The Peninsula Point Light is a

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses m ...

located at the southern tip of the Stonington Peninsula in Bay de Noc township in

Delta County, Michigan Delta County is a county in the Upper Peninsula in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 36,903. The county seat is Escanaba. The county was surveyed in 1843 and organized in 1861. Its name originates from the G ...

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, m ...

historical documents have over the years listed the name of the site as both ''Peninsula Point'' and ''Point Peninsula''.

Service

The Stonington Peninsula juts into

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...

from the southern coast of Michigan's

Upper Peninsula The Upper Peninsula of Michigan – also known as Upper Michigan or colloquially the U.P. – is the northern and more elevated of the two major landmasses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan; it is separated from the Lower Peninsula by ...

at a key point along the shipping lanes to and from the docks of

Escanaba Escanaba ( ), commonly shortened to Esky, is a port city in Delta County in the U.S. state of Michigan, located on Little Bay de Noc in the state's Upper Peninsula. The population was 12,616 at the 2010 census, making it the third-largest city i ...

and

Gladstone William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. In a career lasting over 60 years, he served for 12 years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four non-cons ...

, as a hazardous

shoal In oceanography, geomorphology, and geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material and rises from the bed of a body of water to near the surface. It ...

extends more than out into the lake, posing a hazard to shipping. Thus the light had two purposes: (1) it marked a turning point; and (2) it warned mariners away from the rocks and shallows. Danger was inherent in the confluence of

reefs A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral or similar relatively stable material, lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic processes—deposition of sand, wave erosion planing down rock out ...

and the shipping channels, through which

fish Fish are Aquatic animal, aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack Limb (anatomy), limbs with Digit (anatomy), digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and Chondrichthyes, cartilaginous and bony fish as we ...

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the ...

lumber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, w ...

, along with other products were transported. "The U.S. Government recognized the need for a lighthouse on the peninsula to aid navigation around these dangerous shoals and reefs separating

Big Bay de Noc Big Bay de Noc is a bay in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. The bay, which opens into Lake Michigan's Green Bay, is enclosed by Delta County. The Garden Peninsula is on the east side of the bay and the Stonington Peninsula i ...

Little Bay de Noc Little Bay de Noc is a bay in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. The bay opens into Lake Michigan's Green Bay. The bay, consisting of approximately 30,000 acres (120 km²), is enclosed by Delta County. The cities of Escan ...

, and Green Bay of Lake Michigan." Although Congress voted funds to build the lighthouse founded in 1856.Roach, Jerry, Lighthouse Central, History and Waypoints of Peninsula Point Light.''The Ultimate Guide to Upper Michigan Lighthouses'' by Jerry Roach.
(Publisher: Bugs Publishing LLC - 2007). . On July 20, 1864, funds were again appropriated for the building of a lighthouse on the Stonington Peninsula on July 20, 1864. It was not built until 1865 following the

United States Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

. It maintained as an active aid to navigation until 1934. Point Peninsula Light's first keeper was Mr. Charles Beggs, who died there in 1887. The second keeper was Mr. Henry Corgan. Mr. Peter Knutsen was third. In 1889 Captain James D. Armstrong was appointed keeper and this was home to him and his family until 1922. In 1922, by the

United States Lighthouse Service The United States Lighthouse Service, also known as the Bureau of Lighthouses, was the agency of the United States Government and the general lighthouse authority for the United States from the time of its creation in 1910 as the successor of t ...

installed an automatic

acetylene Acetylene ( systematic name: ethyne) is the chemical compound with the formula and structure . It is a hydrocarbon and the simplest alkyne. This colorless gas is widely used as a fuel and a chemical building block. It is unstable in its pure ...

light to replace the hand-operated oil lamp. Thus, it was no longer necessary to occupy the site since the light was automated. Captain Armstrong continued to be responsible for Peninsula Point until 1931. Thereafter, the fourth-order lens was removed from the lantern and replaced by a lens equipped with a 300-

candlepower Candlepower (abbreviated as cp or CP) is a unit of measurement for luminous intensity. It expresses levels of light intensity relative to the light emitted by a candle of specific size and constituents. The historical candlepower is equal to 0.981 ...

acetylene flasher Dalén light and

sun valve A sun valve (''Swedish: solventil'', "solar valve") is a flow control valve that automatically shuts off gas flow during daylight. It earned its inventor Gustaf Dalén the 1912 Nobel Prize in Physics. Subsequently other variants of sun valve were ...

. Upon this installation, the light's characteristic was changed to repeated 1-second flash followed by a nine-second eclipse, exhibited initially on the evening of May 20, 1922. When the Minneapolis Shoal Light Station went into service. this light was decommissioned and abandoned in 1936.Interactive map on Michigan lighthouses.

Detroit News ''The Detroit News'' is one of the two major newspapers in the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan. The paper began in 1873, when it rented space in the rival ''Detroit Free Press'' building. ''The News'' absorbed the ''Detroit Tribune'' on Februar ...

. Its tower is open for visitors to climb into the

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron– carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuri ...

lantern room at the top of a cast-iron spiral staircase. The attached

lighthouse keeper A lighthouse keeper or lightkeeper is a person responsible for tending and caring for a lighthouse, particularly the light and lens in the days when oil lamps and clockwork mechanisms were used. Lighthouse keepers were sometimes referred to as ...

