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March 29, 2005
Keeping history aliveStudents help research, plan South Fox exhibitByRecord-Eagle staff writer Doug McCormick was just a kid when he lived on South Fox Island. For a team of local fourth-graders, he's like a living history book. The students from Fife Lake Elementary and Northport Public School are the newest experts on the history of the South Fox Island Lighthouse. They've teamed up with a coalition set on saving the lighthouse to establish a new exhibit at the Grand Traverse Lighthouse Museum located in Leelanau State Park at the tip of the Leelanau Peninsula. Museum director Stef Staley said the educational collaboration will bolster the South Fox Island Lighthouse Association's efforts to restore the maritime landmark. "We suggested an exhibit to bring awareness of its history and that it needs help," Staley said. "The kids are very excited." The students have searched, studied and interviewed for months. So they were ready and waiting with questions about McCormick's life on South Fox when the two classes merged to hear oral histories from people connected to the island. McCormick's father was lightkeeper there from 1916 to 1921, and he was 2 years old when they moved to the island. Notebooks came out and hands shot up one after the other as they asked the 90-year-old McCormick about what it was like to be their age on the island. "If we got sick, our mother took care of us," he said. "Once I smashed my fingers and my mother sewed it up with some black thread. You couldn't go ashore, so you had to take care of yourself." The crescent-shaped South Fox Island is about 16.5 miles off Cathead Point in Leelanau County. The lighthouse was built in 1867 on its southern tip. The students were also curious about the lightkeeper's duties and what the children could do. "You weren't allowed to touch the lens," McCormick said. "If you went up there you couldn't even breathe on it." Students also recorded oral histories from author Kathy Firestone. She lived on South Fox in the 1950s when her father, Sterling Nickerson, owned the island and logged it. Northport teacher Sue Boss said students have engaged enthusiastically in the research, learning about documentation and different types of sources along the way. Each class is investigating an assigned set of topics. "We're looking at everything we can get our hands on," Boss said. The project pairs students' learning about local history with an opportunity to share their newfound expertise with the community, Boss said. "I've learned a ton and keep learning as we're going through this," she said. Staley said the South Fox exhibit is scheduled to open at the museum in May. The museum has dedicated about $10,000 to pay for materials, student transportation and other project costs, and has paid for 20 hours of research from the U.S. National Archives.
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Record-Eagle/Douglas Tesner
