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The Lighthouses of West and North Lake Superior

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These are the lighthouses on the west side of Lake Superior (some of which are on the north side, but some of the north is covered in Superior Center). As you might expect, there are million lighthouses (well, ok, only 70), so this is a long way from "the rest" of the lake.

Downloadable copies of this pictures are stored on the web (mostly Webshots or Flickr). The pictures below are "active", if you press on one, you'll be directly connected to the site with that picture (or one very similar) at a much higher resolution. Orange numbers in parenthesis are references to the Shanklin List of all US lights.^p2

The geographic coordinates (as well as I know them) are available in a TomTom Point of Interest file for download.

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Ashland Breakwater (WI 9)

Built at the end of very long detached breakwater which creates the sheltered harbor of Ashland. Accessible only by boat. There are views from Bayview Park, off US 2 east of downtown.

Photo courtesy Luiz Castro [Flickr]

Chequamegon Point (1896) (WI 8A)

Located at the western end of Long Island, about 2/3 mile west of LaPointe Light. A Coast Guard helicopter moved the tower back from the eroding shoreline in 1987. Accessible only by boat; water taxi service available in season.

Photo courtesy US Coast Guard

Chequamegon Point (1987) (WI 8)

This "D9" tower is similar to many others on the Great Lakes. Built next to the 1895 tower. The photo shows how close the new light is to the old light.

Photo may be purchased from Marinas.com

La Pointe (WI 7)

Located on Long Island (and a sibling of the Coney Island Light in New York), in the mouth of Chequamegon Bay northeast of Washburn. Accessible only by boat; water taxi service available in season.

Photo may be purchased from Marinas.com

38G

Gull Island (WI 7G)
July 10, 2007

We weren't even supposed to see this light as it wasn't in any of the indexes generally used. However, as we were running from the storm (Gale warnings for this evening in Houghton), we went by it. Thus, this is the best picture I could get.

Michigan Island (1857) (WI 6A)
July 10, 2007

The old light is pretty well buried in the trees. Since this land is now a National Park, it may get worse instead of better as the years go by.

Michigan Island (1906) (WI 6B)
July 10, 2007

This skeletal tower really stands high above the trees. It's about 100 feet behind the light shown above.

Raspberry Island (WI 5)
July 10, 2007

This light was expanded in fairly short order from a single keeper, to two keepers, then three keepers. This building is a substantial rebuild to accommodate the 3 keepers.

Outer Island (WI 4)
July 8, 2007

You really can't get here without a boat. We got this shot from the GLLKA Lake Superior Cruise. The weather was pretty cold (not surprising as the water was 52º.)

Devils Island (WI 3)
July 8, 2007

The tradition on why this is called Devil's Island is unclear. The story that made sense to me was that the wind going through the wave caves made it sound like the devil was visiting.

The building in the middle is the fog horn, the tower is a radio direction beacon.

Sand Island (WI 2)
July 8, 2007

While this point is clearly all rocks, there are clear sandy beaches both east and west of this point. It's from those beaches that the island got its name.

Superior South Breakwater (WI 1)
July 8, 2007
latitude 46° 42' 36.5" N longitude 92° 0' 22.8" W

For many years, this was actually the departure point for the bulk of the Coal and Ore. That changed when Duluth put in the canal.

Minnesota Point (ruins) (MN 8)
July 8, 2007

Heavily over run by trees, we were just able to get a glimpse of this tower as our boat cruised from Superior (WI) to Duluth.

Duluth North Pier (MN 5)
July 9, 2007
latitude 46° 46' 51.4" N longitude 92° 5' 17.9" W

This sunrise photo has been digitally edited so you can see both the light and the clouds. It was a beautiful sunrise, but with the sun right behind the light, the foreground was very dark.

Outer Duluth South Breakwater Inner (MN 7)
July 9, 2007
latitude 46° 46' 43.8" N longitude 92° 5' 29.9" W

This light is right next to the bridge, so I took this photo from across the canal.

Duluth South Breakwater (MN 6)
July 9, 2007
lat. 46° 46' 48.4" N longitude 92° 5' 16" W

This looks very similar to the Superior light. That's probably intentional as the canal was cut to compete with Superior.

Two Harbors East Breakwater (MN 4)
June 9, 2007
latitude 47° 0' 38.2" N longitude 91° 40' 10.4" W

Note that this light is a [probably the shortest known] range light. The rear range is in the center of the lantern house. The front range is about a meter in front of it.

Two Harbors (MN 3)
June 9, 2007
latitude 47° 0' 50.4" N longitude 91° 39' 50.1" W

Our captain on the Keewenau Star had great fun trying to get us photos of this light. He first did a 360 around the harbor behind the breakwater (above), then took us out front and did a full 720 showing us every angle possible. Looks to me like he found a good one.

Split Rock (MN 2)
June 9, 2009
latitude 47° 11' 60" N longitude 91° 22' 0.9" W

We first viewed this light from the water, then "up top", then I walked down to the bottom to get the classic shot.

The funny thing about this light is that it really isn't located at Split Rock, this is "Stony Point". But the intention was to build it at Split Rock, so thus it is named.

Grand Marais (MN 1)

The tower is located at the end of the eastern harbor breakwater, off US 61 in Grand Marais; this breakwater is not walkable. The keeper's house is onshore at the end of Broadway.

Photo may be purchased from Marinas.com

If you would like copies of any of my pictures, contact me and we'll discuss arrangements. There are others who do this commercially, I have no intention of competing directly, but you can make a proposal, and I'll react.

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