's residence burnt in 1959, after it had been restored by the

Stonington, Michigan Bay de Noc Township is a civil township of Delta County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the township population was 305, down from 329 at the 2000 census. The township covers the southern portion of the Stonington Peninsu ...

Grange Grange may refer to: Buildings * Grange House, Scotland, built in 1564, and demolished in 1906 * Grange Estate, Pennsylvania, built in 1682 * Monastic grange, a farming estate belonging to a monastery Geography Australia * Grange, South Austr ...

. In 1937, the USDA-Forest Service "was granted custodianship." The building was repaired and public picnic grounds were constructed by the

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government unemployment, work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was a ...

. The Stonington

took over maintenance of the structure and grounds. In 1949 the Grange won first prize in their State contest for their work at the lighthouse. The house portion burned to the ground in 1959. Debris was cleared and damage to the north side of the tower repaired in 1962 by the USDA Forest Service.

Current status

The light is listed on the National Register of Historical Places, Reference #75000941, Name of Listing: PENINSULA POINT LIGHTHOUSE. It is not listed on the state registry.

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational properti ...

br>Maritime Heritage Program National Park Service, Inventory of Historic Lighthouses, Peninsula Point Light.
/ref> The lighthouse tower is managed by the National Forest Service, which maintains
webpage
for the light and picnic area.

Bird and butterfly migrations

Because of their placement on points of land, lighthouses are often situated on migratory pathways, and are so-called 'bird traps.' See

Whitefish Point Light The Whitefish Point Light is a lighthouse located in Chippewa County in the U.S. state of Michigan. Located on the southeastern shores of Lake Superior, it sits at the edge of Whitefish Point leading to Whitefish Bay. Constructed in 1849, it ...

and

Tawas Point Light Tawas Point Light is located in the Tawas Point State Park off Tawas Bay in Lake Huron in Baldwin Township in Northern Michigan. History In 1850, Congress appropriated $5,000 for the construction of a lighthouse. In 1852, construction started, a ...

. The Stonington Peninsula plays a crucial role in the migration of the

monarch butterfly The monarch butterfly or simply monarch (''Danaus plexippus'') is a milkweed butterfly (subfamily Danainae) in the family Nymphalidae. Other common names, depending on region, include milkweed, common tiger, wanderer, and black-veined brown. ...

, which gathers there in September before migrating across

Door County, Wisconsin Door County is the easternmost county in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census, the population was 30,066. Its county seat is Sturgeon Bay. It is named after the strait between the Door Peninsula and Washington Island. The dangero ...

. In the fall, thousands of monarch butterflies converge on the area to rest before their migration across Green Bay. It has been called the

Point Pelee Point Pelee National Park (; french: Parc national de la Pointe-Pelée) is a national park in Essex County in southwestern Ontario, Canada where it extends into Lake Erie. The word is French for 'bald'. Point Pelee consists of a peninsula of la ...

of the

, and is an

important bird area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

. The location is also an important location for

migratory birds Bird migration is the regular seasonal movement, often north and south along a flyway, between breeding and wintering grounds. Many species of bird migrate. Migration carries high costs in predation and mortality, including from hunting by ...

, and has been deemed to be a successful effort by the Hiawatha National Forest. The area is said to be a

rock hound Amateur geology or rock collecting (also referred to as rockhounding in the United States and Canada) is the non-professional study and hobby of collecting rocks and minerals or fossil specimens from the natural environment.Sinkankas, John. Minera ...

's paradise. "The rocky shoreline yields fossils estimated at 400-500 million years old."

Getting there

The USDA Forest Service operates the grounds as a

picnic A picnic is a meal taken outdoors ( ''al fresco'') as part of an excursion, especially in scenic surroundings, such as a park, lakeside, or other place affording an interesting view, or else in conjunction with a public event such as preceding ...

area. There are ten tables and grills on the lawns surrounding the tower. Pit toilets are available, as well as drinking water. The light tower is located at the end of County Road 513 from

US 2 U.S. Route 2 or U.S. Highway 2 (US 2) is an east–west U.S. Highway spanning across the northern continental United States. US 2 consists of two segments connected by various roadways in southern Canada. Unlike some routes, whi ...

, about east of

Rapid River, Michigan Rapid River is an unincorporated community in Masonville Township, Delta County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the northern end of the Little Bay de Noc between the mouths of the Tacoosh and Rapid rivers with the mouth of t ...

. The road that "progressively gets narrower and rougher, but the climb up the

spiral staircase Stairs are a structure designed to bridge a large vertical distance between lower and higher levels by dividing it into smaller vertical distances. This is achieved as a diagonal series of horizontal platforms called steps which enable passage ...

and the view from the ten-sided tower (which is open to the public), and "is worth the trip." The view is said to be "spectacular" so "Be sure to bring you camera." The road's last mile is "not recommended for recreational vehicles or trailers over long or high." A parking area for RV's is available at the beginning of the narrowing road.

Notes

External links

Peninsula Point lighthouse and picnic area
- official site at Hiawatha National Forest
Interactive map on Michigan lighthouses