River Mile 826.50 — Left Descending Bank
Robinson Rocks and Robinsons Light and Daymark (presumed to be named for Jane Muckle Robinson). Jane Muckle Robinson was a federal light keeper, responsible for lighting the channel navigation lights between Dayton’s Bluff and the Saint Paul Stockyards (4 lights), from 1885 to 1921. She once estimated that she rowed 50,000 miles in her twice-daily trip down the river- in the afternoon to light the kerosene lamps, then upriver back home; and then down the river in the morning to extinguish the lamps and back home again (Glewwe, Lois. p. 39). If a light went out, riverboat pilots would blow whistles in a one long and three short pattern to wake the keeper, who would row out and relight the flame. If a light was found to be dark, the keeper would be docked a day’s pay. Charlie Maguire, the “singing park ranger” of the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, has composed a song tribute to Jane Muckle Robinson that includes:
“This is what the pilots say-
Before a snag-log catches our poor boats,
Before a sand-bar lifts us too high to float,
Before the river grabs us by the throat,
Light the river Jane.”
(Fletcher, Jacquelyn)