Forty Mile Point Lighthouse

Forty Mile Point Light stands along the Lake Huron shoreline in Presque Isle County, Michigan, on a low bluff overlooking a broad, open reach of water. Approximately forty miles north of Alpena, the station is located in a quiet stretch of coast characterized by long horizons and steady winds. The square white tower, integrated into a red brick keeper’s dwelling, reflects the practical architecture of late nineteenth-century lighthouse construction on the Great Lakes.

History

Congress appropriated $18,000 in 1893 to construct a lighthouse at this location after repeated concerns from mariners navigating the unlit distance between Alpena and Cheboygan. The United States Lighthouse Board selected the site to close that navigational gap, and the station was completed in 1896. Its design, a brick tower rising from the center of a two-story residence, followed standardized plans intended to reduce costs while providing durable housing for keepers and their families.

The original optic was a fourth-order Fresnel lens with a range of roughly 15 nautical miles, offering a fixed reference point along a coast subject to shifting weather and heavy commercial traffic. A separate fog signal building supported operations during periods of low visibility, underscoring the station’s role in protecting vessels engaged in the region’s lumber and shipping trades. For decades, resident keepers maintained the light, fog signal, and grounds as part of the broader network of Great Lakes aids to navigation.

Automation occurred in 1969, ending the era of on-site keepers and transferring operations to the U.S. Coast Guard. In 1996, ownership of the property passed to Presque Isle County, and preservation efforts gradually restored the station for public interpretation. The light remains active today, continuing its original function as a navigational marker along Lake Huron’s western shore.

Sources

1. “A Brief History of 40 Mile Point Lighthouse.” 40 Mile Point Lighthouse.
2. “Forty Mile Point Lighthouse.” United States Coast Guard, 6 Aug. 2019.
3. “Forty Mile Point Lighthouse.” Lighthouse Friends.

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