Milwaukee's Aids to Navigation Multi-Cache
Milwaukee's Aids to Navigation
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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This is a multicache that will take you to three locations around Milwaukee where you will learn about the lights ships use to navigate in the Great Lakes. There is a distance of approximately 8.75 miles from beginning to end along paved paths and city streets. This cache makes for a long bike ride or can be accomplished by car. The final is in a small square container!
The coordinates for the first leg are:
43° 03.929' N
087° 52.254' W
In 1855, the original North Point Lighthouse was erected on this spot, marking the north end of Milwaukee Bay. The beacon was housed in a 28 foot tall tower. In combination with the height of the bluff, this placed the beacon 107 feet above lake level, the highest in the Great Lakes at the time. Following 16 feet of erosion in the 1870's, Congress approved the building of a new lighthouse at its present location, 100 feet inland from the old lighthouse. In 1912, the 39 foot cast iron tower was lifted atop a new base after complaints that the light could not be seen from the water. This new base almost doubled the tower's height to 74 feet tall. Atop the bluff, this placed the new light 154 feet above the lake level and it was visible for 20 miles. The light was taken out of service in 1994, and has been fully restored and today operates as a museum.
Read the Historic Marker and add it to the lighthouse house number to decipher the coordinates to the next waypoint.
Year in which the light was first lit = _ _ _ _ + _ _ _ _ (house number) = _ _ _ _ABCD
AC° 01.BB6' N
0D7° BC.720' W
This pierhead light was established in 1872, and helped sailors navigate the entrance to Milwaukee Harbor. The light was built to replace an original "bug light" that was placed on the end of the pier. After complaints from sailors that the "bug light" was too low and did not operate efficiently, Congress approved funding for the construction of the North Cut Beacon and the pierhead light. The original 4th Order Fresnel lens was transferred to the Milwaukee Breakwater Light in 1926, and is now housed at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. The 5th Order Fresnel lens, installed in 1926, was removed in 2005.The light was maintained by its own set of lighthouse keepers from 1872 until 1926. After this, the beacon was maintained by the lighthouse keeper stationed at North Point Lighthouse until the light was automated. The tower you see today was placed at its present location after pier improvements in 1905, and measures just over 42 feet tall. The pierhead light was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2012, and has a sister light located in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Count the number of round windows on the light structure and divide by 1140 to decipher the next coordinates.
Number of piers = _ / 1140 = _ _ _ _EFG
4E° GG.GGF'N
GF7° 5E.2F5' W
Just to the east of this location, in 15 feet of water near the shore, are the remains of Lightship 57. Lightships were commonly used to aid sailors in navigation in areas of treacherous sailing where building a lighthouse was not possible or inefficient. They generally served to mark reefs or the edge of areas unsafe for shipping, and would maintain stationary with lights secured to their mastheads. Milwaukee's lightship, Lightship 95, served the areas surrounding Milwaukee as the Relief Lightship until it was decommissioned in 1965. It is now a floating recording studio at Trinity Buoy Wharf in East London. The lightship wrecked near this location, Lightship 57, or the Grey's Reef Lightship, did not originally serve in Wisconsin waters. It was stationed at Grey's Reef off the coast of Michigan from 1891 to 1923. The vessel had three oil-burning lens lanterns hoisted to each of its two mastheads to aid sailors. The vessel was brought here to South Shore Beach in 1924 after being decommissioned and dismantled, where it was used as a clubhouse starting in 1928. Soon thereafter, the vessel was wrecked by a storm, and now lies against the sea wall with its bow facing north.
This cache was placed as a partnership with Wisconsin Historical Society, Wisconsin Maritime Museum, and Milwaukee County Parks through the National Park Service's Maritime Heritage Grant. A Geocache Placement Notification Form has been submitted to Milwaukee County Parks. We hope you enjoyed learning about Milwaukee's aids to navigation. To learn more about Wisconsin's maritime heritage please visit our other geocaches in the Milwaukee area and throughout the state, or visit wisconsinshipwrecks.org and maritimetrails.org!
Additional Hints
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