The Mississagi Lighthouse Update 2009

The Lighthouse Museum

This year we had a great year of visitors to the Museum. We were able to make a few more repairs to the building and make some restorations to some of the older information. Thank you all to your generous donations that help us keep up with the maintenance. We are very pleased with the response to our new Lighthouse informational booklets available at the restaurant. We also had the pleasure of hearing more stories and information from relatives of the Lighthouse Keepers. This year we had David Grant of the Grant family come up for a camping trip and aid us in additional information to add to the history of the Grant family. You will notice these changes effective in the 3rd edition of the lighthouse booklet and in the “History of the lighthouse keepers” section on our website. We hope to continue to restore older information and keep adding everything new we can find out as well.

The Restaurant

We had a lot of fun this year with the help of our new staff, Kayla who will be rejoining us in the 2010 season. News has spread about our yummy food and tasty baked goodies and we have people returning from all over. We hope that with continued success we should be able to add some more dinner specials and keep up with the demand for the whitefish dinners. We still will remain cash only and hope to expand more of the Giftware. Some of you might have noticed our new addition to decor in the restaurant above the fireplace. We have the pleasure of now displaying a wonderful donation of a print copy of a commissioned Mississagi lighthouse painting for and from Wendy and Hans Vetter(Two of our favorite seasonal members). Thank you so much for the gift and we hope everyone else will enjoy it as much as we do. The artist was Ken Wilkens from the Golden Gallery in Tobermory. To contact the artist for other art, or to obtain a possible limited print of the same painting, please go to his website for more information. www.wilkens-art.com. We had our first ever special event, a night of Country with Couzin Pete which the entire campground and people from Meldrum Bay came up to enjoy. We also hope to plan more events like this in the future. If you have any suggestions please contact us and let us know your ideas..

Camping

With the economy in trouble we found no shortage of happy campers this season. We even had more larger groups and families traveling together. We had a new group stay with us, A Native Youth Awareness Group that was traveling all across Ontario. We hope they enjoyed the rest of their journey after us. We would also like yet again to remind our members to PLEASE keep their dogs and other pets belonging to family members’s or guests leashed at all times. We really want to keep our park and campground pet friendly but if the issue continues to cause problems either with the running our business or disrupts the enjoyment of other campers, children and the many tourists etc, we may have to seek more drastic measures then the removal of the camper(s) and their pet(s). On a good note, reservations are already starting to come in so if you haven’t yet booked your site for 2010 you might want to start thinking about it. We would also like to remind the members that if you have changed any info regarding your contact information for the membership could you please let us know as soon as possible so we are able to update our records and can avoid some embarrassing confusion during registration. We also would like to introduce new special membership cards that will be available to those who keep supporting us by returning year after year. Those who qualify will be able to pick up their New Card at the restaurant during registration this upcoming season.

Website

We would like to send a thank you out to all those new and regular who have supported and made positive comments towards our effort. We have made some new additions such as our new Facebook Fanpage Link on our homepage. This allows us and our supporters to make comments, notices that will immediately be updated and shown on our website. Feel free to join our fanpage and post your comments. We added new information about the Grant family as previously mentioned, and new to the Leisure section : “Diving the Burlington” photos thanks to Jeff and Ian Wagg. We also are still finding somewhere to place our “Ghost in the Lighthouse” picture taken by Rob Snoddon. In the future we also plan on redoing our photo gallery to make the viewing easier and we hope to add more visitor submitted photos. The camping info now has the new rate information that will be effective July 1,2010 due to the new HST. We also plan on posting upcoming specials and events as they arise. Check the homepage before you begin to travel for the latest news and don’t forget to sign the guest book or leave your comments on facebook.

Most Recent News

The Dukes of Meldrum General Store -

The new HST effective July 1,2010 -

Lafarge road relocation -

Little Current Swing Bridge Repairs -

Special Thanks -

Thanks again for your patronage and we look forward to seeing all of you very soon!!!

