Forty Mile Point Light

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Forty Mile Point Light is a lighthouse in Michigan, USA. Unlike many Great Lakes Lighthouses, Forty Mile Point Light does not mark a significant harbor or river mouth. Rather, it was constructed with the intent that as one sailed from Mackinaw Point to the Saint Clair river, one never was out of viewing range of a lighthouse. With no river or harbor to use for a name, the light is named on the basis that it is 40 miles as the ship sails from Mackinaw Point.

While the Presque Isle Peninsula had been lighted since 1840, and the entrance to the Cheboygan River fifty miles to the north had been lighted since 1851, the New Presque Isle Light's range of visibility of 19 miles and the Cheboygan Light's visible range of 13 miles left an unlighted 18 mile intervening stretch of coastline along which mariners were forced to navigate blind. In its annual report for fiscal 1890, the Board recommended that $25,000 be appropriated for the construction of a new light and fog signal at Forty Mile Point near Hammond's Bay, at the approximate mid point between the two lights.[1]

Congress apparently was unimpressed with this request and it was 5 years before the concept was agreed to and funded. The plan for this light is nearly a clone of the plan for the Big Bay Point Lighthouse on Lake Superior being constructed at the same time. The footings are 20" limestone and the structure is 35' x 57'. The integrated tower is 12' square and 52' high. The house contains two identical apartments (probably for the keeper and the assistant keeper, but usually the assistant got a smaller, not an identical apartment). A unique feature is a skylight in the stair ways which allowed the keeper or the assistant to observe the light's (to see if it was still working) without going outside or climbing the tower.

The light was completed in November of 1896, but traffic on the Great Lakes is not a year round event, so it wasn't until the spring of 1897 that it was first lit.

Should you wish to see the light, it is in a county park (well marked) 6 miles north of Rogers City on US-23. If your geography of this area is limited, a map with the lights in the area is available at lighthousesRus