The red lighthouse at Manistique, Michigan looks brighter these days due to a new coat of paint and a new lease on life under the care of a new owner.
The future of the lighthouse, long an icon for this Upper Peninsula town on Lake Michigan, looked uncertain when visited it last summer. The tower stood on a concrete breakwater, its red coat mottled with rust spots, as the Federal government prepared to put it up for auction.
Lighthouse enthusiast Bill Collins bid on the lighthouse early last summer, gaining ownership of it by July and dressing it up with a brilliant new coat of red paint by September of 2013.
Today the lighthouse celebrates its future, even as it celebrates its proud past.
Charles T. Harvey established a community here in the late 1800s, building a dam and a mill to help serve the booming market for lumber to rebuild after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.
The lumber industry and railroading fueled Manistique's growth over the next few decades.
The United States Lighthouse Board requested $32,000 to build a lighthouse and other maritime traffic aids for Manistique in 1892. Congress approved the project in 1893, but failed to appropriate money for it despite repeated requested to do so over the next few years.
Manistique businesses installed timber cribs, and later breakwaters, to protect the harbor and hung couple of lanterns from the outer edges of the cribs to guide the maritime traffic into the harbor. A car ferry began running daily in 1902 to take cars and mail between Manistique in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and Northport in Michigan's Lower Peninsula.
In 1913, Congress finally approved a request of $20,000 from the Lighthouse Board to build a lighthouse, fog signal and keepers' dwelling at Manistique after an Army Corps of Engineers report agreeing with the need for a light station drew up plans for the light tower and improvements for the breakwaters on either side of the harbor.
Workers put a 22-foot-tall skeletal steel lighthouse on the west breakwater and pier head in 1914.
They used pre-fabricated steel slabs to construct a permanent light tower on a 14-foot by 14-foot square concrete foundation on the east breakwater, finishing it and lighting it light for the first time on August 17, 1916.
The lighthouse stands about 35 feet tall and got a Fresnel lens in 1918.
A home soon also stood in place near the end of the breakwater to serve as a dwelling for the light keeper, the assistant light keeper and their families. The white stucco home with a red roof still stands at Range and Washington Streets, although it now belongs to a private owner.
Maritime traffic in the harbor decreased as lumbering and railroading decreased in the area. The car ferry ceased operating in the late 1960s.
By 1969, the tower had an automated light and the Fresnel lens was no longer in the tower. Today, the restored Fresnel lens is on loan to the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc.
Still, the lighthouse remained an important icon for Manistique, featured prominently on signs, publications and Web sites for organizations like the City of Manistique, the Manistique Tourism Council and the Schoolcraft County Chamber of Commerce.
The City of Manistique considered acquiring the lighthouse when the government offered it in 2012 to non-profits, local governments, historic preservation groups or other qualified groups under terms of the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act. They city failed to complete the deal, so the lighthouse went up a year later at public auction to go to the highest bidder.
Bill Collins of Ohio won the lighthouse with his bid of $15,000 to become its new owner. By September of 2013, the lighthouse stood proudly on the pier head with its new coat of paint.
Collins lives on Lake Erie and also owns the Liston Rear Range Lighthouse in Port Penn, Delaware that he bought at auction.
Collins never visited Manistique before bidding on and winning its most important symbol, but luckily for folks who treasure the lighthouse and its importance to Manistique, Collins seems to appreciate the light's importance to the area.
Interested in the lighthouse's future and Collins' plan for it? Check out the Manistique Lighthouse Facebook Page for progress reports and lots of great pictures of the lighthouse. I learned that work started last week on repairing the tower's base when I messaged the page to ask about the lighthouse and its progress. I'm looking forward to tracking the ongoing work on the lighthouse and hope we can travel back up to Manistique to see the lighthouse again soon!
To learn more about Manistique and its history, check out Manistique (Images of America) by M. Vonciel LeDuc and the Schoolcraft County Historical Society or The Haywire: A Brief History of the Manistique and Lake Superior Railroad by Hugh A. Hornstein.
© Dominique King 2014 All rights reserved
How cool! glad that he is working on it!
Posted by: wanderingeducators | June 08, 2014 at 09:02 AM
I love it when these lighthouse stories have a happy ending. It's sad to see them when they're neglected and crumbling, so I was particularly happy to hear from the owners that they were continuing with the good work they started last fall through this summer.
Posted by: Dominique King | June 08, 2014 at 09:12 AM