| THE WEBMASTER
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My name is Fred Zurcher and I was born and raised in Detroit, Mi. Now, you are probably wondering to yourself, how can a guy from Detroit have such a interest in ships and lighthouses? Well, let me tell you how this all got started. My Great-Great Grandfather came from Switzerland back in 1870'S and started the Zurcher Family in Houghton, Hancock, Michigan Area. My father was born in Houghton back in 1901 and after helping my Grandfather run his dairy farm, he decided to move on to bigger and better things. He finally ended up in Detroit in the mid-30'S. I remember going back up north to visit the rest of the family back in the late 40'S and can still remember how cold Lake Superior was to swim in. Boy, you had to be a hardy soul to stay in for more than 15 to 20 minutes and when you did, you came out shivering and blue. My father loved the boats, as he would call them, and every chance we had, we would go to the Soo Locks and stand for hours and watch the boats lock thru. Course, back in them days, there was no fences, no viewing towers and no guards, and plenty of boats that you could walk right up to one of them and touch the cold steel hull when it was in the lock. We would even take picnic baskets and walk over the lock gates to the lawn area between the Davis and sabin locks and have us a grand old picnic. Fond Memories. In the late 60'S to the late 80'S, the boats and the lighthouse and the beauty of the upper peninsula got lost in the shuffle, don't ask me why, but I guess thought I had better things to do. In 1990 I had the good fortune to meet a wonderful lady that loved lighthouses and the big boats just as much as I do, maybe even more when it comes to the 1000 foot giants on the lakes today, and the rest is history. We have spent every vacation in the U.P.
since 1990, and We have made it a goal to try and visit every lighthouse in the state of Michigan. I don't know what it is about a lighthouse, but there is something that attracts us both and I probably will never be able to put my finger it, but who cares, we are having fun and thats what counts. Both my wife, Sharon and I, would advise anyone who has any interest in the great state we live in or ever wondered how things got started in the early years, grab the wife and kids, fill the gas tank up and head North on I-75 until you get to the Mackinaw Bridge, pull over at the information center on the North side, ask the people inside for a Upper Michigan Travel Planner and start discovering our heritage, trust me, you won't be sorry.----------------Thanks for stopping by, enjoy the show.-----
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