Advancements in technology have greatly reduced the need for conventional lighthouses and their keepers, and there are no active manually operated lighthouses in Leelanau County. However, this infamously lonely and physically straining job was essential to keeping boat traffic moving in a time when much of the county’s economy depended on sea travel.
As a result, parks employees and county residents have taken steps to maintain these buildings and local history. Listed below are three lighthouses that are still standing today.
Grand Traverse Lighthouse
Ships headed between the Manitou Passage and Lake Huron would pass Cathead Point, on the northern tip of the Leelanau Peninsula. This was also where vessels turned to enter Grand Traverse Bay, making it a natural place for a lighthouse. In 1850, Congress provided $4,000 to build what’s now known as the Grand Traverse Lighthouse. The structure was completed two years later.
The station’s first keeper resigned after his first year, to be replaced by Philo Beers in 1853. A former U.S. deputy, Beers reportedly defended the station from pirates several times. According to contemporary reports, these raiders were followers of the self-styled “King of Beaver Island,” James Jesse Strang, and unsuccessfully tried to steal supplies and the station’s powerful Fresnel lens.
This lens would be upgraded at the end of the decade as the lighthouse moved to higher ground, with the old tower and dwelling being demolished in 1858. Although other new buildings were added over the years in between, this tower guided sailors until it closed in 1972. Also in 1972, the steel structure with an automated beacon replaced the manned lighthouse.
However, the old lighthouse and surrounding buildings are still maintained by volunteers with the Grand Traverse Lighthouse Foundation, who seek to preserve it as a “living museum” with displays and exhibits that reflect life as a lighthouse keeper during the 1920s and 1930s, according to the Grand Traverse Lighthouse website. The museum opened in 1987.
Since the museum is in a state park, visitors will need a Recreation Passport or purchase a $20 commercial daily pass for parking. Fees for lighthouse admission are $8 for adults, $3 for students ages 6-17, and children 5 years and younger getting in free. This museum will be open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Labor Day.
South Manitou Lighthouse
According to the National Park Service (NPS), the U.S. Lighthouse Service authorized construction of a beacon on South Manitou Island in 1838, making this the oldest lighthouse in Leelanau County. And since it ceased operations in 1958, the South Manitou Lighthouse is tied with the Grand Traverse Lighthouse as the longest-serving lighthouse in the county at 120 years.
For at least a decade, this was the only light helping sailors navigate the passage between the Leelanau Peninsula and the Manitou Islands. The NPS says that boat traffic during this time ranged from cargo ships carrying lumber to steamships full of passengers going between port cities like Chicago and Mackinaw.
The NPS website says that not much is known about the first building, but the Lighthouse Service began construction on a new lighthouse in 1871 after “realiz(ing) that the island’s harbor was one of the most heavily used refuges on the Great Lakes” for ships during storms. This new tower still stands at over 100 feet tall and is visible from the mainland at places like Glen Arbor and Leland.
The lighthouse complex is open to the public for free during summer months. The only way to get to there is via the Manitou Island Transit Ferry. A full schedule of rates to South and North Manitou islands can be found at manitoutransit. com/rates-schedule.
North Manitou Shoal Light
This offshore lighthouse sits one mile offshore of North Manitou Island and eight miles offshore of Leland.
In the summer of 2016, the U.S. General Services Administration opened an auction to sell the North Manitou Shoal Light. Upon hearing this news, four families of dreamers and doers rallied together to bid on and win the auction for the lighthouse. Daniel and Anna Oginsky, Dave and Sherry McWilliam, Todd and Natalie Buckley, and Jake and Suzanne Kaberle founded North Manitou Light Keepers, with the goal of acquiring The Crib and completing its restoration and opening it to the public by July 4, 2021. Officially, NMLK was established on August 16, 2016 as a Michigan non-profit corporation named North Manitou Light Keepers, Inc.
After winning the public auction for the North Manitou Shoal Light, NMLK received official notification from the U.S. General Services Administration that its bid was accepted on September 28, 2016. In June 2017 NMLK completed its acquisition upon receiving approval from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to occupy the “bottomlands” (at the bottom of Lake Michigan) on which The Crib sits.
Since that time, NMLK has been moving forward with its plan to fully restore the lighthouse. In 2021, a major milestone was reached when visits to the lighthouse were made available to the public.
More information is available at https://northmanitoulightkeepers. org.
Robert H. Manning Memorial Lighthouse
Although not really a part of the Leelanau County’s maritime heritage, the Robert H. Manning Memorial Lighthouse in Empire is nonetheless a popular stop for photos in west Leelanau County. Its namesake, Robert Manning, was an insurance salesman and civilian worker at the former Empire Air Force Station.
Manning was also a passionate boater and fisherman, who often spoke about his desire to see a lighthouse in his hometown. When Manning passed away at age 62 in 1989, his family and friends privately built a small lighthouse in his memory.
The tower was dedicated in 1991 and later donated to the Village of Empire, which has also taken steps to protect its foundation from erosion in recent years by seeking grant funding from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
According to the U.S. Coast Guard’s Light List, cited on lighthousefriends.com, the Manning Memorial Lighthouse emits a white light every four seconds at a focal plan of 38 feet, and is maintained from April 15 to November 15.
