Midwest Guest

Light keeping at the Old Mission Point Lighthouse

I love making the 17-mile scenic drive up M-37 along the Old Mission Peninsula through the cherry orchards and vineyards and away from busy Traverse City, Michigan, to see the lighthouse picturesquely perched at the peninsula’s tip as it juts out into Grand Traverse Bay.

The Old Mission Point Lighthouse’s somewhat remote location is even more notable for the fact that it sits almost exactly on the 45th parallel, halfway between the earth’s equator and the North Pole.

Signs at the site denoting the light’s latitudinal location are one of a handful of locations in Michigan similarly marked and are a good place to stage one of those quintessentially cheesy tourist shots for your vacation photo album.

The Old Mission Point Lighthouse is also notable because it is a twin to the long-gone Mama Juda Lighthouse that guided mariners through a portion of the Detroit River at the north end of Grosse Ile and near the Canadian shoreline near the city of Detroit. The Mama Juda light sat on a 30-acre island, with both the island and the lighthouse named for an American Indian woman who set up a fishing camp in the area each season. The Mama Juda lighthouse, built in 1849 and rebuilt in 1866, disappeared by the mid-1900s. High water washed away the lighthouse in 1950, and water washed away the entire island by 1960.

Treacherous travel and wrecks caused by shallow waters and sandy shoals projecting a couple of miles out from the Old Missions Peninsula’s northern tip led Congress to appropriate $6,000 to build a lighthouse at the point in 1859, but the project wasn’t completed until 1870 because of delays caused by expenditures for the Civil War.

The little wooden lighthouse has a square tower atop the 1 ½-story keeper dwelling. The tower is only 30 feet tall, but the lighthouse location on top of a sand bank fourteen feet above the Lake Michigan surface gave the lens a focal plane height of 47 feet, allowing mariners to see the light from 13 miles out at sea.

The original lamp fueled by whale oil, then kerosene, featured a Fifth Order Fresnel lens. Today, however, the lighthouse lantern room stands empty, and an electric beacon a couple of miles offshore now guides traffic around the shallows and into the West Arm of Grand Traverse Bay.

Old Mission Point Lighthouse remained in active service until 1933.

The State of Michigan assumed ownership of the lighthouse by the 1940s and established the site as a new park after World War II. Peninsula Township assumed responsibility and ownership of the park and buildings that included the lighthouse, the Hesler log cabin, and several other outbuildings like storage sheds, a garage, and a brick pump house in 1948.

Park visitors could always view the lighthouse from the park and the nearby beach, but the lighthouse served as a private home to the park manager until park officials finally opened the lighthouse and tower to the public for the first time in May of 2008.

Public visiting hours for the Old Mission Point Lighthouse run from May through October, when visitors can view an on-site museum, check out displays that provide a look at turn-of-the-twentieth-century lighthouse life, and climb up into the empty tower to check out the view over Lake Michigan.

Visitors with the time and desire to more fully immerse themselves into the Old Mission Lighthouse experience can apply to be a volunteer light keeper through a new program that duplicates a similar popular program at the nearby Grand Traverse Lighthouse. Volunteer keepers pay $800 to live at Old Mission Point Lighthouse for a month and perform duties like greeting visitors, giving guided tours of the lighthouse and tower, and performing general cleaning and maintenance tasks. Money generated by the volunteer light keeper program and day admission fees help fund lighthouse expenses and go towards the goal of making the park and lighthouse self-supporting.

© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved

Early northern Michigan pioneer history comes alive at Hesler home

We love visiting lighthouses and learning about their history, but visiting the little log Hesler home adjacent to the Old Mission Point Lighthouse north of Traverse City, Michigan, offers a unique opportunity to learn about the earliest pioneers in the region.

Joseph and Mary Hesler settled along the eastern shore of the Old Mission Peninsula in the mid-1850s, clearing the land of dense forest and building a simple log cabin with the timber they harvested.

The snug little cabin featured outside walls joined with modified dove-tailed joints and served as shelter for the couple until they sold it in 1866.

Joseph, a Canadian, and Mary, born in Ireland, were typical of the Irish, English, Canadian, and Scottish immigrants living and farming in the Old Mission Peninsula region by the 1860s. Their cabin was also typical of the sort of homes built in the region during that era.

