Now mostly unused by sailors, the dozens of lighthouses that dot Lake Michigan's coast cast their encouraging glow through the fog of history.
By CONNIE EMERSON
Published September 4, 2005
[Photos: Maria Lenon]
Like several other Lake Michigan lighthouses, the facility at Old Mackinac Point contains a museum. Occasional tours from Mackinaw City, which calls itself North America’s Lighthouse Capital, take visitors to several lighthouses in the area.
The Seul Choix lighthouse, which translates to “Only Choice,” is one of the most spectacular lighthouses on Lake Michigan. Rumored to be haunted by a lightkeeper still at work, the lighthouse is located near Gulliver, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
[Photo: Connie Emerson]
The Eagle Bluff Lighthouse is a popular attraction in Door County, Wis. Daily tours are offered in summer.
Though I had journeyed through four passports' worth of faraway places, I had never seen a lighthouse. So, not long ago, I drove 1,100 miles around Lake Michigan to see not just one, but more than three dozen of them.
They did not disappoint.
Architecturally interesting, the lighthouses' locations on craggy bluffs, shoals and fingers of land jutting into the water evoke images of days gone by and beams of light vaguely piercing the fog.
Modern technology, such as global positioning systems and long-range navigation, has largely eliminated the need for the lightkeepers who braved loneliness and the elements to keep the lights burning. Now, lighthouses are more like treasured landmarks, and many have their own museums.
The 40-plus lighthouses around Lake Michigan range in size from a large Italianate design at Grosse Pointe, Ill., to the modest, country schoolhouse-style structure at Old Mission Point, Mich.
Most of the towers are cylindrical, but the rooms holding the lights are capped with all sorts of roofs: domed, pointed, octagonal, square.
Additional distinguishing features, such as roof ornaments and the design of the railings around the towers' upper walkways, helped sailors to get their bearings by recognizing different lighthouses.
Of those still standing around Lake Michigan, 16 lighthouses now have museums on the premises, and visitors can climb a half-dozen of the towers.
The museums help to bring back a bygone era, with graphic shipwreck photos or documentary videos that show the lighthouse keepers and their families. Some of these videos include interviews with the men and women who were in charge of the lights, and they relate the problems and pleasures of their extraordinary lives.
Generally, the best-preserved lighthouses are those that have been adopted by preservation committees or community action groups or have been purchased by individuals. The latter are seldom open to the public.
Like the lighthouses, each of the museums is distinct. The Maritime Museum in Sturgeon Bay, Wis., for example, contains what is considered to be one of the Great Lakes' most significant displays of model ships.
Relaxing Door County
The heaviest concentrations of lighthouses on the lake are in Door County, Wis., in the Mackinaw City area and along the 225-mile stretch of eastern lakeshore from Cat's Head Point (north of Traverse City, Mich.,) south to South Haven.
Of these three regions, I found the Door County area the most relaxing, in part because the roads are uncrowded except during the summer tourist season, and the picture-postcard shore towns offer myriad opportunities to stop and stretch your legs.
The county has three major lighthouses, easy to view because driving from one side of the peninsula to the other takes less than 15 minutes.
One of the star attractions at Peninsula Park is State Eagle Bluff-Fish Creek Lighthouse, which has daily tours in summer. At the park, north of the town of Fish Creek, visitors can rent paddleboats and kayaks, hike the five-mile Sunset Trail and, on summer evenings, watch little theater performances.
On the other side of the peninsula, the Old Bailey light at Bailey's Harbor is privately owned, but the Cana Island lighthouse is open to the public on selected days.
Getting to the offshore islands is a bit more difficult. Shoreline Charters operates a boat out of Gills Rock that passes the Pilot and Plum Island lighthouses. But you'll need to hire a boat if you want to go ashore or see the lighthouse on Chamber's Island.
The trip to Pottawatomie Lighthouse, on Rock Island, involves two ferry rides each way.
The lighthouse capital
With 22 lighthouses in the area, Mackinaw City (also spelled Mackinac) at the very top of Michigan's Lower Peninsula claims to be "North America's Lighthouse Capital."
The most accessible of these lights, the recently restored Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse, resembles a castle. The 23,000-square-foot Great Lakes Lighthouse Museum nearby showcases artifacts from notable lighthouses.
Occasional tours are offered from Mackinac City to some of the six lights and lighthouses near shore. During the summer, scheduled ferry service links the mainland with three more on islands.
From points south
From Charlevoix, 52 miles south, it's a two-hour ferry ride to Beaver Island; the ferry makes morning and afternoon trips on most summer days. A vacation destination, the island has seven lakes, hiking and bike trails, two museums and lakeside camping spots.
Farther south at Leland, Mich., ferries offer summertime day trips to both South Manitou and North Manitou islands, each an hour and a half away. South Manitou's lighthouse is on land; the North Manitou light's five-story building rises from a 60-foot square cement foundation offshore.
Seventeen lighthouses and lights dot the shoreline from the Grand Traverse Lighthouse on the Leelanau Peninsula north of Traverse City to South Haven. This section also includes four of the six light towers that can be climbed.
Grand Traverse, with its white walls and red roof, is one of the largest lighthouses on the lake. The privately owned Point Bessie lighthouse, a couple of miles north of Frankfurt, looks rather like a large barn with a round tower tacked onto its front.
Like most of the lighthouses around the lake, Little Pointe Sable, near Mears, was built between 1851 and 1897. The tower is all that remains of the 1874 structure. By contrast, most of the lights at pier heads and harbor entrances were erected during the 1900s. The Manistee structure, parts of which date back to 1855, is listed on the National Register of Historic Sites.
The White River Light Station, near Muskegon, and the lighthouse at Holland are two of the most-photographed spots on the lake. The Holland lighthouse, known as "Big Red," echoes the town's European flavor with a two-gabled roof below its square tower.
- Connie Emerson is a freelance writer living in Reno, Nev.
IF YOU GO
The best places for viewing the maximum number of Lake Michigan lighthouses are along the long stretches of shoreline in Wisconsin and Michigan.
It is possible to cross the lake by water. The 55-year old SS Badger, operated by Lake Michigan Carferry Service Inc., takes four hours to cross; its route is between the home port in Ludington, Mich., and Manitowoc, Wis. This ship accommodates 620 passengers and 180 vehicles.
The Lake Express, a 192-foot-long, four-engine catamaran, is the fastest commercial boat on Lake Michigan. The car/passenger ferry makes the trip between Milwaukee and Muskegon, Mich., in about two and a half hours. The vessel carries 46 cars and 250 passengers.
Want to leave the driving to someone else? Annual Lake Michigan Lighthouse Circle Tours, sponsored by the West Michigan Tourist Association, drive to more than 20 lighthouses, stopping for tours at four of them. Call toll-free 1-800-338-5963 for more information.
A free publication, Lake Michigan Circle Tour & Lighthouse Guide, contains maps noting the sites of the lights. It also specifies whether each lighthouse is privately owned, has a museum on the site or if the lighthouse is in ruins.
