Toledo Harbor lighthouse tour

Several years ago, I wrote about my frustrations with getting a decent photo of the Toledo Harbor Lighthouse that sits five miles out into Lake Erie from the northern Ohio shoreline.

I satisfied myself then with taking photos of the light's original Fresnel lens, which was, and still is, on display in the lobby of Ohio's Maumee Bay State Park Resort.

At the time I wrote my original article about this lighthouse, it was only two years after the Toledo Harbor Lighthouse Preservation Society gained the deed to the vintage 1904 Romanesque-style light station, and the group was in the beginning stages of an ambitious plan to restore and reopen the Toledo Harbor Light to the public.

The Society began offering periodic boat tours out to the Toledo Harbor Lighthouse in summer of 2011, and I finally had the chance to cruise on out to take pictures of the light earlier this summer.

Today I'm sharing a few of the photos I took that day that I haven't posted with previous articles.

You can see more of the photos I took of the lighthouse this summer and read my story about the tour and the light station's ongoing restoration at the Ohio Tourism Division's Discovering Ohio blog.

Check out my original story about the lighthouse's history and some of the earliest stages of the Society's restoration work at Toledo Harbor.

Both of these stories mention the lighthouse's "ghost", which seems like a timely tale with Halloween nearly here.

The Toledo Harbor Lighthouse was not the first lighthouse in the immediate area. Check back here later this week for a story about the lighthouse replaced by the Toledo Harbor light, the now-defunct and decaying Turtle Island Lighthouse.

Want to learn more about the state's lighthouses and their history? Check out Ohio Lighthouses by Wil O'Connell and Pat O'Connell.

Thanks to Xanterra Parks and Resorts and Maumee Bay State Park Lodge, which provided lodging, meals and the lighthouse tour for my review, with no further compensation. I was free to express my own opinion about my stay and experiences, and the opinions expressed here are mine.

© Dominique King 2012 All rights reserved

Comments

[Pola (@jettingaround)]

Beautiful building! I'm glad you got the shots you wanted. :)

[Dominique King]

Thanks for stopping by, Pola. I'll be interested to see how nicely this lighthouse shapes up as they get further along with the restoration process. For now, it was just exciting to be able to get these exterior shots at close range!