Sailing vessels navigating this part of Green Bay used either the western passage beyond Chambers Island or the hazardous passage between the shore and the Strawberry Islands, and because Door County’s economic growth and settlement depended on swift and secure water transportation, the federal government built Eagle Bluff Lighthouse in 1868 at a cost of $12,000 to guide ships through the narrow Strawberry Channel. The cream-colored Milwaukee brick structure stands atop a 40-foot bluff, and keeper Henry Stanley lit its original third-and-one-half order Fresnel lens on October 15th, six months after construction began. Stanley served from 1868 to 1883; he was born in Norway, went to California for the gold mines in 1849, married Katherine Hesh, and lost his son John in 1870 and his daughter Elizabeth in 1881. William Duclon served from 1883 to 1918; he was born in New York, served in Company K of the 14th New York Regiment Heavy Artillery during the Civil War, married Julia Davenport of Ottawa ancestry, and had seven sons, while many Duclons are buried in Blossomburg Cemetery in Peninsula State Park. Peter Coughlin served from 1919 to 1926; born in Canada, he married widow Margaret Sullivan while serving at Alperia, Michigan, and took over Eagle Bluff at age 62. Ephraim native Sam Hanson served as assistant lighthouse keeper at Chambers Island from 1909 to 1922. In April 1922, Sam Hanson’s 18-year-old son Clifford died after falling through the ice while walking to Fish Creek for the mail, and Peter Coughlin recorded that on April 10 he tried but failed to save him because the telephone was out of order and he had to walk to Fish Creek for help, and that on April 12 he lit the tower light for a small boat going to Chambers Island so Sam Hanson could attend his son’s funeral.