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 of 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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The Wagoshance Lighthouse (or as the old sailors called it, Wobbleshanks) sits out in Lake Michigan not far from Mackinac City off the coast of Wilderness State Park. It is at a remote place out away from sight by most tourists and has been forgotten and left to crumble into Lake Michigan. It was the first lighthouse in the Great Lakes completely surrounded by water when it was built in 1851.  It’s unique looking “birdhouse style lantern room illuminated the dark for decades guiding ships into the Straits of Mackinac. As ships got larger, the shipping lanes changed and the old iron-clad lighthouse was no longer needed and was decommissioned in 1912. Being left to the elements was bad enough, but the Army Air Corps used it as a target to test drones and bombed the outcast Lighthouse. What the elements did not destroy, the fire from the bombs did. It is just a shell of rusted metal and crumbling stone and bricks. If this old light was sitting in front of Mackinac Island, or in view from the bridge, people would be wondering about it, but I guess the old saying “out of sight, out of mind” is true.

The lighthouse is listed as one of the most endangered lighthouses by Lighthouse Digest and with the non-profit organization that was trying to raise funds to save it being recently disbanded, the old lighthouse is left to unceremoniously collapse into Lake Michigan.

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There are several lighthouses in Michigan, about 150 of them if you really wanna know, and the Livingston memorial light is one of the most unique, not only in Michigan but in the United States. It’s one of only 3 lights erected as a memorial in Michigan and the only navigational light constructed of marble in the country.

William Livingston was a prominent businessman in Detroit and served as president of the Lake Carriers Association. He was instrumental in having the government expanding the Soo locks and deepening and widening the channel in the St Mary’s river. He also worked on the project building a waterway for downbound ships in the lower Detroit River, which opened in 1908, and named the Livingstone Channel in his honor. During the early 1900’s, more ships and more tonnage passed by Detroit than through either the Suez or Panama canals.

After his death in 1925, as a tribute to Livingston, the city of Detroit donated the property on Belle Isle and funds were raised by the Lakes Carriers Association to build the $100,000 tower designed by famed Detroit architect Albert Kahn. The flouted art deco tower is made of white georgian marble, and has a light that can be seen for 16 miles on Lake St Clair.

The was another lighthouse on the island before the memorial light was built. The Belle Isle lighthouse was constructed in 1881 in the location where the coast guard station is now. Keeper Louis Fetes lived at the lighthouse for nearly 40 years and he and his wife raised their six children on the island, in 1930 the light was automated and by the 40’s the old forgotten lighthouse began to decay and the coast guard demolished it. I found a photo of the old lighthouse on the coast guards website and it was a beautiful victorian looking lighthouse, it’s sad the house is no longer standing, I think it would be one of the most beautiful lighthouses in Michigan.

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The Huron Lightship was commissioned in 1921 and retired in 1970 after years of faithful service on Lake Huron illuminating the way for ships at the mouth of the St Clair River. She is permanently moored in Port Huron and serves as a museum.

P.S. If you are wondering, I had to turn on the light in Photoshop.

P.P.S I have a full story about the lightship in Lost In Michigan Volume 2 available by clicking HERE

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If you have ever driven through Marine City you have probably noticed the lighthouse that stands in a downtown park along the St. Clair River. It seems a little out of place and that is because it was moved to its current location after the old tower was no longer needed. The tower was built on Peche Island, A Canadian island at the mouth of the Detroit River near Belle Isle. Constructed in 1908 it stood for years guiding ships in the river. It was decommissioned in 1983 and after learning of its demolition funds were raised by Marine City to move the tower to the city’s Waterworks Park. It proudly stands, not guiding ships, but looking over the city that gave it a new home after it was retired.

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