Lighthouses of Central Lake Superior

This is in the park north of Marquette just behind the loading dock for the oar carriers.  When the weather is reasonable, you can walk out the walkway to the light.  In high winds, the walkway is quite wet, and therefore dangerous.

Located in Lake Superior, 24 miles southeast of Manitou Island and 45 miles north of Marquette. "We" visited Stannard Rock with Captain Tom of Fishing Fever Charters.

Photo courtesy cmstpprr [Webshots]

Located on Lighthouse Island, the westernmost of the Huron Islands. The islands make up the Huron Islands National Wildlife Refuge, and are located three miles off the south shore of Lake Superior and 18 miles east of the Keewenaw Peninsula.

Photo may be purchased from Marinas.com

From Highway 26 in the town of Lake Linden, turn east on 9th Street which will become Bootjack Road. Follow Bootjack Road around Torch Lake and then Portage Lake for roughly 7.5 miles until you come to a fork in the road. Take the left fork, Dreamland Road (Jacobsville Road) and follow it for 8.4 miles where it will tee. Turn right and follow the road to the park at its end.

Photo courtesy Eric Kraai [Flickr]

The public highway brings you in on the wrong side of the river, but it's close enough you get pretty good pictures.

Manitou Island Transit offers ferry service and day trips to South Manitou Island from Leland.

Photo courtesy cmstpprr [Webshots]

This skeleton tower was made the official light in 1933.  The original 1848 light is just in front (to the left) of this tower.

This is the current Copper Harbor light and shows both the front range light and the rear light.  The route into Copper Harbor is quite difficult to run and these lights are still in active service.

From the town of Eagle Harbor, travel east on Highway 26. Just before the road runs adjacent to the harbor, you will see this former range light, now used as a residence, on your left.

A bed and breakfast north of Ahmeek, Michigan.  Follow Highway 41 north to Ahmeek, then turn left on the first street and follow the signs to Five Mile Point Road.  The lighthouse is 8 miles from Ahmeek.

Located on Fourteen Mile Point, roughly 12.5 miles northeast of Ontonagon.  This is currently private property and the trail used by the keepers is now impenetrable.  Best bet to see this light is from a boat.

Photo may be purchased from Marinas.com

This lighthouse can be viewed from the Ontonagon Lighthouse or from the beach on the eastern side of the Ontonagon River.

Photo may be purchased from Marinas.com

On this rock, out in the wilds of Northern Lake Superior, the second keeper raised 12 children.  We got there on a GLLKA cruise, there are others out of Houghton that go in this direction.  (Note carefully the steel shutters on the windows.  When the waves come from the south, this is a dangerous place to be).

Much historical data about these lights can be found at www.terrypepper.com/lights.

This light (it certainly isn't a lighthouse) marks the end of an island that really is pretty dangerous.  You can see Passage Island (see beloW from here, but its still pretty small.  The island is now a bird sanctuary.

Photo courtesy R Lee [Flickr]

This is a classic Canadian lighthouse - wood construction, white with (probably) original Red trim.  It's been abandoned, so now it's gray with brown trim.

The intent of Pie Island was to identify the old channel into Thunder Bay.  The channel has now been moved considerably east (and made much larger) and marked by the new light on Angus Island shown here.  According to our captain on the cruise, no amount of paint will make "ugly" look "good", so you have his editorial comment has now been recorded.