, Rock Island rests at the very edge of Door County.

Tim Sweet:
You have to want to get here in the first place. Because it's a couple ferry boat rides and a mile and a quarter hike mostly uphill to get here.

Patty Loew:
Here is Potawatomi Point. And getting to this point was an uphill journey for Tim Sweet. He used to head the group called Friends of Rock Island that took this rundown lighthouse and made it a destination.

Tim Sweet:
It's on top of a 110-foot cliff. It marks the Rock Island passage. That just has to me that has a cool sound to it.

Patty Loew:
But in 1945 the beacon was automated and the lighthouse abandoned. Except for a colony of bats in the attic and snakes in the basement.

Tim Sweet:
It was unoccupied for 58 years. And imagine your own house not having anybody living in it or really doing a whole lot to maintain it. You can imagine that it's going to require a lot to bring a place like that back.

Patty Loew:
A lot to bring it back was an understatement.

Tim Sweet:
There were some times when I would look back and think, this is -- this isn't all that easy. We had been working on restoring the light since '99 when we first got the lantern put back in place. And everything else fell into place over the course of the next few years. By 2004 we were ready to open the place up to tourists.

Patty Loew:
But there was one problem.

Randy Holm:
With the budgets the way they are now, there would be no way to hire the staff to be able to afford to have that open.

Patty Loew:
So the Friends of Rock Island formed a partnership with the department of natural resources to create a live-in museum.

Randy Holm:
Now we have a program where volunteers are able to live in the lighthouse, do the cleaning and give the tours. In exchange for the free bed and breakfast.

Patty Loew:
No electricity, no phone and no indoor plumbing. This week it's Tim and Julie Sweet's home away from home at guest docents or lighthouse tour guides.

Randy Holm:
It’s really a win-win situation. The docents have come up. They get a memorable experience and the park gets to have people living in the lighthouse and giving history.

Patty Loew:
The lantern room is up three flights of stairs, straight up. But it’s well worth the climb.

Tim Sweet:
Watch your head here when we go into the opening. It's the crown jewel atop the lighthouse.

Tim Sweet:
People who look out at the view and say, wow, this is beautiful. What an inspirational view.

Patty Loew:
Visitors are awestruck as they take in the history and panoramic view of a sunrise over Lake Michigan and a sunset over Green Bay.

Tim Sweet:
If you look at those historic photos you will see these trees were cut down so there wouldn't be anything to obscure the view of the water.

Patty Loew:
The federal government shut down the lighthouse when they automated the light that guides ships through the spellbinding darkness.

Tim Sweet:
They took a lantern off of the lantern deck. They took the original lens and put it in the basement and somehow that lens mysteriously disappeared.

Patty Loew:
It was rebuilt. Along with a new Fernel lens reconstructed by a Disneyworld engineer, all paid for by private funds raised by the Friends of Rock Island.

Tim Sweet:
The lenses take a relatively small amount of light and the prisms are worked to take that light and concentrate it and shine it through the magnifying lens. That's the actual lamp now.

Patty Loew:
The new tower is solar powered to keep the beacon burning.

Tim Sweet:
It pretty much takes care of itself.

Patty Loew:
The tour is done. But the docents’ work is not.

Woman:
We are having chicken alfredo.

Patty Loew:
Volunteers living in the lighthouse cook their own meals without a refrigerator or microwave and without running water.

Tim Sweet:
Pumping their own water. Having no electricity so you have to use flashlights. It's a cool way of living most modern people don't get to do.

Tim Sweet:
The volunteers don't have to pay anything to stay here.

Patty Loew:
Well, sort of.

Randy Holm:
Free sometimes has connotations after you clean the bathroom after 300 people. But it's a cool program.

Tim Sweet:
You can kind of get a sense of what it would have been like to have been a lighthouse keeper on an island out here on Lake Michigan. We have an 1858 replica of the United States flag. It has 31 stars on it.

Tim Sweet:
This is the site of Wisconsin's oldest lighthouse that dates back to 1836. That's 12 years before Wisconsin even became a state.

Patty Loew:
In a way, this island has stood still, etched in that era. And each evening as visitors fade into the woods, this 900-acre island quickly reverts back to a quiet natural landscape.

Tim Sweet:
I know some people who come to Rock Island who would rather that we probably weren't even talking about Rock Island because they would rather keep it to themselves.

Patty Loew:
What they want to keep to themselves are the crystal clear waters, and uncut forests, undisturbed since the first Native Americans hunted here. The Potawatomi lighthouse is named in their honor. Fittingly the Potawatomi refer to themselves as keepers of the fire. It’s a flame that now burns in Tim Sweet to preserve this piece of the past.  

Tim Sweet:
Wisconsin does have a rich maritime history and this is part of it. Best thing about it is being able to share the with other people.

Patty Loew:
It's been a long journey to get to this point and it's become personal.

Tim Sweet:
I sometimes get choked up when I talk about this place because it does mean a lot to me.

Tim Sweet:
Rock Island is probably one of my most favorite places. I can't think of another place I would rather be than a place like this.

Patty Loew:
The first keeper of the light was a bachelor. David Corban received just one dollar a day plus food and housing.

Tim Sweet:
He was born in 1795 in Vermont. He was a veteran of the war of 1812. He served here for 15 years.

Patty Loew:
He is buried a few hundred feet from the lighthouse in this small cemetery. It has 12 burial sites and it's believe seven of those belong to victims of shipwrecks.