Sincerely from the Management Staff of the Mississagi Lighthouse, Mary Eadie and Family

Email: info@themississagilighthouse.com

Standard Mail

The Mississagi Lighthouse

c/o Box 77

Webbwood, ON

P0P 2G0

Business Hours 2010

Open 8am-8pm 7 Days/week

May 21st - Sept 16th

The Gate is always Open

~~~~~ NEWSLETTER ARCHIVES ~~~~~

The Mississagi Lighthouse Update- 2008

The News

Maintoulin Island - The Island had quite a few hardships this year with Ecoli problems in the water (including the great lakes), shut down of beaches, cold and windy storms and a dramatic loss in tourism. We can only assume the loss is due to higher gas prices, higher prices in retail in food because of the raise in staffing/expense costs, and the loss of a few businesses as well as great people who ran them. There has also been great news as well such as the increase population of Sand Hill Cranes, the new law signed by George Bush to “turn off the taps” to the great lakes(Oct.22, 2008 archive), and much more. For more Island news of 2008/2009 you can go through the Manitoulin Expositor Archives via www.maintoulin.ca.

Communication

- From Jan- Feb in the year we had experienced a major set back with our email service. Our provider had switched to another service and during this process our email account got lost in the shuffle. We were unable to receive any emails that were sent during this time. The problem was corrected in March and we were able to resume. However, during the summer time we also ran into some more issues with a few more emails not coming through the system. We apologize to everyone who attempted to contact us and could not get through. In Dec - Jan of this year we ran into another major problem, a glitch that froze our access to the account. We are uncertain what exactly happened but it has been resolved. It left us with about 15000 emails to sort through, mostly spam and the missing emails finally sent through from Jan 2008 throughout the entire season. Our main concern is the spam. It overruns our email and forces some our legitimate emails on the back burner to be sorted later. We are working on filters to stop the mass emails without stopping yours from coming through. When contacting us please make sure you type something in the Subject line such as: reservations, camping, etc. You may also contact us by mail during the off season. If all else fails you can contact our website administrator Sean at felix@personainternet.com and he will forward the information to us as soon as possible. For the new members please make note that we cannot make phone calls during the season.

The Restaurant

- Staffing had been our major concern over the season. We hired and dismissed three extra employees and all before the long weekend in August. Mary, Jimmy, myself and with the help of visiting friends and family like Maureen managed to muster through to the end of the season. We will again be looking for staff for the 2009 season. With the high cost of wages we will only require one full time employee, preferably under the Ontario Job Connect program or the Student Summer Job Services program under Cambrian College. All applicants and inquiries can be made to our email info@themississagilighthouse.com or by mail.

The new internet service available to the public has went well and we intend to provide it again. Keep in mind we are extremely isolated and weather conditions do affect the service. We were able to enjoy selling Fudge/Soap/Calendars and new postcards this year and hope to add to the souvenir list this season as well. T-shirts are still in the works but are complicated and expensive. If you have any ideas for souvenirs let us know before May 2009.

The Lighthouse

- We were lucky to enjoy the company of some of the relatives of the Lighthouse Keepers and even the Keeper’s assistants this year. Progress on restoring articles is coming slowly but is in the works. Tours are still not available because of staff shortage but we will continue to add visual information as well as a new additional information booklet that will be available for sale at the restaurant.

Camping

- Welcome to all our new campers and Membership holders. We had an increase in campers and the return of many of our beloved regulars. The fishing season went well except for the few weeks of bad wind but our crews were able to relax and enjoy the time off regardless. With the large amount of campers you are all to be commended on the small amount of noise. We had only a few complaints which were mostly the result of our staff. We only had a few mishaps over the season so only a few reminders are needed. *Please ensure all animals, mainly dogs are leased at all times. *All campers using electrical services need to be reminded that we are in the wilderness and we have a low service. If you use multiple appliances at the same time you will blow a breaker or worse. This affects not only your service but possibly that of another camper and the time it takes for the staff to fix the problem. If you need