Project #8 - Old Mission Lighthouse
This lighthouse is beautifully situated on the 45th parallel at the tip of the Old Mission Peninsula in northern Michigan looking over the Grand Traverse Bays.
After a large ship sank in the 1860s after striking a shallow reef at the end of the peninsula, Congress set aside $6,000 for the construction of a lighthouse. Due to the Civil War, it was not completed until 1870 and was first lit on September 10 of that year.
Originally, the lighthouse consisted of six rooms on the ground floor and a bedroom and supply room on the second floor. Above the second floor is a room in the tower, just large enough for the light mechanism. Like so many other lighthouses, whale oil (and later kerosene) was used to light the fifth-order Fresnel lens, which refracted and magnified its modest light source into an intense beam that could be seen up to 13 miles away.
Only seven lighthouse keepers lived in this historic house, operating the light to keep the waters safe until the last one left in 1933.
From 1933 to 1948, the lighthouse sat empty and was vandalized. Finally, in 1948, the township was able to buy the property, in part through donations from 43 local residents. Several caretakers watched over the lighthouse until 2008.
In 1992, the lighthouse was added to the State Historical Register, and today it can be toured. Visitors can also climb the tower to see what it was like back in the day.
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