August 7 is National Lighthouse Day, and Michigan has plenty of reasons to celebrate as the state has more lighthouses than any other state.
There are 129 lighthouses along the shoreline, spanning nearly 3,300 miles of coastline. Diana Stampfler, author and president of Promote Michigan, shares lighthouse stories spanning back to the 1800s, and their significance to Michigan's history.
Here are some fun facts about Michigan's lighthouses:
- Fort Gratiot is Michigan’s oldest lighthouse, dating back to 1825 and still operating in Port Huron.
- Old Presque Isle Lighthouse is no longer active but is a historic museum along Lake Huron north of Alpena.
- Big Bay Point Lighthouse on Lake Superior is the only operating lighthouse B&B in Michigan.
- Elizabeth Whitney Williams was a lighthouse keeper for more than 44 years (serving on Beaver Island and in Harbor Springs, from 1873-1914).
- Captain Townshend was a keeper at Seul Choix Point Lighthouse in Gulliver (UP).
- Mary Terry can be seen standing on the porch of the Sand Point Lighthouse in Escanaba. She served 18 years before dying in a tragic and mysterious fire.
- Captain Bill Robinson was responsible for the building of the White River Light Station in Whitehall.
- Captain James Donahue served decades in South Haven – a veteran of the Civil War, he had only one leg (and walked on a peg leg or with the aid of crutches).
- Whitefish Point was the lighthouse that the ill-fated Edmund Fitzgerald was in search of when it sank in November 1975.
Learn more by visiting gllka.org.