an air conditioner, please go outside and enjoy the beach. *Our picnic tables are not the greatest but they are limited and we have a set number. As our campers increase and the occupation of all sites fill up they will require their specific table. We would rather not chain them to trees so please do not remove them! *There is also a maximum number of people allowed per site, one family max. Not all sites are sized equally and cramming more people into smaller waterfront sites will not only make your stay uncomfortable but will affect the people in the site beside you. We do have larger sites that can accommodate more people such as two families and would prefer you ask for those when camping in larger groups. *Your site is not guaranteed year after year for you unless you reserve it. All campers are equal and its first come first serve. Our long term regulars do not get special status, they simply reserve over a year in advance. *Reservations around Lafarge’s work schedule is impossible. They are in our backyard, they are loud and yes they sometimes work weekends! We have no control or say in when the shipments go out but they do allow the public and us access to the lighthouse so all we can do is pray the planet runs out of ideas for cement and limestone or at least takes a break from it now and then.

Meldrum bay

- For all you fisherman and boaters out there you will be happy to know that the break wall in Meldrum Bay has been completed. The break wall was a construction project funded and completed by FedNor, NOHFC, Lafarge and many other volunteers to protect the boats moored in the bay. The general store “Duke’s of Meldrum” will still be open and willing to accommodate special requests. For inquiries call Clayton or Brandee Featherstone 705-283-1374 or email: bfeatherstone@xplornet.com.

MS Chi-Cheemaun

- We received numerous emails over the season of many questions regarding costs and ferry schedules. We only have the Ferry brochures late in the season and usually run out of them quickly. For more information in the upcoming season please go to their website or contact them instead. Www.ontarioferries.com. They will be able to help more then we can.

Upcoming Season

- In 2008 our little paradise at the end of the Island actually did pretty good considering. There are some new businesses with wonderful people and we had pretty much the same amount of tourists as the year before. We do not make a lot of money during the season, we just trying to cover the costs and make attempts at future improvements. This year after a well done season we got blasted with lightning and blew out most of our equipment such as walkie talkies, computers, fridges, cash register etc. We hope to have most replaced as soon as possible so the start up in 2009 might be a bit slower for some services but we are always open and available to the public once the gate opens in May. Camping is never closed. Even when we are full we will find you a spot! If we are short staffed again the restaurant will only stop serving food temporarily while we run for supplies/cleaning etc. Your patronage is what keeps the place going, we thank you and look forward to seeing all of you this summer!

Sincerely from the management staff of the Mississagi Lighthouse,

Mary Eadie & Family!

Website: www.themississagilighthouse.com

Email : info@themississagilighthouse.com

Regular Mail:

The Mississagi Lighthouse

c/o Box 77 Webbwood, ON. P0P 2G0*

(*corrected postal code from prev. issue)

Business Hours 2009

Open 8am-8pm 7 days/week

Gate is always open, restaurant only closes temporarily.May 15th - Sep 18th

2007 Message from Mary

***Message From Mary 2007 Season***

2007 Newsletter Archive

The Mississagi Lighthouse Update - 2007

In Season

           Hello again everyone! Welcome to our new members as well. This year we began strong, and only had a few minor mishaps this season such as 3 refrigerators and 2 freezers breaking down, and our piping attached to the field bed behind the shower house clog up. Considering the age of the buildings along with accompanying ancient plumbing, I consider us very lucky to still have these amenities working!. The weather was very good this year, despite a few rainy/cold patches. Fishing was average but from what we heard, only to those who had luck on there side. We were truly honored to have such an increase in tourists and campers, (including double the amount of member registration) who all came out our way to see the lighthouse and to just simply enjoy the view. It was great to hear all the feedback, input and support from all of you regarding the welfare of the location, especially the lighthouse. We hope to continue the good work and look forward to the upcoming season.

The News