I was unable to discover what happened to the Heslers after they moved from their little log home, but the cabin served as a private home, shelter for migrant workers coming to the area to pick fruit like northern Michigan’s famous cherry crops, as a school, and, intriguingly enough, as a shelter for a bull!

By the early 1990s, the little cabin was empty and slated for demolition until area residents spent several years rallying to save, restore, and move the home to a site 14 miles to the north and next to the Old Mission Point Lighthouse.

In 2001, the State of Michigan erected an historical marker telling the story of the home, which is a rare surviving example of the log homes from the early settlement of Old Mission Peninsula. Visitors can peek in the cabin’s windows or, in the warmer tourist season, look through a glass partition and listen to a recorded history of the cabin, to see how northern Michigan’s earliest pioneers lived.

The wooded area next to the lighthouse is the perfect site for the Hesler home, giving visitors a real sense of how the home might have looked tucked into the northern Michigan forest.

Families and avid geocachers might also enjoy searching for a couple easy caches at the park (one physical cache box and one virtual cache), both of which are still active as I write this story.

 

Be sure to come back to Midwest Guest later this month to learn more about the Old Mission Point Lighthouse.

 

Check out the book Traveling Through Time: A Guide to Michigan’s Historical Markers for the complete text of the Hesler home marker and to find other interesting sites marked by the State of Michigan in Grand Traverse County and the surrounding area.

© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved

Things To Do
Traverse City

Photo Friday: More Manistee, Michigan, views

Manistee is a great little town with a lot of history, and I found the story about the fire that coincidentally occurred on the same day as the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 fascinating. Manistee's original lighthouse burned during that 1871 conflagration, but the busy port city quickly rebuilt their lighthouse and today has a pretty white light tower, along with a smaller range light, on Lake Michigan.

We've visited Manistee many times over the years and always enjoy visiting the lighthouse, especially during the warmer months when you can walk out to the north pierhead and get some nice close shots of the tower.

The winter months can bring an overcast quiet to the Manistee waterfront, but the lighthouse always offers plenty of picturesque possibilities.

Check out my story, Manistee North Pierhead Lighthouse awaits fate, for more about the lighthouse and Manistee's unique link to Chicago and its historic fire.

Planning a summer vacation Up North and looking for a family-friendly scenic trail that is also fully handicapped accessible? Check out my story about the 1 1/2 mile boardwalk along the Manistee River, Stroll from historic downtown Manistee Lake Michigan along city Riverwalk.

Thanks to Debbie Dubrow of Delicious Baby for creating and coordinating Photo Friday to link travel photos and blog posts across the Web.

© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved

Stroll from historic downtown Manistee to Lake Michigan along city Riverwalk

City officials in Manistee, Michigan, realize what a gem the town has with its Riverwalk, described in recent city documents as "one of the City's crown jewels".

The mostly boardwalk trail hugs the shore of the Manistee River, wending its way from historic downtown Manistee to an expansive Lake Michigan beach and great view of the Manistee North Pierhead lighthouse.

We love the trail because it offers multiple photographic opportunities, and it is an easy walk that is a great way to stretch your legs after a lengthy car trip.

Families and visitors of all ages and abilities should especially appreciate the Riverwalk for its accessibility and many interesting places to stop along the way.

The Manistee City site has a small map showing handicapped access points along the trail. This page at Get off the Couch has detailed descriptions of the entire trail, including the location of ramps and various stops along the way where visitors can stop for a picnic, learn a bit about Manistee history, and get in a little fishing or swimming.

The Riverwalk is particularly great if you're a boat fan, as you'll see boats of all shapes and sizes along the route. There are plenty of private docks and charter fishing docks along the walk, but fans of the big Great Lakes freighters may be lucky enough to catch one of the big boats navigating the narrow river channel.

Regular Midwest Guest readers know that I'm a big fan of bridges, so it was a little disappointing that we didn't manage to catch one of the lift bridges in action during our last visit to the Riverwalk. However, the city's site has a nice photo of one of the bascule bridges in the open position, allowing a large boat to pass through the channel.

