After a 1905 storm damaged 29 boats and caused more than three million dollars in losses, Split Rock Lighthouse was built as a safety beacon for Lake Superior shipping. Construction began in 1909 with a $75,000 budget, and the Duluth firm L. D. Campbell and Son built it with as many as 30 men working on the grounds at one time. On July 31, 1910, Orren "Pete" Young lit Split Rock Lighthouse for the first time. High in the tower, a lens room held a Third Order Fresnel bivalve lens made of 252 prisms in a brass frame. A clockwork gear and weight system rotated the lens as a 200-pound weight descended through a central pipe and unspooled a cable that turned a series of gears, with the mechanism floating on a bed of mercury. Started by hand, this process had to be repeated every two hours, and the keeper and his assistants alternated night watches throughout the shipping season to keep the light turning without interruption. The beacon reached 22 miles across Lake Superior, almost to the Bayfield Peninsula, and served as a bearing light station that helped navigators determine their location. Its characteristic was a single flash of white light from a kerosene lantern every 10 seconds through the night, while by day its yellow brick and black top served as visual day-markers.