Honoring Our Historic Keepers

The Lighthouse Keeper Grave Marker program was started in Maine by Tim Harrison of Lighthouse Digest. The goal of the program is to honor the keepers (both civilian and U.S. Coast Guard) who diligently kept the lights burning.

The Friends of Tawas Point Lighthouse and State Park have researched our past keepers and have located the gravesites of two - our very first keeper in the original lighthouse (Sherman Wheeler) and one of the last keepers still in the United States Lighthouse Service before it merged with the United States Coast Guard (Herbert N. Burrows). Thanks to the Michigan History Center for donating the markers for our historic keepers!

On Saturday, September 11 the Friends held two short ceremonies at the gravesites of these two keepers. Click here for a program of the event. Special thanks to piper John Dusek and the U. S. Coast Guard Color Guard for making our event so special.

Each ceremony was video taped and are available for viewing on YouTube.