Point Iroquois Light

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Point Iroquois Light

Location:
Coordinates
WGS-84 (GPS)		 46°29.021′N 84°37.541′W / 46.483683, -84.625683
Year first lit: 1870
Deactivated: 1963
Foundation: Cement
Construction: Brick
Tower shape: Conical
Markings/Pattern: White tower/Black parapet & Lantern
Height: Tower 65 feet (20 m)
Focal plane 72 feet (22 m)
Original lens: Fourth Order Fresnel lens
Current lens: None
Range: 15 miles
Characteristic: flash every 30 seconds

Point Iroquois Light is a lighthouse on a bluff in the U.S. state of Michigan above Whitefish Bay that marks entrance to the St. Marys River, the connection between Lake Superior and other Great Lakes.

Point Iroquois includes a larger geographic area than the lightstation site. It was named for the Iroquois warriors massacred there by the Ojibwe in 1662. Native Algonkians called the point "Nadouenigoning," composed of the words "Nadone" (Iroquois) and "Akron" (bone).

In 1855 a wood and rubble stone lighthouse was built and commenced operations on Jun 18, 1856. It was a 45 foot tall rubble stone tower with a wooden lantern deck, outfitted with a flashing white Fourth Order Fresnel lens. Being built on the Point's highest ground, it had a 63-foot focal plane, and a range of visibility of 10 nautical miles. It was then torn down in 1870.[1][2]

Following the Civil War, the United States Lighthouse Board went into a lighthouse (and life saving station) building boom on the Great Lakes.[3]

In 1870, the first lighthouse was torn down; the present Cape Cod style white brick lighthouse was built and ran continuously for 93 years, guiding ships in and out of the Soo Locks. It has a 65 foot tower height, and a focal plane that is variously reported as 68 feet or 72 feet.[4]

In 1885, a bell tower was erected, which incorporated a Stevens automatic bell striking machine.[5] In 1890, the bell tower was torn down, and a fog signal building was built with steam whistles installed. In 1926 they were replaced by Type F diaphone fog horns.[6]

In 1902, a two-floor building was added to the 1871 building, providing living space for another assistant keeper, bringing the staff to three Lighthouse keepers. At one time, the station was manned by a Head Keeper and two Assistant Keepers. The children of the keepers and local fisherman were enough to populate a local school on the grounds for a period. Other buildings on the site included: an assistant keepers quarters, fog signal building (now gone), three barns, a chicken house, boathouse, oil house, and well and well house.[7]

The station was deactivated in 1962, replaced by the Canadian operated Gros Gap Reef, an automatic buoy-type beacon in the channel.

The land and lighthouse are now part of the Hiawatha National Forest and the light is a Marine Museum. Restoration efforts are being conducted under the auspices of the Bay Mills/Brimley Historical Research Society, to whom the site is leased.[8]

In 1963, the original lens was sent to the Smithsonian Institution. A Fourth Order Fresnel lens taken from St. Martin's Reef Light is on display in the Lighthouse keeper's house.[9]

Contents

[edit] Seeing this light

  • The tower and museum are open to the public from Memorial Day through October 15. Operations are seven days per week. Everyday from 10.00am to 5.00pm, seven days a week. Weekends, Friday through Sunday, they reopen from 7.00 p.m. to 9.00pm.
  • M-221 into Brimley, Michigan then turn left onto 6 Mile Rd which leads to the lighthouse about 7.5 miles down the road.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Further reading

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Terry Pepper, Seeing the Light, Point Iroquois Light.
  2. ^ National Park Service, Hiawatha National Forest, Iroquois Light and Museum.
  3. ^ See the chronology at Wagner, John L.. Beacons Shining in the Night: The Lighthouses of Michigan. Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University.
  4. ^ Compare, National Park Service, Inventory of Historic Light Stations and Terry Pepper, Seeing the Light, Focal Height of Lighthouses.
  5. ^ Stevens Automatic Bell Striker, Terry Pepper, Seeing the Light.
  6. ^ Terry Pepper, Seeing the Light, Point Iroquois Light.
  7. ^ Wobser, David and Colt Edin, Point Iroquois Light, Boatnerd.com.
  8. ^ National Park Service, Hiawatha National Forest, Iroquois Light and Museum
  9. ^ National Park Service, Inventory of Historic Light Stations.
  10. ^ Michigan History Arts and Letters, review of Legends of Light: A Michigan Lighthouse Portfolio, which has many pictures of this light.
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