Granite Island Light Station

Granite Island Light Station, Granite Island, Lake Superior, Marquette County, Michigan

Granite Island Light Station, Granite Island, Lake Superior, Marquette County, Michigan

GRANITE ISLAND LIGHT

NW END GRANITE ISLAND/LAKE SUPERIOR
Station Established: 1868
Year Current Tower(s) First Lit: 1869
Operational? NO
Automated? YES 1939
Deactivated:
Foundation Materials: ROCK
Construction Materials: GRANITE
Tower Shape: SQUARE
Markings/Pattern: NATURAL W/BLACK LANTERN
Relationship to Other Structure: ATTACHED
Original Lens: FOURTH ORDER, FRESNEL 1869

Historical Information:

• 1865 – Congress approved lighthouses for Granite Island and Huron Island.
• 1866 – 67 – Government condemned the land in order to acquire it for the Granite Island lighthouse.
• 1867 - $20,000 appropriated for lighthouse.
• 1869 – Lighthouse lit for 1st time.
• 1872 – Lighthouse Keeper Isaac Bridges drowned after his boat capsized.
• 1879 – Fog signal built. The bell used was the same one that had previously been removed from Thunder Bay Island lighthouse.
• 1902 – New boathouse built.
• 1937 – Boathouse and boat destroyed during the winter.
• 1939 – Lighthouse automated.
• 1999 – Lighthouse sold, along with the entire island, into private hands.

Keepers:

• Isaac Bridges (1868 – 1872)
• David Campan (1872 – 1873)
• Samuel Barney (1873)
• Isaac Wilson (1873 – 1880)
• Frank Reuben (1880 – 1885)
• William Wheatley (1885 – 1893)
• James Wheatley (1893 – 1915)

Researched and written by Marie Vincent, a volunteer through the Chesapeake Chapter of the U.S. Lighthouse Society.