A good portion of the Riverwalk route runs along with the river to one side and a portion of the downtown business district to the other side. This makes it easy to make a quick stop for ice cream, a little shopping, or a leisurely lunch in town before continuing on the route to the Lake Michigan beach and Douglas Park.

The section of the trail nearest to downtown Manistee is lighted, making it an especially nice place for an after-dinner stroll during the warmer summer months.

History buffs should look for some of the interpretive signs placed along the route (although the City removes many of them to store during the winter) and stops like a historical recreation of a net drying shed and display of drying fishing nets.

If you're keeping track of your mileage as you walk, you don't have to bother with wearing a pedometer because there are mileage markers at every 1/10th mile along the route.

The city doesn't clear the Riverwalk during the winter, although you can always walk out along the cement walkway near the North Pierhead Lighthouse if you want to brave the cold.

The City of Manistee established a fund to address ongoing maintenance and repair issues along the trail, keeping the wooden walkway in good repair with projects like recent repairs of aging decking, power washing and sealing, and repainting the handrails.

Interested in learning more about bascule bridges? Check out my story about Point Park in Ashtabula, Ohio, where I wrote about that city's bascule bridge, talked about bascule bridge history, and managed to take some photos of that span in the open and closed positions.

Learn more about the Manistee North Pierhead Lighthouse and Manistee's link to the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 in my story, Manistee North Pierhead Lighthouse awaits fate.

© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved

Things To Do
Manistee

Manistee North Pierhead Lighthouse awaits fate

Summer sees a steady stream of fishing boats and pleasure craft parade past the Manistee North Pierhead Lighthouse and into the mouth of the Manistee River. Fishers settle in for the day along the pier or on the rocky breakwater by the small companion light just south of the pier as gulls swoop lazily overhead.

Winter brings a much quieter scene, and looking over my winter photos from Manistee makes me wonder what is happening with the city's proposed acquisition of the lighthouse.

The most recent article found about the lighthouse's fate was a November 18, 2009 story from the Ludington Daily News. At that time, the Manistee City Council agreed to seek ownership of the lighthouse and a working relationship with the Manistee Historical Museum with an eye toward possibly opening the lighthouse for public tours in the future.

The Manistee North Pierhead Lighthouse, like many Great Lakes lights, recently became available at no cost to other government agencies, non-profit corporations, educational agencies, or community development groups will to preserve and maintain the lighthouses for educational, recreational, cultural, or historic preservation programs.

Such transfers usually take a while, as anything involving one or more government entities and acquiring groups that often struggle to meet eligibility requirements or raise sufficient money to preserve, restore, and maintain the historic light towers.

Hopefully, the process is quietly moving forward behind the scenes, and new ownership will become a new chapter in this beautiful lighthouse's long history at Manistee.

Manistee, like many towns in Michigan's northern lower peninsula, grew around lumbering. The Manistee River offered a prime location near the forest with easy access to Lake Michigan, and the first lighthouse appeared at Manistee in 1870.

Many students of regional history remember 1871 as the year of a devastating fire that decimated Chicago. The Chicago fire killed at least 300, destroyed $200 million worth of property and left 100,000 people homeless. Those numbers made it one of the most spectacular disasters of the nineteenth century and sparked rumors that a cow owned by Mrs. O'Leary caused the fire by knocking over a lantern.

The Chicago fire and Mrs. O'Leary's cow became immortalized in song, parades, stories, and plays, but many seemed to forget that drought, high temperatures, and storms also caused several other fires in northeastern Wisconsin and northern Michigan, including Manistee, the same day-October 8, 1871.

The Manistee lighthouse, a wooden structure like most other buildings in town at the time, burned down to the foundation. Fire raged through Manistee, destroying $1,000,000 in property, burning many area forests, and leaving many people homeless, although there were no deaths.

Manistee began the process of rebuilding itself, erecting new structures in brick, rather than wood. Many of the city's lovely Victorian homes and other buildings date from the late 1800s, and Manistee became known as Lake Michigan's Victorian Port City.

Congress allocated money to rebuild the lighthouse at Manistee, constructing a two-story house with a light tower, nearly identical to the original structure, in 1872.

Manistee seemed to recover from the fire in relatively short order, as steadily increasing commerce in the port city led to multiple improvements and changes for the lighthouse, the piers, and the harbor in general.

