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Lake Superior Magazine
Split Rock's Keeper of the Light
Occupying the center keeper’s house since 1982, Jane and Lee Radzak, children John and Anna and pet Captain enjoy the lake and surrounding forests while living in the midst of thousands of visitors.
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Minnesota Historical Society
Split Rock's Keeper of the Light
In period costume a number of years ago, the Radzaks take a break from interpreter roles in the kitchen of the restored 1910 keeper’s house.
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Lee Radzak
Split Rock's Keeper of the Light
With Split Rock and Lake Superior as muses, Lee has become one of the finest photographers on the Minnesota shore.
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Lee Radzak
Split Rock's Keeper of the Light
Besides photography, the spot inspires Lee to drawings of the light.
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Lee Radzak
Split Rock's Keeper of the Light
While impressive from atop the 130-foot cliff, Split Rock is monumental from water level.
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Lee Radzak
Split Rock's Keeper of the Light
Film crews for the motion picture “The Good Son,” starring Macaulay Culkin and Elijah Wood, used Split Rock facilities while filming portions of the picture.
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Radzak Family Collection
Split Rock's Keeper of the Light
Having a bit of fun, Lee Radzak hefts one of the “boulders” used in the making of the movie "The Good Son" at Split Rock.
John and Anna Radzak have never known a family home other than the middle keeper’s house at Split Rock Light Station on Lake Superior’s Minnesota shore.
Since well before their births, the teenagers’ father, Lee, has been historic site manager at the lighthouse for the Minnesota Historical Society. He and their mother, Jane, came to live there as newlyweds in 1982.
The children – and to some extent Lee and Jane as a couple – grew up along the steep and craggy cliffs, in the shadow of one of the most famous historical sites in Minnesota. With upward of 150,000 visitors a year, it’s also the most trafficked historic site in the state, second only to the Capitol.
Lee tells a story to illustrate how the lighthouse influenced his children.
When John was a youngster on his way to his grandparents’ home in the farm country of Willmar, Minnesota, he pointed to the grain silos and to the pigeons swarming around them. John identified them by what he knew.
“There’s another one, lighthouse!” said the toddler. And then, “more sea gulls!”
Just like children of the light keepers of days gone by, John and Anna started out helping with their father’s profession.
They served as costumed re-enactors of the life of lighthouse kids, though they outgrew that role a few years ago.
In some ways, Lee’s life has resembled those past keepers. “Because I’m living here, if the power goes out or the well goes out, I need to fix it. It’s pretty immediate.”
He has responsibility for maintenance of the historic equipment and structures, but his main duty is the preservation and historic interpretation of the 7.6-acre light station.
There’s a similarity, Lee says, that has stretched across the 90 years of the lighthouse and the light keepers.
“The most constant is the lake.”
The Radzaks are the only family living full time in a historic building operated by the Minnesota Historical Society.
The first Split Rock site manager for the society, Tom Ellig, lived there with his family from 1976 to 1982, when Lee became manager.
“A big part of it is security,” Lee says of the decision to keep someone in the keepers’ houses. “And it really does help my understanding of the keepers.”
While the first keepers and their families faced lonely isolation and rare visits by boat, not enough visitors isn’t a problem for the Radzaks. Their home is a fishbowl in the midst of a wonderfully scenic site that has attracted visitors since Highway 61 opened in 1924, ushering in an ever-increasing flood of visitors.
“Even though we have a fence and privacy signs around the house and the staff informs visitors that it is not part of the tour, some visitors still intrude.… Jane and the kids often feel like they’re on display,” says Lee. “This is my job and it really isn’t meant to involve the family, but people are curious and many of them feel free to just walk in and talk with Jane and the kids.”
The fascination with the light and the life of the keepers is longstanding. By the early 1930s, Split Rock keepers recorded thousands of visitors each summer and found it necessary to establish public visiting hours so they had time to do their work. That was a distinct change from earlier days, when the families felt isolated from other people.
Jane naturally has a presence at the site, but her work is in nearby Silver Bay.
As they’ve gotten older, John and Anna are drawn more toward town. Modern amenities help with the rural location.
Active in sports and school activities – John is a Silver Bay High School hockey and baseball player and Anna is in track, volleyball and basketball – they find computer games and access to the Internet to be a welcome diversion when time drags atop the cliff or when the crowds of visitors make it more comfortable to stay indoors than to join them on the grounds.
Like most teens, the Radzak kids try to imagine living another lifestyle.
“A lot of my friends think it’s neat to live here and it’s nice being so close to the lake,” Anna says thoughtfully. “I do like to live here, but sometimes it’d be neat not to need a ride everywhere.”
Her brother definitely enjoys living at the lighthouse during the winter and likes that the trails in the adjacent state park and surrounding area offer escape when he wants peace and quiet.
The lakeshore and rugged surrounding area inspired John and a friend to delve into film making – perhaps an inherited interest since Lee is one of the premier photographers of Lake Superior’s Minnesota shore.
For Jane, who grew up in gently rolling farmland near Willmar, Minnesota, the craggy north shore was a major adjustment when she and Lee moved there as newlyweds. But the power of nor’easter storms remains most memorable in her time as keeper’s wife.
“Areas at the base of the cliff have been hollowed out by waves and ice,” she says. “In a big storm, the house actually shakes from the force of the waves striking the cliff and the noise they make in the hollowed out areas is wonderful.” Spray from the waves reaches up the cliff and washes the house in the bigger storms.
“We do lose electricity in many storms, but we’ve gotten used to it and it’s part of the excitement,” she adds.
John and Anna are a bit less enthused about the electrical outages when an assortment of handy lamps and lanterns come out to provide illumination. Fortunately, the Radzaks don’t need to worry about the lighthouse beacon – the primary concern of everyone on the site during outages before the light station was decommissioned in 1968.
The Radzak family is not alone in greeting visitors during the busy summer months. Lee says the 40 plus employees at the site are dedicated and tuned into making visitors informed and welcomed. Most workers are seasonal with only Lee and three others as full-time, year-round staff.
“We’re fortunate to have excellent employees who return year after year and help to make this job fun,” Lee says. “That makes my job easier as site manager and also helps new employees understand what needs to be done and why we’re all here.”
That feeling of seasonal continuity may be part of the reason that Lee plans to remain as site manager at Split Rock Lighthouse for the foreseeable future.
“I spent six years as an archeologist before moving here. I enjoy working with the visitors and recorded history here as much as I did looking for artifacts at an archeological site.
“Split Rock is one of the Historical Society’s most visited sites and there isn’t any other site I’d rather manage. We have plans for future projects here that I want to be involved in and there are always new challenges to meet, like the increase in winter traffic that we’ve seen the past few years. I just can’t imagine being anywhere else.”
While living in a fishbowl can be distracting, Jane, John and Anna understand that they are the latest in a line of lighthouse families stretching back to 1910 when Pete Young’s family undoubtedly felt that he was living at the end of the world and decided not to move to the station with him.
“It’s hard to imagine today, with more than 150,000 visitors a year, but this was a very isolated post until the highway went through in 1924. Keepers before that pretty well had to depend on one another for company,” Lee says.
“After the highway brought in the crowds, some of them probably wished they could go back to those lonely times, but there was always a tradition of hospitality here – and we try to make sure that that tradition continues.”
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