Sad news from the Apostles

In a story on the Duluth News-Tribune website, news comes from Bayfield of a woman found dead floating in Lake Superior Wednesday afternoon. The victim was identified as Gildi Whiteside, age 67, from Bayfield.


Apparently this has been a busy season in the Bayfield area for lake-related incidents. A kayaker drowned off of Sand Island this summer. An 18-year-old from Red Cliff fell off the bluffs and drowned.

In one bit of positive news, there was a dramatic rescue off the Apostles. Just a few weeks ago, an 83-year-old passenger experienced heart problems aboard the Great Lakes' longest boat, the Paul Tregurtha. This would have been disastrous decades ago, when a boat was far from shore and medical help was impossible. This gentleman was airlifted by helicopter to the hospital...fortunately surviving the experience.

Ghosts and goners at Split Rock Lighthouse

This year is the big centennial of Split Rock Lighthouse, on Minnesota's North Shore of Lake Superior. A lot happened at Split Rock in 1910...including the first keeper fatalities.

100 years ago this month, Roy C. Gill, 2nd assistant keeper, and Edward F. Sexton, 1st assistant keeper, took off in a small boat for Beaver Bay to get the mail. This was 15 years before the North Shore highway was in place, and the only routes to civilization were by boat or by foot. Although the keeper warned against it, Gill and Sexton put up a small sail on their boat.

The boat was found later, but no bodies.

The story would end there as just another Lake Superior tragedy, if it weren't for an eerie ghost story from 1990. As William Mayo and Kate Barthel relate in their book Mysterious North Shore, the ghosts of Gill and Sexton were seen walking up from the historic boat landing.