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Hayes Scriven has worked in museums his entire career. While he applied on a whim, it was his range of experience that landed him “Keeper of Split Rock Lighthouse.”
For the past six years, he and his family have lived in one of the restored keeper’s homes directly on the Split Rock Lighthouse site (despite common misconceptions, keepers don’t actually live IN the lighthouse). While the home is equipped with all modern technology and appliances, he and his family have never felt closer to nature. Giving up a bit of privacy — 160,000 neighbors (tourists) come by every year — is worth it for them to live in this unique setting.
One of the great joys of the job is how Hayes gets to witness people enjoying the lighthouse. Happy to hop in wherever he’s needed (from fundraising to cleaning bathrooms), Hayes was generous enough to share visitor tips, overlooked highlights, and behind-the-scenes details with our subscribers.
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what does a typical day look like living and working at the lighthouse?
Everyone tends to ask, “So what do you do all day?” and I jokingly respond, “I wrestle bears.” In reality, my day is actually pretty normal compared to any other office job. Most of the time I'm in my office doing reporting, in meetings coordinating with other departments, working on social media, and long-range planning.
I also make sure the interpreters and sales staff have what they need to be successful. In the summer months, we have between 20 and 25 staff working on a given any day. In total, there are around 40 who work for the site. In the shoulder season, we scale back pretty dramatically to 3 to 6 daily and 15 staff total.
This year, we're under a major construction project, so I probably spend 30%–70% of my time — a wild swing, I know — dealing with construction and making sure guests are having a good time while they're on site. We'll have updated all of the trails around the site by early next spring. Then we'll begin another project to restore the lighthouse’s brickwork and fix a moisture problem.
I do everything from helping with preventative maintenance to cleaning facilities to planning and visualizing the big picture to helping our development office fundraise.
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do you have any top memories from your time living on site?
Honestly, the first day we moved here, we watched the moving trucks come in and the stuff get unloaded. At the end of the day, after everything was in the house, we sat down as a family and let it sink in that we actually live at Split Rock. It’s a moment I will never forget.
On site a few years ago there was an amazing northern lights storm. I went out and chased the Aurora all night. I made myself go to sleep at 5:30 a.m., but I could still see the Aurora outside my window.
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how has your relationship with the north shore [of lake superior] changed since you became a permanent resident?
My relationship with the Shore has definitely gotten deeper and more connected. I’ve loved learning the history about it and being able to experience it firsthand. It’s changed our family’s life. We’re not sitting around watching tv all the time — although it's not like we've given it up completely! Now we’re driving around on a Saturday morning and casually finding a moose. I never would have had these kind of experiences had I not taken the chance to move up here.
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i stand by the fact that the best place to watch a sunrise is at split rock lighthouse state park.
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what's something everyone should do at split rock?
I think the easiest thing for people to see and enjoy down in the State Park area is a sunrise. I stand by the fact that the best place to watch a sunrise is at Split Rock Lighthouse State Park. You can sit down on the shore, watch the sunrise over the lake with the lighthouse in view. It's just amazing. I would strongly encourage anybody to come up if they've never watched the sunrise over Lake Superior. It's one of the best things that you can ever do.
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what are some lesser-known highlights near split rock lighthouse?
The lighthouse is the main attraction for us. I would say that people don’t always explore the area around the lighthouse and they miss out on some amazing hiking trails, views and vistas in the State Park. Plus, the Split Rock River area just a few miles south of us is gorgeous.
Here at the historic site, we’ve reintroduced guided tour options. Our main program is a self-guided model, but we offer an amazing Keeper’s Tour during the main season Friday – Sunday before we open. It's a smaller crowd, so you get to experience the site before everyone else.
We also have a guided tour during the day that we started last year called "Conquering the Cliff." It’s all about the development of the site and the trials and tribulations that the people who were working here went through. You don’t actually go in the lighthouse on this tour, but you get to go to parts of the site that often get overlooked.
We also have a new exhibit gallery open year-round that talks not only about the lighthouse, but also about its construction, tourism on the Shore, the people who lived here, and the vibrant Indigenous culture that was here before us and is still here. The exhibit has an amazing full-scale Fresnel lens replica, so you can still enjoy some of the lighthouse even if you don't go up to the top of the tower.
We always encourage people to experience our site like a museum, learn something, understand what we’re trying to do, and develop a connection to the lighthouse.
are there any seasonal traditions or events that locals especially love, but tourists might not know about?
