The Michigan City lighthouses mark one of the most distinctive harbor entrances on the southern shore of Lake Michigan. Together, the old shore light and the later pierhead light reflected the city’s growth as a working port, while their survival into the present gave Indiana one of its best-known maritime landmarks.
Michigan City Lighthouse
History
Michigan City’s first lighthouse dates to 1837, but the better-known surviving shore light was built in 1858 at a cost of $8,000. That structure replaced the earlier brick-and-stone light at the edge of Lake Michigan and became the site’s second lighthouse. The old light remained in service until 1904, when its lantern, lens, and light were transferred to a new tower at the end of the extended pier.
One of the central figures in the station’s history was Harriet Colfax, who moved to Michigan City from New York in 1853 and became closely associated with the light. Lighthouse Friends notes her connection to the old station, while its pierhead history records that she remained in service long enough to oversee both the shore light and the harbor light. She eventually resigned on October 14, 1904, at the age of eighty, just after the new pierhead lighthouse entered service.
Harbor improvements in the late nineteenth century led to a separate pierhead light. According to Lighthouse Friends, a light was first erected at the end of the east pier and lit on November 20, 1871, then later moved to the west pier after federal work extended the harbor structures. The exposed tower and its elevated walk were repeatedly damaged by storms, and after a gale in October 1886, the west pierhead tower was torn from the pier and lost to the lake.
The present Michigan City East Light was constructed in 1904 on a concrete pier at the harbor entrance. Built of steel and brick, the white octagonal tower rises from a fog-signal building, and it succeeded the old 1858 lighthouse by receiving its transferred lantern and optical equipment. The light was automated in 1960, and the Michigan City East Pierhead Light Tower and Elevated Walk was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 17, 1988.
What distinguished Michigan City from many other Great Lakes ports was that both lighthouse traditions remained legible in the landscape: the old shore light survived as a museum, while the 1904 pierhead light continued to stand at the end of its elevated iron catwalk. As a result, the pair told a continuous story of navigation, harbor engineering, and lighthouse keeping that stretched from the 1830s into the modern era.
Sources
- “Old Michigan City Lighthouse.” Lighthouse Friends.
- “Michigan City East Pierhead Lighthouse.” Lighthouse Friends.
- “Old Lighthouse.” Indiana Historical Bureau.
Resources
Yes. From downtown Michigan City, the simplest route to both lighthouses is to head north on Franklin Street toward Lake Michigan, then continue to Lake Shore Drive and enter Washington Park. The Old Lighthouse Museum is in the park at 100 Heisman Harbor Road, and the East Pierhead Lighthouse stands farther out on the harbor pier, reached by walking from the Washington Park lakefront area.
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