The Restaurant - This year was excellent! We made a few new additions to our menu and had the same reviews about the heartiness of the food. We began to deliver orders to Lafarge on a weekly basis which sometimes resulted in the shut down of the restaurant for an hour on Fridays. We also added new items for sale such as “3 Cows and a Cone Fudge” and Soap from “The Manitoulin Soap Factory” and some Calendars From “Mc Quay Click and Clay” that we plan on continuing to sell next season. There are other gift ideas including new postcards that we are working on. We were also fortunate to have a full-time waitress, Sarah who will not be re-joining us in 2008 although she may be up to vacation!. We thank her and wish her the best and are again looking for staff in the upcoming season. Inquiries/ resumes can be sent to us via email info@themississagilighthouse.comwith the heading stated Re: Employment. We also had planned on doing some fancier suppers but the demand simply wasn’t there. When demand does pick up for dinners other then Fish, we will offer something else. The “Whitefish” has also been a delicate issue. Due to the lack of refrigerated space, travel time, and actual availability this season, we were not able to bring in as much as we would have hoped to. We are planning on getting more fridges and trying to set up more regular outings to get the fish. The only problem is that it is very expensive, we can only sell “purchased” fish NOT what our campers have caught, and it will depend on the amount of staff and vehicular means to go and get it. We will try our best to get more!

Water Issues- I thought some of our water system information as well as the process we deal with on a seasonal basis might answer some of the concerns about our drinking water. We again had issues with Ecoli and Coliform Bacteria from the Lake. These bacteria are natural and wont cause major harm, but high amounts will make you sick, especially to the young and elderly. We obtain our water supply directly from Lake Huron. It is then passed through a Chlorinator, Ultra Violet zapper (im not sure what its properly called) and filters. The water travels from our main system at the cottage to the restaurant and then to the campground, all of this by lines run on top of the ground. When the system is functioning (which luckily it did the entire season), it is able to kill the bacteria instantly. Because we get our source directly from the Lake, if our main water line is damaged or moved out of water by severe weather conditions we have to reset the entire system (which may take a whole day-only happened once this season).We are required by the Ministry of Health to send in water samples every 2 weeks to a designated depot or drive them ourselves to the lab in Garson, Ontario (about a 5 hour drive). We had storage issues with our depots on the island, as well as the storage of the samples taken. If a sample take becomes too warm or too old, the natural bacteria inside the water begins growing again, giving you a bad result. I believe it was 2 times this year we had negative results due to improper storage and as a result had to go through the motions of posting up “boil water advisory” but thankfully did not have the restaurant shut down. Each time our follow up results were perfect. We just would like to reassure people that our system is indeed doing its job properly and the water through our systems is safe, but if you have doubts or use the Lake water itself, it should always be boiled for 5 minutes. The MTA along with the lab is also looking into a better method for shipping and storage so hopefully we, along with other businesses on the island can get through an entire season without the warnings.

Communication- We again had a lot of trouble trying to obtain phone communication at the location of the lighthouse. We DID finally get wireless internet and were able to keep in touch with our campers and other inquiring minds via email on a daily basis and will continue to have this available next season as well. We tried cell phone service for the second year, and also a VOIP system via the computer, all had also failed during weather conditions and were jumbled calls at best. Although having a phone line for emergencies would be great, it is just not do-able for us at this time and we’ve chosen to remain an isolated paradise. To safe confusion, wrong numbers, failing answering machines, delayed or overlapping reservations, we have decided to remain strictly email/mail so that everyone is treated equally. We do plan on making the internet available to the public at the Restaurant to help some of you feel “not so” isolated.

The Lighthouse- We were able to complete some more renovations in the lighthouse but more work is needed to do. We have preserved and added our guest book records from when the Eadie family first operated the park and have also done some more research. Informational booklets should be available for sale in the new season as well. We also had the pleasure once again of a visit with Ada Grant (daughter of lighthouse keeper William Grant) who recalled a few lighthouse tales with us that we also hope to make available to the public someday as well. Tours were simply not an option for us due to lack of staff but hopefully we will be able to in 2008 or simply display more information to the public. The Museum will still remain open free of charge or by donation at the door.

