Cheboygan’s lighthouses told the story of a harbor that grew more complex as navigation at the mouth of the Cheboygan River improved. Working together, the front and rear range lights and the crib light helped guide vessels from Lake Huron into the dredged river channel.
Cheboygan Lighthouses
History
Cheboygan’s lighthouses told the story of a harbor that grew more complex as navigation at the mouth of the Cheboygan River improved. Working together, the front and rear range lights and the crib light helped guide vessels from Lake Huron into the dredged river channel.
The Cheboygan River Front Range lights were first exhibited on the night of September 30, 1880. The front light was originally shown from a lens lantern mounted in a nine-foot-square tower atop the north gable of a two-story keeper’s dwelling, while the rear light stood farther inland in a skeletal wooden tower. Read together, the two lights formed a range that allowed mariners to line up their approach and safely enter the river. The station was important enough that, during Keeper Littlefield’s tenure, an assistant keeper was assigned to help manage its duties, and by September 1889, the keeper’s dwelling had even been connected to city water.
The crib light followed as harbor improvements continued. In 1871, a project was adopted to improve Cheboygan Harbor by dredging the river to a width of 200 feet, and, to help mariners locate the entrance, a light was later established on a forty-foot-square offshore crib aligned with the west side of the river mouth. The Cheboygan Crib Lighthouse commenced operation in 1884, effectively serving as the outer marker from Lake Huron while the front and rear range lights carried vessels inward on the proper line. Together, the three lights reflected Cheboygan’s rise as a working harbor whose navigation system had to be adapted to both open-water approach and river entrance.
Sources
- “Cheboygan River Front Range Lighthouse.” Lighthouse Friends.
- “Cheboygan Crib Lighthouse.” Lighthouse Friends.
Resources
In Cheboygan, take Water Street north from U.S. Route 23 to the Cheboygan River Front Range Light at 606 Water Street; the rear range light stands nearby inland from the front light. For the Cheboygan Crib Light, continue to Gordon Turner Park by following Water Street east to First Street, left to Huron Street, then east to the park, where a short walk leads out to the light and pier.
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