Grosse Point Lighthouse

The Grosse Point Lighthouse TB wants to visit its namesake and have its picture made in front of this grand old light, and then return home to Alabama to any geocache owned by TheAlabamaRambler.

Grosse Point Lighthouse was built by the United States Government in 1873 as the lead lighthouse marking the approach to Chicago after several shipwrecks demonstrated its need. The promontory on which it stands was named Grosse Point (Great Point) by early French explorers and traders in the 17th century. Over the years, the U.S. Government dropped the French “e” on Point.

This area was first charted in 1673 by the famous French explorer and cartographer, Louis Jolliet, and his companion, Father Jacques Marquette, Jesuit missionary. Marquette returned the following year and makes reference in his diary to camping on Grosse Pointe before reaching the Chicago River next day. Joliet had recognized the strategic importance of the Chicago River at Lake Michigan for trade and military purposes. And he was the first to envision an inland trade network through America’s interior from the East Coast through the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River and south to the Gulf of Mexico. With construction of the Erie Canal in 1824 and the Illinois and Michigan Canal in 1848, his vision became a reality. The southern Lake Michigan region was at the axis of this inland waterborne transportation route and it was here that one of America’s great cities would grow—Chicago.

Please help the Gross Point Lighthouse TB get to its destination, have its picture made and return safely to any of TheAlabamaRambler's geocaches!

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