Split Rock Lighthouse project.  Lee Radzak,  Beacon on the shore
• Article by: JIM BUCHTA   • Star Tribune   • May 10, 2010 -
9:28 AM   With ice pellets blasting their faces and frigid water
washing over the stern, a crew of 10 on the Madeira watched as a
looming cliff along the North Shore of Lake Superior came into
focus. A terrible storm had severed their 436-foot barge from
the boat that was towing it, and waves tossed the Madeira like a
piece of driftwood, pushing it ever closer to the shore. The
crew was helpless.  ¶ After slamming the rocks more than a dozen
times, the barge cracked in half and started to sink. With winds
howling and nothing to lose, one of the men leapt to a narrow
ledge and lowered a rope to his crewmates. All except for one,
they scrambled to safety as the ship filled with water and sank.
¶ They were the lucky ones. During that November 1905 storm, 29
ships loaded with cargo, many of them bound for factories on the
East Coast, never made it home. It was called the worst storm of