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| North Manitou Island Lighthouse | Seeing The Light |
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Historical
Information
Plans and specifications were drawn up for duplicate fog-signal boilers and machinery that winter, and bids opened for supplying the equipment on April 15, 1896. The contract for supplying the machinery was awarded to Kingsford Foundry & Machine Works in Oswego, New York, who began work on the equipment immediately. Work then began on planning the station structures. Rather than create a new set of plans for the dwelling and fog signal building, Ninth District Engineer Milton B. Adams apparently decided to use plans that had been developed for similar structures the previous year on Plum Island across Lake Michigan.
For reasons that we have yet to determine, plans for erecting the planned iron tower at the station stalled in 1897. Whether it was a result of vibration problems being experienced with the similar tower at the Sturgeons Bay Canal station, or a lack of sufficient funds remaining from the appropriation, the North Manitou light station was operated as a fog signal station only during the 1897 navigation season. Late that year, plans for the iron tower were abandoned, and the decision was made to erect a timber pyramid tower at the station, and contracts was awarded for furnishing the required materials and a circular Fourth order lantern.
Judgment was finally rendered in the District Court for the condemnation of the lighthouse site on January 23, 1899, and with a fair value of $487.41 determined for the property, a like sum was deposited by the Government with the Clerk of the court on February 25. The following year, the boathouse was moved to the opposite side of the Dimmick's Point and a new plank walked laid to the dwelling. While on site, the crew also erected a 24' by 28' foot timber-framed barn and a woodshed before the crew departed for work elsewhere. Three years later, the plank walkways within the fenced-in section of the station were replaced by 641 feet of concrete paths and a new landing was placed beside the boathouse.
Waves driven by stiff offshore winds frequently dashed their way across Dimmick's Point, and the keepers had grown used to lake water moving close to the station at times. However in 1912, currents and wave action became so strong that they found water lapping at the foundations of the fog signal building. After learning of the news in Detroit, am engineer and construction crew was dispatched to North Manitou and five spur cribs were erected to help stabilize the eroding shoreline. Apparently, the cribs served their function, as sand quickly began to accumulate up in the lee of the cribs, and by the end of the year there was a full fifty feet of beach restored between the station buildings and the water's edge. On April 24, 1916, the station's oil lamp was replaced with an incandescent oil vapor system, which increased the intensity of the white light to 24,000 candlepower and the red flash to 7,200 candlepower.
Without constant painting by crew of dedicated keepers, the wooden tower and out buildings quickly faded from their crisp white appearance to a dull silvery-gray, and without continued shore protection, the waves began to reclaim an increasingly large expanse of beach in front of the station. Before long, the water was again lapping at the foundation piers of the tower, and thus compromised, the tower crashed to the ground in October, 1942. After twenty years of unabated erosion, the waves
finally began lapping against the lakeward side of the empty dwelling.
With more and more of the foundation this being undermined, the lakeward
wall collapsed in 1968, leaving the interior floors exposed like a
doll's house. The interior of the structure completely exposed to the
elements, decay was rapid, and the remainder of the once majestic
structure came crashing down in the 1970's |
While Congress passed an act approving the
establishment of the new station on February 15, 1893, it neglected to
follow up with an appropriation for the necessary funding, and the Board
reiterated its request in its two following reports. Congress finally
appropriated funding on March 2, 1895, and a survey party was dispatched
to the island to select an appropriate site. While the Board's
recommendations clearly stated that the new light should be established
on the north shore of the island, for reasons we have yet been unable to
determine, a site on the island's southernmost prominence known to
islanders as "Dimmick's Point" was instead selected for the
station, and negotiations to obtain title to the selected site were
undertaken immediately. However, the owner of the selected was evidently
unwilling to sell, and condemnation proceedings were initiated by the US
Attorney in September, 1895.
