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| Grand Island Range Lights | Seeing The Light |
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Historical Information
By 1939, the Fresnel lenses had been removed from both structures, to be replaced by 350 millimeter glass lenses, still illuminated by acetylene gas.
While the Lighthouse Service annual reports and Light Lists refer to these structures as the Grand Island Harbor Range Light, they are sometimes referred to as the "Bay Furnace Range Lights," after the Bay Furnace Company which opened a blast furnace and charcoal operation in the area in 1869, the year after the original lights were constructed. While the Bay Furnace operation burned
to the ground in 1877, the name lives on. About a half hour East of Marquette we came across a guy surfing in a wetsuit. We pulled off the road, and I walked down to the beach to see if I could capture him riding a wave. While the waves appeared large and durable enough for him to get a good run, he never attempted again, and body-surfed back to shore. Grand Island Light is just East of Christmas, and appears suddenly between the trees to the South of the road. It is a riveted steel shell and looks starkly attractive with its’ red roof and black belly band.
There were two barred windows at a level at which I was able to see inside the building, and I was surprised to see that the stairway was totally supported by the exterior skin, with no center-pole as I have seen in most other towers. I was just able to stick the lens of the Nikon into one of the square openings between the bars, and with the flash unit through the opening immediately above, I was able to capture the graceful curve of the stair and yellow
handrail seen above. |
The expanse of Grand Island lies a short distance off the south shore of
Lake Superior, offering a large sheltered area on its lee side.
Vessels had long used the security of this natural harbor of refuge to
escape the fury of Superior's storms, and with the opening of the locks
at Sault Ste. Marie in 1855, maritime commerce on Lake Superior
skyrocketed, and the importance of this natural harbor of refuge grew
proportionately. With both east and west channels leading into the
harbor, the way was safe enough during daylight hours, however threading
the needle between the island and the mainland under the inky blackness
of Superior night was treacherous at best.
The Lighthouse Board originally
proposed the need for lights to mark these two harbor channels in its annual report for
1865. Congress obviously concurred with the need, since it responded favorably
with an
appropriation of ten thousand dollars for the construction of the
requested lights on July 28, 1866. However, after consultation with
maritime interests, the Board determined that range lights would better suit
the needs of mariners entering the western passage.
While it was planned that work on the
western set of ranges would begin after completion of the Gull Rock Light late in 1867,
the foreman in charge of the construction at Gull Rock died in a
drowning accident, and without the necessary supervision the work was
necessarily delayed. Construction began the following
season, and the lights were illuminated for the first time on the night
of August 15th, 1868.
The front light was a white pyramidal wooden
structure displaying a fixed white Sixth Order Fresnel at a 19
foot focal plane, with a distance of visibility of ten miles in clear
weather. The rear light was located on a short tower atop a wood frame
keepers dwelling. Located 500 feet to the rear of the front light, it also
displaying a fixed white Sixth Order Fresnel which was visible for a
distance of 12 ½ miles as a result of its higher 32-foot focal plane.
By 1914, the original wooden
structures had deteriorated to a point that they needed complete
replacement, and a work party arrived to completely rebuild the
structures. On completion, the new rear light structure stood 64 feet
tall, with its upper 32 feet consisting of the tower transplanted
from Vidal Shoals, which had been decommissioned, and
transported to the site. The base upon which the transplanted tower was
erected was fabricated of riveted 1/2-inch thick steel plates over
vertical 4" x 4" steel channels, with the entire structure
bolted to a concrete foundation. The new front range light, now sitting
750 yards in front of the rear light, consisted of
a 23 foot tall iron mast with a slatted white daymark and attached
acetylene gas supply tank. The old Sixth order lenses were transferred
into the new structures, and illuminated with 1,500 candlepower acetylene
lamps, the front range
was now visible for a distance of 11 miles, and the rear range a
distance of 15 miles.
While the 1914 rear range light has made it through the years in excellent condition, the front range did
not fare as well, with the existing structure built in 1968 to replace
the deteriorated 1914 structure. The 1968 front range is of a design
known as a "D9," an ignominious tubular steel structure used in the
waning days of 20th century Aid to navigation construction. The design
was peculiar to the Great Lakes, and took its name from the Ninth Coast
Guard District responsible for its design (thus the name D9.) Similar structures may still be found at Petoskey
Pierhead, St. Clair & Rochester Pierhead.
This was a glorious day. A clear northern sky with a steady Norwest wind blowing whitecaps into the bays.