Sand Hills Light
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Sand Hills Light | |
|---|---|
 Sand Hills Lighthouse |
|
| Location: | Ahmeek, Michigan |
| Coordinates WGS-84 (GPS) |
|
| Year first lit: | 1919 |
Sand Hills is a formerly active lighthouse on the shore of Lake Superior converted into a bed and breakfast. It is located in Ahmeek in Keweenaw County Michigan in the Keweenaw Peninsula, which is the northern part of the Upper Peninsula. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Many years after the decommissioning of the Eagle River Light, Sand Hills Lighthouse was commissioned in 1917, as a response to a number of instances of ships that had run aground on the nearby "Sawtooth" reef in the previous few years.
The Lighthouse was completed in May of 1919 and was in service for 20 years as a manned lighthouse complete with 3 keepers.[1]
In 1939, the Coast Guard assumed responsibility for the Lighthouse and automated its use, eliminating the need for keepers.
In 1942, it was converted to a wartime Coast Guard training facility, housing and schooling roughly 200 trainees at a time. In 1943 it was closed as a training location and reverted to being simply a lighthouse.
It continued as an active lighthouse until 1954, when it was decommissioned, in part due to improvements in weather forecasting and the adoption of radar.
It stayed empty and idle through the next few years, finally being liquidated and sold at public auction in 1958 for $26,000 to H. Donald Bliss, an insurance agent from the Detroit area.
In 1961, it was sold again to Bill Frabotta, a Detroit photographer and artist who used the fog station as a summer cottage. In 1992, Bill began a comprehensive 3 year rebuilding project, and along with his wife, Mary, converted the entire facility into a premier Bed and Breakfast Inn.
Contents |
[edit] External links
[edit] See also
[edit] Further reading
- Bibliography on Michigan lighthouses.
- Hyde, Charles K., and Ann and John Mahan. The Northern Lights: Lighthouses of the Upper Great Lakes. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1995. ISBN 0814325548 ISBN 9780814325544.
- Oleszewski, Wes, Great Lakes Lighthouses, American and Canadian: A Comprehensive Directory/Guide to Great Lakes Lighthouses, (Gwinn, Michigan: Avery Color Studios, Inc., 1998) ISBN 0-932212-98-0.
- Penrod, John, Lighthouses of Michigan, (Berrien Center, Michigan: Penrod/Hiawatha, 1998) ISBN 9780942618785 ISBN 9781893624238.
- Pepper, Terry. Seeing the Light: Lighthouses on the western Great Lakes.
- Wagner, John L.. Beacons Shining in the Night: The Lighthouses of Michigan. Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University.
- Splake, T. Kilgore. Superior Land Lights. Battle Creek, MI: Angst Productions, 1984.
- Wagner, John L., Michigan Lighthouses: An Aerial Photographic Perspective, (East Lansing, Michigan: John L. Wagner, 1998) ISBN 1880311011 ISBN 9781880311011.
- Wright, Larry and Wright, Patricia, Great Lakes Lighthouses Encyclopedia Hardback (Erin: Boston Mills Press, 2006) ISBN 1550463993.
[edit] Notes
|
||||||||||
