Eagle Harbor Light
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Eagle Harbor Light | |
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| Location: | |
| Coordinates WGS-84 (GPS) |
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| Year first lit: | 1871 |
| Automated: | 1982 |
| Foundation: | Dressed stone and timber |
| Construction: | Brick |
| Tower shape: | Octagonal |
| Height: | Tower - 44 feet (13 m) |
| Original lens: | Fourth order Fresnel lens |
| Current lens: | DCB-224 aero beacons |
| Characteristic: | Alternating periods of red and white light (for current light) |
Eagle Harbor Light is a lighthouse on the Keewenaw Peninsula jutting from Northern Michigan up into Lake Superior. This area of Michigan is often referred to as Copper Country and that industry is what created the interest in the harbor.
Edward Taylor was the first to realize the commercial potential of Eagle Harbor, building a short timber pier in the bay in 1844 from which to supply the growing number of miners in the area. A rocky ledge with only eight feet of water above it spread across the harbor entry, and represented a barrier to vessels of deep draft. However, the copper boom saw an increasing number of vessels visiting the dock, and Taylor began to lobby for federal funding for improving the entry into the harbor. [1]
The original Eagle Harbor light was built in 1851. The structure took the form of a rubble stone keeper’s dwelling with a square white-painted wooden tower integrated into one end of the roof. The tower was capped with an octagonal wooden lantern with multiple glass panes, and outfitted with an array of Lewis lamps with reflectors. With the lamps standing 21 feet above the dwelling’s foundation, the building’s location on high ground placed the lamps at a focal plane of 47 feet above lake level.[2]
By 1865, a total of four new Keepers had worked at the station, with two of them removed from office, one resigning, and one passing away after only seven months at the station. The structure was deteriorating and was replaced in 1871 using a design that had previously been used for Chambers Island Lighthouse in Wisconsin. The octagonal brick light tower is ten feet in diameter, with walls 12 inches thick and it supports a 10-sided cast iron lantern. The Lighthouse was manned by a head keeper and two assistant keepers.
In 1999 the Congress of the United States transferred ownership of the Eagle Harbor Light Station to the Keweenaw County Historical Society. The Coast Guard continues to operate the light at the top of the tower. [3]
The Keweenaw County Historical Society operates the lighthouse as a museum, and also operates other museums at the site, including a maritime museum in the old fog signal building, a Keweenaw mining museum, a commercial fishing museum, a local history museum and an exhibit on the 1926 shipwreck of the City of Bangor.
The location can be found from the maps on the lightsRus site.
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[edit] See also
[edit] Bibliography and further reading
- Bibliography on Michigan lighthouses.
- Hyde, Charles K., and Ann and John Mahan. The Northern Lights: Lighthouses of the Upper Great Lakes. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1995. ISBN 0814325548 ISBN 9780814325544.
- LaFave, Michael (Mackinac Center), Privatization Shines (article on the general subject of privatization of lighthouses, with a large section specifically on Granite Island.
- Oleszewski, Wes, Great Lakes Lighthouses, American and Canadian: A Comprehensive Directory/Guide to Great Lakes Lighthouses, (Gwinn, Michigan: Avery Color Studios, Inc., 1998) ISBN 0-932212-98-0.
- Penrod, John, Lighthouses of Michigan, (Berrien Center, Michigan: Penrod/Hiawatha, 1998) ISBN 9780942618785 ISBN 9781893624238.
- Penrose, Laurie and Bill, A Traveler’s Guide to 116 Michigan Lighthouses (Petoskey, Michigan: Friede Publications, 1999). ISBN 0923756035 ISBN 9780923756031
- Pepper, Terry. Seeing the Light: Lighthouses on the western Great Lakes.
- Putnam, George R., Lighthouses and Lightships of the United States, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1933).
- Splake, T. Kilgore. Superior Land Lights. Battle Creek, MI: Angst Productions, 1984.
- Wagner, John L.. Beacons Shining in the Night: The Lighthouses of Michigan. Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University.
- Wagner, John L., Michigan Lighthouses: An Aerial Photographic Perspective, (East Lansing, Michigan: John L. Wagner, 1998) ISBN 1880311011 ISBN 9781880311011.
- Wright, Larry and Wright, Patricia, Great Lakes Lighthouses Encyclopedia Hardback (Erin: Boston Mills Press, 2006) ISBN 1550463993.