By 1875, a new south pierhead light replaced the original lighthouse as a beacon, although keepers still lived in the original house and rowed out to the light to maintain it several times a day.

By 1879, an elevated walkway between the shore and the light tower offered lightkeepers a safer way to access the light to maintain it.

The remaining years of the nineteenth century saw many changes in the configuration of lights and fog signals at Manistee. The north pier became home to the main light by the 1890s, and the elevated catwalk also moved from the south pier to the north pier.

The Army Corps of Engineers constructed a breakwater on the south side of the harbor in 1914, creating a large stilling basin with the north pier in the harbor to help assure calmer water at the channel entrance.

Major improvements at Manistee in 1927 resulted in a configuration of lights familiar to today's visitors, featuring a 39-foot-tall iron tower at the end of the pier with an iron catwalk leading out to the lighthouse to replace an old wooden walkway.

I'll be watching to see if the proposed lighthouse acquisition by the city goes through in Manistee, and hopefully look forward to spending more lazy days strolling along the pier, watching the pier fishers pull in their catches, and checking out the passing nautical parade.

Does anyone know more about the proposed lighthouse acquisition?

© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved

Photo Friday: Frankfort, Michigan, beach in winter

Tourists, sunbathers, fishers, and sand castle builders often fill Lake Michigan beaches in Michigan's Lower Peninsula during summer months, but tourist towns like Frankfort, Michigan, see a quieter season as winter arrives and brings a bit of snow into the mix of sun and sand along the lake's edge.

This beach swing frames a view of Frankfort's North Breakwater lighthouse, although the frigid lakeside temperatures and winds discourage lingering in one place very long.

A brisk walk along the beach takes me past intriguing landscapes frozen in a moment where sun and sand meet ice and snow. I stop for a quick photo before hustling back to the warmth of my car and heading into town for a bowl of soup and something warm to drink.

Check out yesterday's story about the Frankfort North Breakwater lighthouse and a previous Photo Friday post for my winter photos of nearby Point Betsie lighthouse.

Thanks to Debbie Dubrow of Delicious Baby for creating and coordinating Photo Friday to link travel photos and blog posts across the Web.

© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved

Lake Michigan's Frankfort North Breakwater Lighthouse

The north breakwater lighthouse at Frankfort, Michigan, is a relatively new lighthouse compared to many other Great Lakes light towers we've visited, but this Lake Michigan harbor town has a long history as an important light station location.

We primarily know Frankfort as a summer resort town with a large number of graceful Victorian homes, pier fishing, and as the terminus of the Betsie Valley Trail, which I love as a long bicycle ride between Frankfort and the town of Beulah, but a pair of breakwaters and light towers make the harbor a great place for photographers to visit year round.

The late 1850s brought developers to Frankfort as Easterners became aware of the area's abundant natural beauty and resources. The Betsie River led from Lake Michigan the smaller inland Lake Betsie, but the booming demand for property on the small lake led developers to dredge the river to form a larger channel between two 600-foot-long piers at the river mouth in 1859--making Frankfort the northernmost improved harbor along Lake Michigan's eastern shore.

Frankfort's first lighthouse appeared in 1873 with the construction of a timber-framed pyramid-shaped structure at the end of the south pier. The tower had a red, Sixth Order Fresnel lens that sailors could see from up to 12 miles away in clear weather.

The lighthouse did not include a residence, and keepers used an elevated wooden catwalk leading from the shore to the pierhead light to keep above the Lake Michigan waves that often splashed up over the wooden pier as they maintained the light.

A south pier extension of 200 feet in 1884, construction of a small fog signal building near the light tower in 1892, and installation of a rear range light along the south pier in 1897 enhanced the Frankfort light station as the area became an important commercial port and center for railroad car ferry operations.

A new squared pyramid-shaped tower, sheathed in steel and painted white, appeared on the north pier in 1912. The new 44-foot tall light tower replaced the old south pier light tower and its fixed red Fourth Order Fresnel Lens was visible up to 12 miles away in clear weather. An elevated catwalk along the pier eased access to the light from shore, and moving the old south pierhead rear range to the north pier increased visibility. A small open frame pyramid structure with a lantern marked the end of the south pier.

