The Sturgeon Point Light Station is a lighthouse on Lake Huron in Haynes Township, Alcona County, northeastern lower Michigan. Established to ward mariners off a reef that extends 1.5 miles (2.4 km) lakeward from Sturgeon Point,[1] it is today regarded as a historic example of a Cape Cod style Great Lakes lighthouse.
History
The light station was built in 1869 by the United States Lighthouse Board. The Board was in the midst of a lighthouse building boom on the Great Lakes due to increased maritime traffic, and in response to a large number of lost ships and men: Congress approved 70 lights on the western Great Lakes in thirty years: 28 in the 1850s, and 21 in each of the following decades. The location is roughly halfway between Alpena's Thunder Bay Island and the northern entry to Saginaw Bay. Importantly, this point sits atop a formidable reef that is an imminent hazard to navigation. Moreover, the area north of Sturgeon Point and south of Alcona, Michigan is a bay that can provide shelter from northerly and southerly winds and waves. Historically, this area is locally known as "Sanctuary Bay," which is in distinct contrast to "Misery Bay", the area to the north, between Alpena and Thunder Bay Island. The Lighthouse Board further recognized that being able to navigate close to (but not over) the reef and the point would aid transport into and out of Saginaw Bay.
It is made of brick masonry on an ashlar limestone foundation. The tower stands 70 feet 9 inches (21.56 m) in height, with a diameter of 16 feet (4.9 m) at the base. The focal plane is listed by the Coast Guard at 69 feet (21 m), which would be the height from the "mean high water mark," That figure is important, in that it could be used by mariners to chart their location, using a method of triangulation to give them the distance to the light. The adjoining, two-story Lighthouse keeper’s quarters was designed in the Cape Cod style and built of the same materials. At the time, the Board was often using this architectural motif. In fact, Poverty Island Light, built in 1874, is considered to be a "sibling" as it is a direct copy of Sturgeon Point.
The light was set to begin its service with a sixth-order Fresnel lens /freɪˈnɛl/ which was upgraded to a 3½-order lens (that was originally installed at Oswego, New York). It was one of only a dozen used around the country, most of which were on the Great Lakes. The other Great Lakes 3½-order lenses were at (in alphabetical order): DeTour Reef (two 3½-order lenses, after the bivalve lens broke), Eagle Bluff, Grays Reef, Huron Island, Michigan Island, St. Helena Island, and Toledo Harbor.
The lens at Sturgeon Point is without a doubt a third-and-a-half order lens. As Terry Pepper, executive director of the Great Lakes Lighthouse Keeper Association, wrote on August 6, 2012: "I have measured it personally."
As further proof, on July 22, 1870, the District Lampist visited the Station and made the following entry in his inspection journal:
"Sturgeon Point, No. 449 – This is a new station first lighted to the opening of navigation this spring. The illuminating apparatus consists of a 3 ½ Order Fresnel lens of 270°, Henry Lepaute maker, and is fitted with Funck’s hydraulic float lamps, showing a fixed white light. The illuminating apparatus was in excellent condition with the exception of one of the spare burners which had been damaged. It was taken on board for repairs. A spirit lamp to aid in heating the oil in severe cold weather is required."
However, for reasons unknown, there are conflicting reports as to the size of the present lens, with some reporting it as a third order, and orders as a 3½-order Fresnel lens.
The 3½-order Fresnel lens is still in place and was in use as of July 31, 2012. This is one of only 70 such Fresnel lenses that are still operational in the United States, sixteen of which are use on the Great Lakes, of which eight are in Michigan.
In 1876, the light station was joined in its service by an adjacent United States Life-Saving Service station.
There is no question that the presence of this light on this highly dangerous reef has forestalled "countless accidents."
In 1875, a U.S. Life-Saving Service station was opened. The first light keeper became the first captain of the surf team.
In 1915, this station became part of the U.S. Coast Guard.
In 1939 the U.S. Lighthouse Service also merged under the control of the U.S. Coast Guard. In the same year the station was electrified and automated.
By the 1940s, the light was fully automated, and the Coast Guard withdrew all personnel in 1941 and thereafter dismantled the life-saving station. One source claims (erroneously) that the lifesaving saving station and the lighthouse were "abandoned" in the 1940s; in point of fact personnel were withdrawn, but the light remains an active aid to navigation to this day.
The lifesaving bell was stolen in 1951, and was "anonymously returned" in 2002 to the custody of the Alcona County Historical Society (according to a plaque at the light). The fog horn building was torn down.[10] The brick outhouse, built in 1869, remains, however.
The Life Saving station's foundation is still visible.[23] The lifesaving watch tower also was torn down.
In 1982 the Alcona Historical Society leased the light and began a three-years restoration project.
The keeper's house itself fell into disrepair until it was taken over by the Alcona Historical Society in 1982.