I just found out that the Coast Guard is looking at removing the Fresnel lens from the Tawas Point Lighthouse and moving the light to the fog signal tower farther down the point. the Coast Guard press release is HERE  . The current lighthouse was completed in 1876 and still currently guides ships into Tawas Bay with its 4th order Fresnel lens. One of the few lighthouses in the nation still using the old original lens, the Coast Guard owns the light, but the Michigan DNR owns the lighthouse. The Coast Guard said they are removing the lens to preserve it, and usually loan them to museums, and since the lighthouse is a museum, I am hoping that they decide to keep it at Tawas Point. I also hope they will have a light in the lighthouse, not for an aid to navigation, but it is nice to see a light emanating from the tower. While I was camping at the state park, at night you could see the light from the campground.

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The McGulpin Point Light, a true lighthouse with a light tower and attached lighthouse keeper’s living quarters, was completed by the United States Lighthouse Board in 1869 at a cost of $20,000. The living quarters were built as a vernacular 11⁄2-story brick structure. The lighthouse operated during the Great Lakes navigation seasons from 1869 until 1906.

The design was so successful that the Lighthouse Board chose to use this 1868 design in the construction of Eagle Harbor Light in 1871; White River Light in 1875; and Sand Island Light in 1881. It is a “mirror image of the design” used at Chambers Island Light and Eagle Bluff light. The design is sometimes called “Norman Gothic” style

James Davenport was the only lighthouse keeper at this light, and served for 27 years. Correspondence files in the National Archives in Washington show that Davenport made weekly trips through the snow to the lighthouse to report on its condition to the District Inspector in Milwaukee. Perhaps more importantly, these letters also show that he may have played a critical role in the opening of navigation every spring by reporting weekly, and sometimes even more frequently, on ice conditions in the Straits. Because Davenport was the only Straits keeper to submit such frequent reports, it would appear that the Inspector used these reports to gain an understanding as to when navigation would be open throughout the lakes.

In 1906, the McGulpin Point Light was deactivated and privatized due to the Lighthouse Board’s judgment that the nearby Old Mackinac Point Light was performing an adequate job of marking the Straits of Mackinac.[9] At some point after deactivation, the lighthouse tower’s lantern room was removed, and the building passed into private ownership. The building then entered service as a private residence

In 2005 the Lighthouse was put up for sale and Emmet County purchased it, now the light is open for tours. It’s a couple miles west of Mackinaw City,  I have been to the top of the tower, and I will say, it has a spectacular view of the straights and the bridge.

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In 1832, Congress authorized a lightship to be placed on Waugoshance Shoal as the first attempt to mark the western entrance to the Straits. In 1838, Lieutenant James T. Homans reported that the lightship was wholly inadequate. He recommended a better solution for Waugoshance and also that a light be built on the point to the west of Mackinaw Harbor. Nothing came of Homans’ recommendations. In 1854, the new Lighthouse Administration decided (against the recommendation of local residents) to put a light at McGulpin Point, approximately 3 miles to the west of Old Point Mackinaw.

In 1889, the United States Lighthouse Board realized that Mackinaw Point was a better location. Their first inclination was to put a fog signal there, but when asking Congress for funding, they requested funding for both a fog signal and a first class lighthouse. Congress chose to accept their recommendation, but only voted the funding for a steam-powered fog-signal. The fog signal was built in 1890. The signal proved to be exceptionally necessary for navigation in the often fog-choked Straits of Mackinac.

.In March 1891, Congress finally authorized the funding for a light station and the board acted quickly. Bidding was difficult, but in 1892, “on a foundation of ashlar limestone, the tower and attached keeper’s dwelling were both constructed of Cream City brick, trimmed with Indiana Limestone. The double-walled cylindrical tower was laid with an outside diameter of 13 feet 4 inches , and as each course was added, rose to a height of 45 feet , surmounted by a circular iron gallery and an 8-foot-8-inch diameter watch room, which was in turn capped by a prefabricated octagonal iron lantern.”The lens is a fourth order Fresnel Lens.

Its light was visible for 14 nautical miles; (16 Miles), which made it “particularly valuable” to the railroad car ferries SS Chief Wawatam and SS Sainte Marie operating between Mackinaw City and St. Ignace.

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