Frederica Freyberg:

Federal money is on the way to help restore some of Wisconsin's iconic lighthouses. There are six light stations on Lake Superior's Apostle Islands. $5 million in federal funds will be used to help restore the historic lighthouses. Joining us from Ashland is Jim Nepstad, resource manager for the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. Thank you for being here.

 

Jim Nepstad:

Happy to be here.

 

Frederica Freyberg:

What kinds of things will the new money allow you to do?

 

Jim Nepstad:

Well, it will allow us to perform emergency repairs on some of the lighthouses that have desperate needs. It will also allow us to do preventive maintenance at many of these locations as well. That extends all the way up the spectrum to hopefully a full-blown restoration at a lighthouse as well.

 

Frederica Freyberg:

Right. Because I know we've extensively covered the Raspberry Island lighthouse restoration which is now complete and open for tours. So you're hopeful that you'll be able to take some of these others where you might be doing this preventive maintenance to that level?

 

Jim Nepstad:

That's what we're hoping. There's still a lot of planning that we have to do. The amount of money and the fact that it wasn't targeted to a particular project or a particular place took us back a little bit. We had to do a little extra planning. But we're running with it and hopefully we'll solidify plans here very soon.

 

Frederica Freyberg:

What's a little extra planning when you've got $5 million that I understand you didn't necessarily expect?                        

 

Jim Nepstad:

Well, not in one big, fell swoop like that. We have many projects that we have described internally within the national park service, funding needs that we have related to all of these lighthouses. We have lots of lighthouses. It's one of the largest collections of lighthouses anywhere in the country, certainly the largest collection in the national park system. So there's lots of needs and we've described lots of those needs. But, again, the fact that it wasn't targeted to a particular place is what was unusual in this case.

 

Frederica Freyberg:

Now, are lighthouses still important for navigation, or are they more a draw for tourists and as historic icons?     

 

Jim Nepstad:

I think it's a little bit of both. The United States Coast Guard does still maintain actively navigation lights at all of these locations. They are obviously still important for both national and international shipping interests. But they're also nationally significant historic structures. The lighthouse historian F. Ross Holland once described the Apostle Islands lighthouses as the largest and finest collection of lighthouses in the country. So they are of national significance. Lots of people come here from around the country and brave the dangers of Lake Superior in order to come and see them. So it's a little bit of both.

 

Frederica Freyberg:

What would you say to people who might argue that there are better ways to use taxpayer dollars and that this is an example of pork barrel spending?                                  

 

Jim Nepstad:

Well, my stock answer to that kind of concern is an invitation to show up here sometime during the course of the summer, stop by some of the lighthouses, talk to some of the people that are touring these lighthouses. You'll find that our visitors absolutely love these places. And I also might point out these lighthouses weren't constructed originally back in their day to serve the interests of any particular congressional district. They served the national interest. And they're now managed by an agency, the national park service, which also has a nationwide scope to it. And they're being managed for the benefit of the American people.

 

Frederica Freyberg:

So if you were to go there and take a tour of the Raspberry Island lighthouse, which has been completely restored, what do you do? Do you walk to the top of it? What does that consist of?

 

Jim Nepstad:

Well, it includes a tour not only of the lighthouse itself, but the entire grounds. One of the neat things about the collection of lighthouses in the Apostle Islands is the state of preservation that they're in. Not only are the lighthouses themselves nicely preserved, but in many cases the majority of the out-buildings are there as well and the grounds are still maintained much as they were in historic periods. So you'll get a tour not just of the lighthouse structure, but of the surrounding grounds, the out-buildings and so on. Eventually you'll be taken inside and shown around the various rooms where the keepers lived and eventually you'll wind up in the tower and in most cases be able to look out and see a pretty grand view of Lake Superior.

 

Frederica Freyberg:

That's awesome. Thanks very much for joining us.

 

Jim Nepstad:

Happy to be here.

 

Frederica Freyberg: That is all the time we have for tonight's program. I'm Frederica Freyberg. Have a great weekend.