Show Notes: Great Lakes Lighthouses

Michigan Coast is Lined with 129 Lighthouses

Michigan is surrounded by freshwater seas.  Should you ever experience a squall on the Great Lakes, you will be quick to recognized the power of these inland oceans.  

Michigan, some time ago, was a land of hardy people who sailed these waters and helped build our country with it’s vast resources of lumber, copper and iron ore.

Today we are not the same hardy people, we are distracted by the frivolities of the dopamine mills.  

The Waugoshance Lighthouse

Located in Lake Michigan near the Mackinaw Straits, holds a significant place in Great Lakes history.
Here is an executive summary of the “Waugoshance Lighthouse” source:
• Construction and Early Significance: Built in 1851, ten years before the Civil War, Waugoshance Lighthouse was the first crib lighthouse on the Great Lakes and is considered the first lighthouse completely surrounded by water. Its construction was an engineering success, demonstrating the government’s ability to build lasting infrastructure during a period of rapidly increasing shipping traffic to and from Chicago, particularly through the dangerous, shallow waters of the Mackinaw Straits.
• Historical Events and Abandonment:
◦ In 1871, during the Great Lakes fire, its keepers rang bells for a week through thick smoke, saving many mariners from shipwrecks.
◦ The lighthouse was abandoned in 1912 after the White Shoal Light was built.
◦ During World War II, it was used by the military for their first drone program, being bombed and crashed into by aircraft. This activity destroyed all wooden structures, but the steel sheath of the tower and base remarkably withstood the destruction. Unexploded ordnance from this period was cleaned up in 2005, and rumors suggest ongoing clean-up efforts.
• Current Status: Today, Waugoshance Lighthouse is on the Lighthouse Digest Doomsday List for most endangered lighthouses in the United States. Despite attempts by a non-profit organization formed in 2000 to restore it, these efforts failed by 2021 due to the high cost of repairs (an estimated $300,000 just for the base). The structure has since been returned to the Coast Guard. It continues to deteriorate due to persistent natural forces like waves, weather, and ice.