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Two beacons shine brightly in this quiet, rustic village of 1,904 people nestled along Lake Michigan the Wind Point Lighthouse and Samuel C. Johnson.
The lighthouse, vintage 1880 but still operating, is believed to be the oldest and tallest still standing on the Great Lakes. The village, just north of Racine, acquired it from the Coast Guard in 1997 and plans to expand its public uses.
The lighthouse attracts sightseers, artists and photographers. For example, a steady stream of amateur picture-takers came and went the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend.
"I take pictures of it myself," Sam Johnson said in an interview one recent sunny afternoon after spending the morning practicing seaplane landings on the calm lake waters in front of his Wind Point home, located just up the shore from the lighthouse.
Johnson, 71, chairman of Racine-based S.C. Johnson & Son Inc., is the richest man in Wisconsin and 35th richest in the United States, according to Forbes magazine. His net worth is estimated to be $3.6 billion.
While the lighthouse guides nighttime shipping in the lake, the Johnson beacon beams broadly across the entire village.
Lying within Wind Point's 1.3 square miles, which are home to many of the Racine area's owning and managing class, are:
Wingspread, the renowned Johnson Foundation conference center, which was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and which served as the original H.F. Johnson family home.
The Prairie School, a K-12 private school that Sam Johnson's wife was instrumental in founding.
Wind Meadows, a planned residential development conceived by Johnson's late father.
And the only commercial properties in the otherwise residential community the Johnson Entomology Research Center, which does research on insects for Johnson Co. products; Johnson International, a bank and holding company; and the Council House, a 20-bedroom, art-filled...