Electricity came to the Frankfort pierhead lights in 1919, increasing the range of the north pierhead light to 14 miles.

Ferry traffic continued to dramatically increase at Frankfort, and the Army Corps of Engineers built two long breakwaters to protect the harbor and replace the older piers.

Workers loaded the old north pierhead light tower onto a barge to transport it to the end of the new concrete north breakwater, placing it atop a new two-story steel base. The new square base-and-pyramid tower combination stood 67 feet tall and sailors could see now see the light from up to 16 miles away in clear weather.

This light tower did not have a catwalk for access. The existence of a door about ten feet above the breakwater seems to indicate that initial plans called for a catwalk that was never built.

The importance of Frankfort as a busy car ferry port faded in the 1960s, with the last ferry leaving the city in 1967.

Frankfort remains a busy tourist town today, at least during the warmer months, but I love the quiet isolation and frozen structures created by ice coating the north breakwater light tower and a secondary navigational light on the south breakwater during Michigan's cold winter months.

© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved

Things To Do
Frankfort

Photo Friday: Michigan's Point Betsie lighthouse in winter

Point Betsie lighthouse, and this remote stretch of Lake Michigan beach near Frankfort in Michigan, is one of my favorite places in any season.

Winter brings an especially stark and crystalline beauty to the snow-kissed beach, accenting the crisp contrast between the red-roofed white lighthouse and, on this day last February, a brilliant blue sky.

Point Betsie lighthouse celebrated its 150th anniversary last year, and the ambitious renovation I wrote about then continues at the lighthouse this year. Exterior work at the main lighthouse building and the fog signal building is largely complete, while rehabilitation of the lighthouse's interior continues with a projected 2010 completion date.

Thanks to Debbie Dubrow of Delicious Baby for creating and coordinating Photo Friday to link travel photos and blog posts across the Web.

© Dominique 2009 All right reserved

Midwest travel links for November 2009

Check out some of these Midwest-related blog posts from other writers I've enjoyed reading this past month:

• Bite into Cocktail Hour at Roast-I loved hearing that "Iron Chef", and Cleveland-area restaurant owner, Michael Symon opened Roast in Detroit's renovated Westin Book Cadillac Hotel. I've been longing to eat there, but until I do, I can enjoy this review from Becks Davis. Becks enjoyed a "cheap date night gone swanky" with her hubby at Roast's affordable Cocktail Hour.

• The game that made Mark Fidrych Famous (June 28, 1976)-Relieve the glory days of Mark "The Bird" Fidrych's brief heyday at the mound as a Detroit Tiger pitcher. Check out the short clip featuring a bit of a particularly memorable game when Fidrych's pitching brought a stadium full of baseball fans to their feet and demanding a curtain call for the always animated Bird.

• Storm Chaser: Surfing in Grand Haven-Yes, you read that correctly. We have awesome surfing in Michigan! Be sure to click out to the link from the blog to the preview of Unsalted, a flick about Great Lakes surfers.

• Glen Haven, Michigan: Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore-The Sleeping Bear Dunes Lakeshore in northwestern Michigan is one of our favorite vacation destinations. Check out Tim's take on the nicely restored town buildings in this formerly bustling port, lumbering and tourist town turned to National Park Service land and museum.

• Fresnel lens tune-up-The strikingly beautiful Split Rock Lighthouse in northern Minnesota celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, so it's time to get ready for the lighthouse's close-up. Here's a behind-the-scenes look at tuning up the nation's last operational Fresnel lens in a lighthouse lens room, operating with the original mercury float, and rotating with a clockwork mechanism.





• Midwest shopping destination: Mall of America-Looking to combine travel with holiday shopping? Check out Beth Blair's report from the gigantic Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. Beth offers helpful tips for navigating the mall's 520-plus stores and numerous attractions.

• Photo Friday: Land of Evermor, Baraboo, Wisconsin-I love Linda's knack for finding the most intriguing sights and exploring off the beaten path. Check out these cool animals created from scrap metal, especially the creative use of discarded instruments to build flocks of long-legged birds!