In 1896, Major Adams was serving as Chief Engineer in
both the Ninth and Eleventh Districts, and was already working on a
design for a radical new type of cylindrical iron tower for
incorporation into new stations planned at the entrance to Sturgeon Bay
Canal on the west shore of lake Michigan and at 
The contractors began work on the station structures
in August, 1896 with work progressing quickly. The red brick fog signal
building stood 40' 1" in length, 22' 6" wide, and its walls
12' 6" in height at the eaves, supporting a hipped roof sheathed
with corrugated iron. The two-story dwelling, also of red brick, was
erected over a full cellar with walls of cut limestone, and was capped
by a red-painted tin shingle roof. The interior of the structure was
configured as three separate living quarters, with the Keeper occupying
both floors in the south half of the building, the First Assistant the
first floor of the north half and the Second Assistant a similar area on
the second floor immediately above. Entrance to the keepers quarters was
gained through a door on one side of the dwelling, with the Assistants
sharing a door on the opposite side. The interior of the building was
universally accepted as being the most opulent ever built on the island,
with entry foyer floors laid with ceramic tile and fine varnished oak
millwork throughout. All quarters featured built-in oak cabinetry
including glass-fronted china cabinets in the dining rooms. The Keepers
quarters even featured pressed tin ceilings in the parlor and dining
room. With the erection of a pair of privies, work on the dwelling was
considered complete.
Work on the fog signal building was completed in
October, just in time for the arrival of the lighthouse tender 
A work crew again arrived at North Manitou in July,
1989 and began work by leveling the selected tower site and erected
eight concrete pads which would serve as the structure's foundation. On
these pads, the framing of the tower was erected using 14" square
timbers. The pyramidal open frame timber structure stood 24' 8" square at the
base and tapered to 10' 4" beneath the gallery. The upper level of
the structure was enclosed with clapboards to cerate a service room in
which to clean lamps and store supplies. A square southern
white pine gallery 14' square was installed above the service room, and a
circular lantern 7' 8" in diameter with diagonal astragals erected
at its center. The district Lampist arrived at the station, and
carefully uncrated the station's new 
In the summer of 1899, the lighthouse tender AMARANTH
returned to the station with a working party and materials to complete
the station. After sheathing the entire exterior of the skeleton frame
tower with clapboards, a lightning conductor of 3/16" by 1 ½"
copper was attached to the lantern, and stapled down the clapboards to
the ground, where it was buried deeply enough to contact moist ground.
The boat landing was extended an additional 55 feet, 644 feet of plank
walks were laid from the dwelling to the boathouse, and a 60 foot flag
pole erected in the middle of the station grounds. 1899 was likely a
memorable year for the North Manitou keepers, as they fed 88 cords of
wood into the hungry fog signal boilers to keep the whistle screaming
its warning across the Manitou Passage for a station record 757 hours.
Life at the isolated station was not without its
hazards, as witnessed by a close call that Keeper Edward Cornell
experienced in 1910. It would appear that the gas tank in the keeper's
boat developed a leak, and forced to make repairs at the station,
Cornell decided to solder the leaking seam. Unaware that the tank still
contained a residual amount of gasoline, the blowtorch he was using for
soldering ignited the fumes, resulting in a huge explosion which set
fire to the boat, fracturing the bones in his right ankle. Mustering a
Herculean effort from within his fog of pain, Cornell managed to
extinguish the fire around him before dragging himself onto the landing.
While after Cornell was taken to the doctor in Leeland he managed to
continue his duties with the aid of crutches, it was months before he
fully recovered the use of his right ankle. Also that year, with the
completion of the new light at White Shoal, lightship LV56 was moved to
mark the southern limit of North Manitou Shoal. With the lightship now
marking the north side of the passage, the days of viability for the
North Manitou station were inevitably numbered.
The light was automated in 1928 through the
installation of sun valve equipped acetylene-powered light. However,
with the establishment of the North Manitou Shoal Light to replace the
lightship in 1935, the North Manitou Light station had outlived its
purpose, and the acetylene light was discontinued. The entire lighthouse
property was subsequently declared surplus and sold at auction to
Lansing businessman William Angell for $2,600 in October, 1938.