If you love lighthouses and their history, you must visit Pointe Aux Barques Lighthouse in Michigan’s “upper thumb”. This is one of the oldest lighthouses in Michigan and is still active today.
The Pointe Aux Barques Lighthouse consists of the tower, a museum, a gift shop, and several historic buildings – including the 1876 Lifesaving Station that was moved back to the grounds in 2017. It is currently undergoing restoration and will eventually be open to the public.
Pointe Aux Barques Lighthouse
The original lighthouse was built in 1848 from stone taken directly from the shore of Lake Huron. However, by 1857, the lake had taken its toll, and a new, sturdier structure was needed. An 89-foot tall tower was built from the best materials and included an attached keeper’s house that is now the museum.
The museum is open to the public and the tower is open for tours during certain days.
After visiting the lighthouse, we made our way around the grounds. There are several buildings that people can visit, including the oil house. Whether these are the original buildings, I’m entirely sure but it was still neat to see.
Along Lake Huron, we noticed that there had been some collapsing of the shoreline. Large chunks of rock had fallen into the waters below. Warning signs had been placed around these edges, requesting that visitors stay back.
The Museum
Typically I find lighthouse museums rather depressing. This one, while full of tragedy, also surprised me with two particular events that I had been completely unaware of.
The first is the Great Storm of 1913 also known as The White Hurricane.
The Greater Storm of 1913 was actually two storms that had collided and created complete devastation and destruction. This was a blizzard with hurricane-force winds that occurred November 8-10, 1913. Survivors reports indicated that wind guests reached 90 miles per hour, waves climbed over 35 feet in height, and there were whiteout snowsqualls.
During the storm, over a dozen ships were lost on all the lakes and more than 250 people lost their lives. Of those, 8 ships were lost on Lake Huron and 187 lives were taken.
The second event was the Great Forest Fire of 1881.
In a single day on September 5, 1881, a fire burned over a million acres, killed 282 people and caused over 2 million dollars in damages. Extremely dry conditions and high winds caused the fire to spread quickly and it destroyed everything in its path.
I found this particularly interesting because we were coming off of a 17-day fire burn ban due to extremely hazardous conditions and had begun to see the impact of the Canadian wildfires.
Overall
The Pointe Aux Barques Lighthouse and museum are worth the visit. I learned so much about the area and gained insight into the surrounding towns and villages that we were visiting.
To learn more, visit the Pointe Aux Barques Lighthouse.