Camping- Camping was great this year. It was nice to see a lot of familiar faces come back, so we must be doing something right! We tried to clean up some of the older lots and still have a lot more work to do. You will also find some new rules added to our Campground that we will have posted in the restaurant and in the Shower House and also included with the newsletter this year. Now that we have seen some reoccurring issues , we have tried to address as many possible to benefit the majority of our campers.     The biggest issue we have is pets, mainly Dogs. The majority of our guest pooches are extremely well behaved and we love having them come visit. But for the benefit of everyone we now insist that they remain on a leash at all times throughout the entire park and that if they poop you SCOOP. Because we are small in staff we are not always able to check each site before new campers arrive, and MANY times this season we have had to go clean up a site, while trying to run the restaurant at the same time. Our camping dogs have also been bothering other guests, as well as running in front of vehicles. We don’t want to see anyone or anyone’s pet hurt.   We have also had some bizarre wildlife occurrences including; bears, deer, snakes and birds. The deer story in particular was interesting. Witnesses state: A young fawn and her mother were scared out of the forest somewhere behind the cottage and out of fear the mother jumped into the Lake. The poor mother was pulled away by the current and boaters/fisherman could not save her. The Fawn crying for its mother also jumped into the lake at a different spot but headed for Coburn Island (too dangerous). The boaters managed to get the fawn turned around and headed back to shore, but the commotion on the beach with the observing public and their pets scared the fawn back into the lake a second time. Finally after much aid, the fawn was able to flee back to the forest unharmed. We should all remember that man sometimes needs to stand out of the way and let nature do its job.             We also had our wonderful “Bird Man” Chris Bell join us again for another season of Bird Watching. His updated list for 2007 will be available on our website. One of the highlighted birds of the Season was the Bald Eagles, now with full white heads they simply are magnificent. We also had the “Ontario Nature Group” had come up to stay with us and do a count on some bird species on the Lafarge Bird Conservation.

Lafarge/MTA News- Some great news over the holidays had come to us as well. There’s an ad in the Manitoulin Expositor Date Wed, Dec 19^th 2007 involving a new agreement between the MTA and Lafarge. In a “historical moment” as written, Perry Neuman (operations manager of Lafarge in Meldrum Bay) and Al Douglas (president of the MTA) Members signed an official agreement to allow Public Access to the lighthouse for the next 20 years. Concerns about access were raised to Lafarge by the MTA, and concerns about off season trespassing and the safety of these people were brought up by Neuman because of the small game season and an the increase of equipment/traffic by their winter lumbering. In the agreement is that Lafarge will grate the access road 2 times a year, and allow public access until the 3^rd Saturday in September. The access road (now 6km from the gate) will also be moved further away 2 or 3 more times during the agreement. The reason for moving the road, is again for the safety of the public and to try and discourage tourists from trespassing close to Lafarge’s production areas.

Meldrum Bay- The general store, “Meldrum Bay Outfitters” under new ownership is now reopened and excited for the tourist season to begin. We are unsure what products they will have available but anything they have will make some of our lives easier not having to travel so far. We wish them all the best and hope you all stop in and have a look.

Sincerely from the management staff of the Mississagi Lighthouse,

Mary Eadie & Family!

2006 Newsletter Archive

UPDATED MARCH 10, 2007

Our previous 2006 Newsletter contained incorrect information regarding the MTA and Lafarge. We would also like to state that our opinions are NOT the opinions or should not be seen as the views of the MTA. I would also personally retract my article sent along with the newsletter as it may affect the new management. However our Members are still encourage to voice there own opinion in our Members Forum on our website. We sincerely apologize to the MTA, Lafarge and to all of our Members. The following information has been provided by the MTA:
The actual property (which the amount of is unsure at the time) of the Mississagi Lighthouse and Heritage Park is owned by the Canadian Coast Guard. It has been solely leased from them by the Manitoulin Tourism Association who has struggled year by year to keep it open for over 25 years. They have also obtained federal grants of about $145 000 which has been put into the buildings and the park for preservation. For the past approx 14 years Lafarge has merely supervised the management as a joint effort to help out because of their close proximity. All managers of the lighthouse have been and will be in "agreements" with the MTA and NEVER "leased or sub-leased". The issue of the road access has nothing to do with the MTA, it is an agreement between Lafarge and the actual private land owner. For more information about the MTA'S continued effort over the years for preservation of the Mississagi Lighthouse please contact them via our "links" menu.or at the bottom of this newsletter

In the Beginning

As you all know we had a rough and late start. Our approval to actually run the lighthouse was approximately 2 weeks before expected opening. We had a bombardment of plumbing problems and other miscellaneous details to clean up after the shut down of the 2005 season. We also had a lot of confusion with transferring reservation information due to double listings with the MTA and other sources from the previous manager. There was even more confusion about business hours. We also had problems with our water system being not completely functional and left almost a month delay in the opening of the restaurant. There was also a huge scare of Ecoli spreading along the entire Island hitting all water including our beautiful Lake Huron.

During the Season

After the initial chaos of opening we had the pleasure of meeting the finest people on earth. If it was not for all of the friendly tourists and our understanding and caring campers, I don't think we would have kept as positive. Even at that point, mother nature stepped in to give us a fight for our money as well. We had a ravaging storm just graze us and made a destructive path all over the island knocking out the power for weeks. Thankfully non of our campers were hurt and none of the historical building were damaged except for a few missing shingles. Truly an event to be thankful we were in good company and alive. With an upbeat tempo and support from our patrons we carried on doing the best we could. We took the time this season to set up the membership system which is working very well. We already have a roster of about 40 members. Seeing as we are new again, and most of our campers/patrons have spent just as much time there as our family if not more, we wanted to find a way to make you apart of it. We encourage comments and we plan to make changes that not only improve your time with us but will preserve the history of the entire Park. That is our goal. End of the 2006 Season

Although we are eager to make changes in the upcoming year we tried to finish some more improvements while the season had slowed. With the financial assistance of the MTA we managed to get some supplies for maintenance of the buildings and paint to give the park a fresh look again. The historical information for the museum and restaurant are being researched, verified and re-written also for the upcoming season. We did encourage people to come and stay later but due to more unknown details regarding public road access, the gate was closed exactly on September 6th. The road access to the Mississagi Lighthouse is owned by a private land owner and under agreement with Lafarge Canada, NOT the MTA. We would like to apologize to anyone we confirmed reservations for after that date or gave incorrect information to. We really did not know we would have that issue ahead of us. For the 2007 season, the agreed terms for gate access to the public will be May long weekend-Sept Long Weekend. Unlike previous years we WILL be open 7days a week from the beginning to the end.

Upcoming Season 2007

Thank you all for sharing our first season with us. With all of the comments, suggestions and praises we are excited to for the new season. We are a small business with limited resources but in time we will attempt to fulfill as many of the requests as possible as long as they do not effect the historical value of the park and its in the best interest of the majority. We cant wait to see you all again in the new year and don?t forget to invite your friends!!!

Staff -

Campground -

Restaurant -

Lighthouse Museum -

Website -

Although some parts may still be under construction we will be providing a faster contact method through email as well as information on the history of the entire park, and many other things. A membership forum has also been added where we can all discuss changes, or situations that need to be dealt with. We would also love to put up membership stories. If you have any pictures with an accompanying story we would love to show everyone. It could be anything from your hiking trail encounter with a rabbit, to the biggest fish you ever caught, or even the new friends you met. Please write or email us, we would love to hear from you!.

Sincerely from the management staff of the Mississagi Lighthouse

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