The walking tour to The Little Red Lighthouse

This Group Activity with the Temple Missionaries has been long in coming. Ron "discovered" this Little Red Lighthouse ( that sits under the George Washington Bridge) on his very first bike ride after he purchased his bike early in our Mission around April or May of 2016.  Having stopped to see it and read the marker at it's base--he also learned that there was a children's book written about the Lighthouse and the Bridge by Hildegard Swift entitled "The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge". It is a delightful story of how the Lighthouse learned that no matter how small-- there is purpose for all--both big and small, in the grand design of Life. 
So we reasearched and bought some of those books for each family in our family and planned to take as many of those who came to visit as scheduling would allow--usually prefaced with a reading of the book--or at some time after the walk there.

Kate and Duke's family were the "first ones" that joined us in a "walk" to the Little Red Lighthouse

It was in late March 2017-- a brisk but beautiful day!!

  

Front to back:  

Mitchell, Mia, Millie (pink coat to the L) Kate (holding Miles) McKay and Max (blue coat on R)

Grammy (in the middle) surrounded by her "Grands"!! Great place to be!!

Sister Mumford (aka Grammy) and Elder Mumford (aka Papa)

The marker that briefly tells the "short story" of the Lighthouse

All of us together ( including Duke) 

with the Lighthouse on our Left and the GW Bridge on our Right)

Our next Family to visit was Hollie and Linc's--they came in July of 2017 

Grammy surrounded again by some precious Grands!

At the base of the Lighthouse 

L-R--Papa & Grammy Mumford, Anslea, Hattie, Hollie (holding Quincey Carol), Abram ( behind Hollie) Fielding and Linc 

Great shot of the Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge. 

There is no Beach or waterfront along this portion of the Hudson River, but  there are these huge rocks that Abram, Field, Linc, Hattie and Anslea found delightful  to skip rocks from and "watch me" jump!! (New Jersey is across the Hudson in the background). 

It turned out to be a delightful activity and we knew we wanted to share it with the Missionary Group . So we began our planning in earnest. We calendared it and actually " shared  and read" the book at our FHE with the Temple Missionaries on Sept 25th. And we "gathered in our Lobby" the morning of Oct 2 and took the Subway (A line--Express) up to 181st Street  stop and got off and began our "walk" down to the shore of the Hudson--where 

the "Great Gray Bridge passes over  the Little Red Lighthouse. 

It was a most beautiful fall day and there were almost 20 in our Group (we were so pleased at the interest!! )  

The book that really made the Little Red Lighthouse famous!! 

The path that leads into the Lighthouse 

 

Our friend, Elder SK Tan with Sister and Elder Mumford  on the left 

"Ye Elders of Israel"

Elders Mumford, Tan, DeBry and England

Our Missionary Group that participated in the "outing  of Oct 2, 2017 

L-R-- The Grays, the Schoenberger's, the Tans, Sisters Nabors, Brown & Miyashiro,

Back row  L-R-- the Mumfords, the Englands, the Heideman's and the Nixons 

Then on Sunday night, before our outing the next day--the Grays, who are from the Boise, Idaho area , found this article about a "Stonehenge" cropping of rocks--along the Hudson right in the very area  we were going. So--after we left the Little Red Lighthouse, we walked a very short distance--to this 

  Manhattan mystery: No stone unturned

BY PATRICK FARRELL New York Times

X:\Idaho Statesman\520_OliveManifest_20170924.txt\\192.168.0.55\Olive\E-pub\Daily\Profiles\Idaho Statesman\XML\Settings_ISM.xml

NEW YORK

They rise from the sand and shallows along the Hudson
River like a Stonehenge built to the scale of a Manhattan apartment: a tight gathering of figures, rock perched on rock, that appear to be marching in a stately procession toward the George Washington Bridge.

The elegant stacks, skillfully balanced without wires or adhesives, have amazed and bewildered hikers and cyclists since late July, when they began appearing south of the bridge, beside the Hudson River Greenway in Washington Heights. As word has spread, the collection has become a j Rorschach test for New Yorkers who make a special trip there and see in it what they will: a skyline, a chessboard, another of the many public art installations that dot the waterfront.

Strangest of all, the statues change – in size, shape and number – from one day to the next, growing and ebbing like the river tides. Sometimes there are none at all.

Last Sunday, their creator materialized, in a baseball cap, shorts and soggy sneakers, to scoop fresh rocks out of the murky water and dispel the mystery. He is Uliks Gryka, 33, a
lanky Albanian immigrant with no art training who goes by the more familiar variant of his given name: Ulysses.

Asked to describe his handiwork, he invoked another name out of myth. “The Sisyphus stones,” he said, a grin breaking out above his reddish goatee. “That’s what somebody called
them.”

The reason for their constant transformation, he explained, is not the assaults of wind or water, which never seem to trouble the neatly interlocking rocks. Someone keeps knocking them over – eight times, so far, in just seven weeks.
And Gryka keeps reassembling them into new forms.

He had arrived that morning at 11:30 by bicycle from his apartment in the North Riverdale neighborhood of the Bronx
to find the entire collection – a week’s effort – pulled down.

“I was angry,” he said. “They must have been big people to be able to move these rocks. They pushed over every single one, even the big, heavy bases.”

