<strong>Door County Postcard.</strong> Visitors to Wisconsin's Door County purchased this as a souvenir. (Postcard copyright by Hegedorn Studio.)

<strong>The <em>Eyrarbakki</em>.</strong> Chloe takes this 95-ton car ferry, built in Door County in 1970, to Washington Island. (Postcard copyright by Hegedorn Studio.)

<strong>Washington Island Welcome.</strong> After exiting the ferry, Chloe drives past the island's visitor information booth. Its shape reflects the Scandinavian tradition of serving fresh coffee to visitors. (Postcard copyright by Hegedorn Studio.)

<strong>The <em>Karfi</em>.</strong> This is an early 1980s photo of and brochure for the passenger ferry Chloe takes between Jackson Harbor and the Viking Hall dock on Rock Island. (Courtesy of the Washington Island Historical Archives.)

<strong>Danish Fishing Couple.</strong> This historic image inspired the author when she imagined Ragna and Anders Anderson. (Postcard belonging to the author.)

<strong>Handmade Fishing Nets.</strong> In the late 1860's when Danish immigrant Ragna Anderson settled in the fishing village on Rock Island, she turned her Hedebo embroidering skills to making gillnets. (Postcard belonging to the author.)

<strong>Mackinaw Boat.</strong> These 18-24 foot wooden work boats could be sailed when there was wind or rowed when there wasn't. Mackinaws were widely used on the Great Lakes during the 1800s. Anders Anderson and Ragna's brothers fished from a Mackinaw. (Michigan Maritime Museum. Photo by Kenneth Bowen.)

<strong>The <em>Seediver</em>.</strong> This steel-hulled fishing tug is used for commercial fishing on Lake Michigan. It is shown manouvering in Jackson Harbor on Washington Island, with Rock Island in the background. (Photo by the author.)

<strong>U.S. Lighthouse Service Employment Log.</strong> This photocopy of the original record shows the salary and employment dates of William Betts as Keeper and Emily Betts as Assistant Keeper of the Pottwatomie Lighthouse. (Courtesy of the Friends of Rock Island.)

<strong>Pottawatomie Lighthouse Log.</strong> This photocopy of the original record shows the actual log book entries written by Emily's husband, Keeper William Betts, during the fall of 1874. (Courtesy of the Friends of Rock Island.)

<strong>Pottawatomie Lighthouse Then.</strong> This image is believed to show Emily Betts and several of her children at the front door of the lighthouse about 1880. (US National Archives and Records Administration photo.)

<strong>Pottawatomie Lighthouse Today.</strong> This image shows the lighthouse as it existed in 2012, some 130-years after the previous photo, and 154-years after it was built. The author is standing at the front door. (Photo by Kay Klubertanz.)

<strong>Traveling Library Box.</strong> The author, serving as a docent at the Pottwatomie Lighthouse, examines a book from the reproduction library box. Chloe finds an important clue in an original US Lighthouse Service library box. (Photo by Kay Klubertanz.)

<strong>Light House Service China.</strong> These coffee mugs are reproductions of original U.S. Light House Service china that was at the Pottwatomie Lighthouse when Emily Betts arrived. (Photo by the author.)

<strong>Fresh Water Cistern.</strong> The enlarged portion of the summer 1883 photo above shows children standing on top of the stone cistern that was installed to collect rainwater via the roof gutters and downspouts. Later a summer kitchen, where visitors now enter the lighthouse, was built over the cistern. (National Archives, image 26-LG-57-33-ac.)

<strong>The Old Stone Steps.</strong> After the cisterns failed, the Betts family carry all their water--for drinking, cooking, cleaning, their garden, and livestock--up 150 feet from the lake to the lighthouse. (Photo by Scott Meeker.)

<strong>Rock Cairn.</strong> Chloe discovers this memorial on the beach below the lighthouse. Note the four connected rows of small stones arranged on its far side. (Photo by Scott Meeker.)

<strong>Nelsen's Hall Bitter's Club.</strong> Chloe joins the "Bitter's Club" and becomes a true islander by downing a shot of Angostura Bitters. Built in 1899, Nelsen's Hall is said to be the state's oldest continuously operating bar, having stayed open during Prohibition by dispensing bitters (45% alcohol) as a stomach tonic. (Photo by the author.)

<strong>Chester Thordarson's Icelandic Hall.</strong> For 50 years this Chicago industrialist owned almost all of Rock Island. To honor his Icelandic heritage, he had this magnificent 'Viking Hall' built for entertaining guests. Chloe finds tantalizing clues about the island's history here. (Photo by the author.)

<strong>Solitude at Last!</strong> Chloe spends several nights alone in the lighthouse, a building without electricity, phone service, or an indoor toilet. It is located at the top of a cliff, some 2 miles by foot from the island's campground. (Photo by Scott Meeker.)

<strong>Gillnet and Box.</strong> Chloe finds an important clue at the Jackson Harbor Maritime Museum on Washington Island. (Photo by Scott Meeker.)

<strong><em>Le Griffon</em>.</strong> Launched in 1679, this 45-ton wooden vessel was the first European sailing ship on the Great Lakes. It carried the French explorer La Salle to Rock and Washington Islands, before disappearing without a trace. (Woodcut from <em>Nouvelle Decouverte</em>, by Father Louis Hennipin, published in Utrecht, 1697.)

<strong>Scandinavian Tradition.</strong> Chloe contemplates this hand-carved model of the sailing ship <em>The Madonna</em> hanging from the sanctuary ceiling in the Trinity Lutheran Church on Washington Island. (Photo by Scott Meeker.)

<strong>Roelke's Rental.</strong> Roelke takes a long flight in "November 3477 Echo". The author's husband learned to fly in this 1978 Cessna Skyhawk. (Aircraft operated by Morey Airplane Company. Photo by Scott Meeker.)

<strong>Danish Hedebo.</strong> When the Betts family quit the Lighthouse Service and left Rock Island, Ragna Anderson gave Emily Betts a handmade Hedebo embroidered table runner as a gift. (Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum. Photo by the author.)

<strong>Time to Light the Lamp.</strong> Sunset over the Bay of Green Bay, taken from the lightroom at the top of the lighthouse. (Photo by Karly Schoeman.)