• The Lincoln Museum & some tips for Springfield, Illinois-Want to learn a bit about history in the Land of Lincoln? Follow along as The Little TravelNotebook Team visits the Lincoln Library and Museum--and get a few tips to make your visit easier, especially if you're traveling with an RV or travel trailer.

• Free things to do in Cleveland-We visit Cleveland, Ohio, fairly often, but I'll be sure to take this list of freebie sites with me next time I visit the city. Check out Kristin's article at Kathika for a list of ten great Cleveland sites to check out that won't cost you a dime.

• Photo Friday: The Farm-From Cleveland, head on down to Amish Country and visit The Farm, a working Amish farm and animal preserve! It seems like an odd combination to me, this post at Flip Flop Caravan made it look like a fun way to spend a day in scenic Holmes County, Ohio.

• Wanderlust Sunday: The American Midwest-I feel this region is often ignored when it comes to travel writing, so I was thrilled to see TheWordWire feature a list of Midwest posts in a Wanderlust Sunday column. The fact that two of the five stories were mine (one from this blog, and one from The Urbane Life), and one came from Tim's blog (The Wandering Photographer), tells me that Tim and I need to keep traveling, writing, and taking photos!

• Awful Library Books on Jimmy Kimmel Live-OK, so this isn't a travel story...but this site is just too hilarious not to include somewhere. The Awful Library Books site is the work of two Michigan librarians who unearth the oddest, most obsolete, and outdated books lining library shelves. Checking out the covers of these books is hilarious enough--commentary from Mary and Holly makes this site even more fun. This post includes a clip of their recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel's late night show with a few of their most jaw-dropping finds.

© Dominique King 2009 All rights reserved

Pennsylvania's Presque Isle Pierhead Lighthouse unique among U.S. lights

Many travelers may be familiar with the iconic Presque Isle Lighthouse pictured on special Pennsylvania license plates, but Presque Isle's unique pierhead light is also worth visiting.

We drove a few miles farther along the peninsula after visiting the Presque Isle Lighthouse to the road turning off towards a Coast Guard base at the southeastern tip of Presque Isle, where a pierhead light marks the narrow entrance into the protected harbor between the city of Erie on the mainland and the long bar of Presque Isle jutting out into Lake Erie.

The pier was a popular place for fishers the day we visited, and we saw at least one angler pull in a sizeable fish as we strolled along the concrete pier out to the light.

The city of Erie already had a land lighthouse, built in 1818, but difficulty navigating into the inlet brought a beacon at the harbor entrance in 1830, housed in a small wooden light tower.

Mariners sometimes had difficulty spotting the pier light until they were right by it, and the pier light got a new sixth-order Fresnel lens in the mid-1850s. The lighthouse and improved lighting didn't help much when a schooner attempting to enter the harbor in 1857 during a storm collided with the lighthouse, destroying the tower and the lens.

A temporary light hung on a gallows frame at the pier until a new pier light tower went up in 1858.

Perhaps officials had the fate of the original pier light tower in mind when they ordered a cast-iron tower sheathed in steel for an estimated cost of $5,250.

The 34-tall Presque Isle Pierhead Light (or Erie Harbor North Pierhead Light) tower is unique among lighthouses in the United States, being the only surviving example of the square and pyramidal style light tower in the country.

Changes at the harbor over the years meant changes for the little pierhead light as traffic increased in the harbor, necessitating changes in its pier perch.

A major change came in 1882 for the lighthouse with a move 190 feet further along the pier. Another move of 509 feet along further the pier and automation of the light happened in 1940.

The home that housed a number of the light's 15 keepers through 1940 still sits on the grounds of the nearby Coast Guard Station.

In 1995, the Coast Guard changed the tower's fixed red light to a red flashing light. The lighthouse's fourth-order Fresnel lens also went to the Erie Maritime Museum at that time. The pierhead tower with its solar powered light is still an active navigational aid for area sailors.

Erie has a rich maritime history (much of it beyond the scope of my lighthouse articles). Readers interested in learning more might want to start by checking out the Erie Maritime Museum Web site, especially the page recounting the story of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry and his victory over the British in 1813 during the Battle of Lake Erie and the War of 1812.

© Dominique King 2009 All rights reserved

Things To Do
Erie