Manitou Island Light Station


The Manitou Island Light Station is a lighthouse located on Manitou Island, off the tip of Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula in Lake Superior. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

Description

The Manitou Island Light Station consists of a skeletal steel light tower with associated keeper's house, outbuildings, and various walkways and foundations. The tower base measures square at the base and is high. The base supports a high skeletal tower, atop which is a cast iron ten-sided watch room and ten-sided lantern. A circular staircase covered with iron and lined with wood provides access to the watchtower. The original lens was a Third Order Fresnel Made by Le Paute of Paris and had six separate panels, each with a bull's eye prism. The current lens is also a Third Order Fresnel, with four panels inscribed P. Barbier and Co., Paris.
The keeper's house is a ten-room, two-story frame structure on a stone foundation. It is sided with asbestos shingles and shingled with asphalt. The interior still has some original doors and woodwork, but much of the wall material and flooring are modern additions.

History

The first lighthouse on Manitou Island was a rubble-stone tower built in 1850. In 1861, the current light replaced it ; the keeper's house was built the same year. A fog signal was added in 1871, and buildings to house it in 1875. These signals were refurbished in 1899. In 1895, an oil house was added, in 1901 a boathouse, and in 1930 a concrete fog signal building was constructed, replacing the earlier one. It is the oldest iron skeletal light tower on the Great Lakes.
The light was automated in 1978, and is still in use as a navigational aid. In 2004, the Keweenaw Land Trust acquired the light from the United States Government, along with surrounding land, under the auspices of the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act. The area is open to the public, and is available for camping, rock collecting, hiking, boating, sea kayaking, fishing, and sightseeing.