Grand Island Harbor Rear Range Light

Grand Island Harbor Rear Range Light
Rear Range Light
Location Munising Township, Michigan
Coordinates 46°26′12″N 86°41′28″W / 46.43667°N 86.69111°W / 46.43667; -86.69111Coordinates: 46°26′12″N 86°41′28″W / 46.43667°N 86.69111°W / 46.43667; -86.69111
Year first lit 1914[1]
Automated 1914[2]
Deactivated 1969
Foundation Concrete pier
Construction Steel
Tower shape Frustum of a cone
Markings / pattern Black and white Daymark tower/black lantern
Height 64 feet (20 m)[3]
Focal height 70 feet (21 m)[4]
Original lens Sixth-order Fresnel lens
Range 13 nautical miles; 24 kilometres (15 mi)[5]
ARLHS number USA-1080[6][7]
USCG number 7-14597
Heritage place listed on the National Register of Historic Places Edit this on Wikidata
Grand Island Harbor Rear Range Light
Nearest city Christmas, Michigan
Area less than one acre
Architect US Coast Guard
Architectural style Conical Steel Tower
NRHP reference # 90000906[8]
Added to NRHP June 26, 1990

The Grand Island Harbor Rear Range Light is a lighthouse located off M-28 in Munising Township, Michigan. It is also known as the Bay Furnace Rear Range Light, Christmas Rear Range Light,[9] or End of the Road Light.[10] The corresponding front range light was replaced in 1968; the rear range light was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.[8] It is no longer an active aid to navigation.

The grounds only are publicly accessible, but a hike is required.[11]

History

The Grand Island Range Lights were lit first in 1868.[1] The original front range light was a wooden pyramid that held a sixth-order Fresnel lens.[1] The original rear range light was a sixth-order Fresnel lens in a wooden tower atop a frame keeper's house,[5] 500 feet (150 m) to the rear of the front range light.[1]

By 1914, these original frame structures were severely rotted, and both were replaced[1] as part of a broader effort of replacing nearly all harbor lights with steel-framed structures.[2] The new front range light was a 23-foot-tall (7.0 m) iron mast.[1] A new automated[2] rear range light was installed 750 feet (230 m) to the rear of the front range light.[1] The new rear range light was a 64-foot (20 m) tower, the upper half (painted white)[12] of which was part of a tower originally located at the Vidal Shoals.[1] near Sault Ste. Marie.[12][13] In 1939, the sixth-order Fresnel lenses were replaced with 350 millimeter glass lenses, which still used acetylene gas.[5] In 1968, the front range light was replaced with a "D9" style tubular steel structure;[5] in 1969 the lights were deactivated.[2]

Rear range light description

The 1914 Rear Range Light is a steel conical tower, 64 feet (20 m) high, with a round lantern.[2] The light of one of the tallest, if not the tallest, of the riveted steel plate light towers installed around the Great Lakes.[2][14] The tower sits on a concrete foundation; a metal door in the base of the tower and interior spiral stair provides access to the light.The tower painted black on the bottom and white on the top, with a black lantern room. The existing light was built in 1914 replacing the original 1868 station.[2][15]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Historic Light Station Information and Photography: Michigan". United States Coast Guard Historian's Office. Retrieved 2010-01-01.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Grand Island Harbor Rear Range Light Archived 2011-06-06 at the Wayback Machine. from the state of Michigan, retrieved 1/1/10
  3. ↑ Pepper, Terry. "Database of Tower Heights". Seeing the Light. terrypepper.com. Archived from the original on 2000-09-18.
  4. ↑ Pepper, Terry. "Database of Focal Heights". Seeing the Light. terrypepper.com. Archived from the original on 2008-08-30.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Grand Island Range Lights from "Seeing the Light," Terry Pepper, retrieved 1/1/10
  6. ↑ Amateur Radio Lighthouse Society, Grand Island Harbor Rear Range (Lake Superior) Light ARLHS USA-1080.
  7. ↑ Amateur Radio Lighthouse Society, World List of Lights (WLOL).
  8. 1 2 National Park Service (2009-03-13). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  9. ↑
  10. ↑
  11. ↑ Publicly accessible lights in Michigan, National Park System, Maritime Heritage Project.
  12. 1 2 GRAND ISLAND HARBOR RANGE LIGHTS from the US Forest Service
  13. ↑ Rowlett, Russ. "Lighthouses of the United States: Michigan's Eastern Upper Peninsula". The Lighthouse Directory. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
  14. ↑ Pepper, Terry. "Database of Tower Designs". Seeing the Light. terrypepper.com. Archived from the original on 2009-11-15.
  15. ↑ National Park Service Maritime History Project, Inventory of Historic LIghts, Grand Island Harbor Rear Range Light.
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