Michigan lighthouses and others face huge waves…!

Posted on October 17, 2011 by

Grand Island East Channel Grand Island East Channel Lighthouse in Munising Bay in bad repair.

Michigan has about 115-125 operating lighthouses currently…depending on who you ask. Historians counted as many as 250 at the peak of their performance years ago.

Because of our large coastline on 4 of the 5 Great Lakes…Michigan still has the most lighthouses anywhere…!

Big Bay Point LighthouseBig Bay Point Lighthouse

 

 

 

 

 

You can even stay in a lighthouse! Michigan offers about 9 lighthouses (including the one pictured above) that the public can stay. If you like water views, you can’t get much better than a lighthouse.

Alas, all are automatically run now, but still fun.

I wouldn’t advise a winter stay because winds and ice can be crazy!

sunsurfer:</p> <p>Ice Monster, St. Joseph Lighthouse, Michigan<br /> photo by tomgill<br /> ” /></p> <p>St. Joseph Lighthouse -</p> <p>Aftermath of the Winter Storm: The photographer described this photo as, “30 foot tall outer light of the St. Joseph, Michigan after a severe winter storm. Waves on Lake Michigan were said to be over 20 feet high, which pounded the lighthouse and covered it in ice feet thick in places. Workers were just finishing up a paint job when the storm hit. The scaffold was demolished and is also covered in a thick layer of ice.”<br /> “The walk to the lighthouse was treacherous- the pier is also covered in a layer of ice. Most of the way was slow going, but the walk next to the inner light was the most difficult. There is only a path about 20 inches wide with the lighthouse to your left, and the frigid lake to your right. I managed to carefully negotiate the path and make it out to the outer light. In hindsight, I’m lucky I didn’t go for an unexpected winter swim.”<a href= Photo #6 by Tom Gill

Good websites with information on Michigan Lighthouses are…

http://www.michigan.org/Things-to-Do/Attractions/Lighthouses/Default.aspx

http://www.michigan.gov/mshda/0,4641,7-141-54317_21818-121800–,00.html

http://www.lovethesepics.com/2011/04/power-of-the-storm-44-ferocious-waves-attacking-lighthouses/

So…go out and look at some lighthouses…calming water and beautiful views…before winter happens!

Sandie Parrott

 

 

About these ads
This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out / Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s