Jennifer Niemi provided this followup to your responses regarding her query on visitor registers:

“To give my inquiry a little bit more perspective I will share more detail into our situation. We see approximately 150,000 visitors a year. Our ‘season’ where we offer guided tours runs May 15- third weekend in October. During this time we do charge admission to the site. The historic property is fenced in so in order for people to access the station, during this time, they must come through the Visitors Center. We have a new CRM system that will capture zip codes so we can track where people are coming from. From Memorial Day to Labor Day we have a Membership drawing each month. Visitors sign up and at the end of the month two winners are randomly choosen. So we are collecting information to push out to visitors on events, becoming a member, etc. The Visitor Registry we had was located in our Fog Signal building so people who have paid admission and logged their zipcode, may or may not signin. So going back to my original quiry we were wondering if there was a reason for us to collect this information? Once a log book is filled it goes into storage to never be looked upon again. We do get the occasional visitor that is curious about a family member, “who visited here sometime between 1990-1992 and signed in,” but there is no way to cull through that unless we want to set them up at a table with 6+ log books.

So from all the wonderful LH folks that responded here is what I found.

1. Some use it as a way to solicit membership, share event information and track the number of people visiting the site.
2. The don’t use one at all.
3. They are in the same situation as our site.

So it sounds like it really depends on the needs of the site. For Split Rock Lighthouse, we have a system that captures data and numbers, which it sounds like others do as well. So with all of this we have decided to retire the Visitor Registry and turn it into a more meaningful way for visitors to share in their experience with us. If anyone has ideas please share. ”

Candace Clifford

Candace was the US Lighthouse Society historian from 2016 until she passed away in August 2018.  For 30 years, her work involved lighthouse history.  She worked with the National Park Service and the Council of American Maritime Museums. She was a noted author and was considered the most knowledgable person on lighthouse information at the National Archives.  Books by Candace Clifford include: Women who Kept the Lights: a History of Thirty-eight Female Lighthouse Keepers ,  Mind the Light Katie, and Maine Lighthouses, Documentation of their Past.