Lansing Shoals Light Station
A sentinel of the northern Great Lakes since 1928, guiding mariners through the treacherous shoals between the Straits of Mackinac and the harbors of Green Bay.
45°54′12″N 85°33′42″W · Mackinac County, MichiganRenovation, restoration, and maintenance of the Lansing Shoals Light Station and to educate and inform the public on the history of the Light Station.
Alone on the open water
The Lansing Shoals Light Station stands alone in the open waters of northeastern Lake Michigan, approximately 6.3 miles southeast of Point Patterson on Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Built in 1927–1928, it was one of the last light stations constructed on the Great Lakes.
The lighthouse marks hazardous shallow waters and detached rock-strewn reefs at the northern end of a narrow passage between the Straits of Mackinac and harbors in northern Lake Michigan and Green Bay, where water depths fall to less than 17 feet.
The light itself is not ours. The U.S. Coast Guard owns and operates it as an active aid to navigation under identification number 21535, and keeps the right to come out and service it whenever it needs to. We own the building underneath.
The light station in depth
History
Lightships anchored here from 1891. Congress took 18 years to fund a permanent light. Then came the ice storm that sealed the crew inside, the 1940 hurricane that knocked out every machine, and the freighter that hit the pier at full speed in clear weather.
Architecture & Structure
Four 500-ton caissons set at right angles, a 7.5-foot concrete cap, walls three feet thick, and four keepers' bedrooms built into a basement below the waterline.
Historic Significance
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005 under Criteria A and C, for its place in Great Lakes navigation and its offshore construction methods.