One of the things we've been trying for the last few years is winter holiday-themed experiences and tours. We started about two years ago, and it's been more for locals, but everyone is welcome. Tourists might be surprised at what we offer in the winter.
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what’s the best time of year to visit if you want to avoid crowds but still get the full experience?
It's twofold. If you want to be able to go inside the lighthouse, the best time to come would be in late May just because there’s lesser crowds and you get to go into the tower.
If you want something that’s truly unique and different, come up in the winter. You can't go inside the lighthouse because there are some safety issues when it's super cold. However, you can still experience the site from the outside, see the views, enjoy our winter program, and check out the visitor center.
All of the trails and paths around the site are cleared for easy navigating. Winter on the shore is so unique because the view is always changing. One day it could snow and you have this fresh, white blanket of snow coating the ground. The next, you could have all this sea smoke out on the lake when it's bitterly cold but absolutely gorgeous.
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can someone with limited mobility still experience the park and lighthouse?
One of the things we’ve been doing in our current construction project is improving the accessibility of the trails. We recognize that one of the things we can't make fully accessible is the observation deck and the lighthouse itself (because of the stairs), but we still want everyone to get an experience. That’s why we included the Fresnel lens replica in our new exhibit. People with limited mobility or who don't feel comfortable climbing open face stairs can go in and see the replica lens set just like it is at the top of the tower. To be honest, it's a better view of the lens because at the top of the Split Rock Lighthouse tower, you have to look up at it. In the exhibit, you look at it at eye level and can see the full gamut of the lens.
In order for everyone to get a spectacular view — just at different heights — we've introduced two new overlooks for folks that don’t want to or can’t climb the tower. The Tramway Viewing Platform follows the path of one of the original tramways that was on the site and goes to almost the edge of the cliff. You get this wide, sweeping, epic view of the of the lake and of the lighthouse. We’ve also made our original South Overlook that’s in front of the houses fully accessible. It gives another unique view of the lighthouse.
We're working to make the site more mobile-friendly for everybody. We're always balancing how to preserve it as a historical building and give access to as many people as possible.
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why is there a beacon lighting on november 10?
On November 10th, we honor the crew of the Edmund Fitzgerald that went down in 1975. It’s been 50 years since the sinking and we've been honoring the crew and all who lost their lives at sea for 40 years now. 50 years is not that long ago, there are still a lot of connections and ties for people on the North Shore, over on the South Shore in Wisconsin, over in the UP, and this is a big memory and tragedy for a lot of folks. We’re just trying to do our small part to remember the Fitz and honor the crew that went down with it.
The former site manager, Lee Radzak, was on his way home from town and heard Gordon Lightfoot's song, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” on the anniversary and it was the final push he needed to actually do something. He had been trying to think of a way to honor the crew for a while. After seeing the lighthouse in the distance as he was listening to the song, he decided to light the beacon when he returned home. It was a very small thing, but some of the neighbors mentioned the next day that they'd seen it. So the next year, he lit the beacon again and some people showed up and it kept growing every year.
The sinking of the Fitz was transformative for the Great Lakes and for people on the North Shore. You see these big freighters out on the lake, and you don't expect anything can happen to them. It was a reminder that we're still all at the whim of Mother Nature and Lake Superior, and we have to respect that. We honor the crew of the Fitz and we also want to honor the memories of everybody who has been lost in Lake Superior and the Great Lakes. That's why we've added a special part of the program just for them.
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what does the ceremony look like behind the scenes—how do you prepare the lighthouse and the site?
It’s a little bit of ceremony in itself. We’re all pretty accustomed to the workflow and set up on site, seeing as we’ve been doing it for a very long time. The hard part has been the introduction of the livestream and making sure all of those components work. It's coordinating with the photographer, audio equipment, a drone pilot for the live drone footage, and more logistics like that. Also making sure that those elements and offerings don't affect the main program.
We have also invited speakers in the past, like the Coast Guard, so it’s communicating and organizing with other people, agencies, and departments.
This year our biggest focus has been alleviating the parking issues we’ve experienced on site and planning for the potential of our largest crowd yet. Our site isn’t very big, so we’ve been coordinating with shuttles within the park and shuttles off-site with other businesses. Working on communicating these travel options and encouraging people to use them has been a priority.
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MORE MEMORABLE OUTINGS, VIEWS & EVENTS
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All photos provided by Hayes Scriven.
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This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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