Talk:Minnesota Point Light

Lots of disagreement on this one
There are a lot of disagreements between sources (e.g. LHF says the tower had a 4th order lens). In general I've taken the majority position. Mangoe (talk) 04:20, 26 April 2012 (UTC)

The Royal Navy would like a word
The assertion that the Minnesota Point Lighthouse was the zero point for the first survey of the Lake Superior region came as a surprise to the ghost of Admiral Bayfield. He slapped far too many mosquitoes to let that pass unchallenged:

”In the three summers of 1823 to 1825, Bayfield and Collins circumnavigated Lake Superior in their small survey boats, examining all the bays and islands. Hitherto, this lake had been almost unknown except to Indians and fur traders. At the end of the 1825 season, the two surveyors returned to England. Bayfield told the Admiralty Hydrographer that he had ‘. . . finished the Surveys of Lakes Superior, Huron, & Erie which I have brought with me but which will require some time to prepare for their Lordships inspection, Lake Huron being as yet in Pencil & Lake Superior not yet plotted.’

“It took two years' work in the Admiralty's Hydrographic Office in London to complete the charts including (in addition to the general charts of the three lakes) plans of the connecting waters — River and Lake St. Clair, Detroit River, St. Joseph Channel, St. Mary River — and plans of Penetanguishene and other harbors. Bayfield was proud of his accomplishment. He, assured the Hydrographer that ‘. . the Charts of the Lakes which I have just finished are as critically correct in all the details as to render any future Survey of them unnecessary for Nautical or general purposes, but it is highly desirable that they should be filled up with Soundings, which except to a certain extent from the shores I could not obtain without a Vessel.’ Bayfield annotated his lake charts with comments on the natural features of the coasts, the timber, geological formations, and nature of the soil.“

https://waves-vagues.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/library-bibliotheque/16755E.pdf Oversatt (talk) 17:14, 13 June 2024 (UTC)