Then he slipped his earbuds back in and got to work. Three hours later he had finished a new cluster of towers – more than 35 in all. By week’s end, there were close to 100.

“When I started out, it was a small, shy exhibition,” Gryka said. “But it’s grown larger with each destruction. This has been a very perseverant work.”

Many of the people who stop to marvel liken his figures to cairns, piles of rock that have turned up around the world since prehistoric times to mark pathways, honor deities or commemorate the dead. (In fact, the monumental, mosaic-covered “Hell Gate Cairns,” by the artist Samantha Holmes, were installed along the Hudson near 66th Street after Gryka began; he learned of them only last week.) Others mention modern environmental artists, like Andy Goldsworthy, who create outdoors, using natural materials at hand.

“Goldsworthy, Noguchi, Giacometti,” Gryka rattled off the names his visitors drop. “I want to be extremely honest: I didn’t know who these people were until I went and Googled them.”

He thanks search engines and childhood earth-science
classes for an acquaintance with his materials. “Manhattan schist, composite rock, quartz,” he said. “There’s some
granite over there.”

But Gryka’s real passion is the personalities he discovers
once he has combined stones into a single statue. “All of them have something different, something particular. I can see traits.”

His father, a surveyor for bridge and building projects, kept beehives as a hobby before the family fled Albania’s civil unrest in the mid-1990s for Italy. Gryka, who speaks four languages, studied political science at the University of Milan, then came to the United States in 2007 with a green card he obtained in a visa lottery.

In New York, he became a U.S. citizen and earned a master’s degree in international affairs from the New School, but jobs in his field, conflict and security, have not been easy to come by. He worked as a server in restaurants, then quit in April to take a break from the stress and restart his job search.

On his daily runs down the river path, he began to notice
the jagged stones along the shore. “I came here to clear my mind and figure out where I am going,” said Gryka, who follows the teachings of Sufism, a mystical branch of Islam. “I started to move the rocks as a sort of healing practice.”

He made some stacks farther south, but soon came to favor the spot by the bridge, in Fort Washington Park, drawn in part by a fascination (fitting for someone named Ulysses) with borders and water crossings. One night, his darkened parade of silhouettes struck him as an image from Dante – “all the souls waiting on the Styx River for a boat to take them to the other side,” he said.

He toils on the site most days for at least a few hours, his earbuds piping a stream of Sufi chants.

Each new figure begins with a face. “First I find what looks like a head,” he said. “Then a hat. Every head needs a hat.” (Five minutes later, he spotted a man placing a pebble on top of a finished piece. “Someone added a hat!” Gryka exulted. “Good work.”)

Then he looks for a base and other parts, using sight, feel and instinct to find surfaces that will fit together. “You work with what’s around you. You study the top edge, and look for a rock that matches. It’s like a puzzle.”

On Sunday, Jessica Woods and her 8-year-old daughter, Aine, made a pilgrimage from their apartment at 148th Street and Riverside Drive, after a neighbor told them about the stones. Woods called out to Gryka: “Thank you! We’re so
grateful to you for this.”

“They’re magical – the patience and balance,” she added. “And then there’s the grace with which he’s handling how his creations were pushed over by vandals.” 

This is what the above article is referring to. Another very interesting 'discovery' just about 1/4 of a mile down from the Lighthouse. Being called "the Stonehenge of Manhattan" created by a man who calls himself, Ulysses. And he just happened to be there that day--repairing what " very unthoughtful people" keep knocking down 

Ulysses ( born in Albania but raised in Milano, Italia from age 2).

You can imagine how fun it was for Elder Mumford to use some of his Italian in speaking with him. Although Ulysses has very good English and delighted in talking with us. However, he was pretty busy--getting his Stonehenge put back together.

He uses no "glue or mortar" to stack these rocks. They are "naturally balanced"

Our Group with Ulysses in the front (kneeling--beside Pres Nixon) 

Elder Mumford talking with Ulysses

A pretty good pic of all the formations along this piece of the Hudson Shore

A beautiful pic of the GW Bridge as it spans the Hudson 

There were 2 more "components to our "Outing" on that day. After leaving the events down by the Hudson River--most of our Group went back up to Ft Washington Ave and walked to Bennett Park--where the "highest point on Manhattan" is found.  (It's kind of "deceptive" with all the buildings around it, towering over it)--but it's the "natural point" --

There’s an official plaque set into the rock, marking it as 265.05 feet above sea level (yes, that’s .05 feet, as in 3/4ths of an inch).

 So we "caught" some pics being "on top" 

After Bennett Park--we went to a favorite restaurant in Washington Heights--KISMAT-- where wonderful Eastern Indian cuisine was our bill of fare that day.  Simply delicious!!

On the path down to the Lighthouse--there's a path that leads off up into the trees --where a Revolutionary War "redoubt" was found and has been "sort of restored" as an Eagle Scout project

The part of our Group who ventured off to find the "redoubt" (pronounced ruh'dudt )

Climbing the "highest point" 

The whole day was absolutely wonderful--the walk , the weather, the Company, the history, the food. . . Thanks to ALL who came and made it so enjoyable!! We LOVE our Missionary Friends!!