Lighthouse Restoration/Preservation Project

North Manitou Shoal Lighthouse ("the Crib")

Several lighthouses have been built to guide vessels through the Manitou Passage, the first being established on South Mantiou in 1839. In 1898, a second lighthouse was built on North Manitou's Dimmick's Point. What appears to be navigable water between the islands and the mainland is actually a treacherous topology of sandbars and rocky shoals, with a relatively narrow shipping channel. A lightship was positioned off the North Manitou shoal in 1910 to better mark the safe channel.

A new lighthouse, built just off the shoal in 1935 replaced the lightship. The North Manitou Shoal Lighthouse was constructed atop a concrete crib and was outfitted with a unique four-sided Fresnel lense. When the facility was updated and automated in 1980, the big lense was removed and placed on permanent display in Glen Haven at the Cannery Boat Museum, in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. "The Crib", as it was commonly called, relegated the light on North Manitou Island redundant. A few years later, in 1938, the land-based lighthouse complex was decommissioned and sold to W.R. Angel (Manitou Island Assn) for $2600. Four years later, the lighthouse finally lost its battle with years of stormy seas, and collapsed into a pile of rubble.

For forty-two years, "the crib" was home to a three man Coast Guard crew, who lived in the light tower building. Crewmembers rotated on a three-week schedule; two on and one off. When not attending to their duties on the light, they read, talked on the radio and played board games. The Passage was a busy place in those years, with vessels numerous and varied passing by each day. The mail boat stopped on a fairly regular schedule, and boats from the local Coast Guard stations were also frequent visitors. Its last crews left in 1980, when the facility was fully automated. Since then, it's become home to a colony of Double-Crested Cormorants, which may presently be doing more damage to the facility than any other natural force.

The lighthouse remains fully operational, and is maintained by the Coast Guard's "ATON" (Aids to Navigation) Team from the St. Ignace station, which is part of the 9th District in Cleveland. "18340", as it's known on the "Great Lakes Light List" is operational year-around. A red light atop it's 63-foot tower flashes on 15-second intervals. It's horn sounds on 20-second cycles (2-on/2-off/2-on/14-off) when conditions require, and a RACON (radar transponder beacon) imposes the Morse character "N" () on the radar screens of passing ships.

The Coast Guard has "excessed" this facility, meaning that it has become available under the "Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000." Under the terms of that Act, the facility can be leased or transferred to some other "eligible entity", with the government retaining access rights for as long as its navigation aids might be needed. In December of 2000, concerned citizens from Glen Arbor, Maple City and Walled Lake, Michigan, met to form the North Manitou Shoal Light Preservation Society (NMSLPS), a nonprofit organization whose goal was to promote its preservation and restoration. Upon discovering that the cost of compliance with the Act would be prohibitively costly, the group evidently abandoned their effort.

Board members have met with Dr Steve Belko, Director of the Michigan Lighthouse Project, a program of the State Historic Preservation Office in Lansing, and have arranged to visit the crib in the Spring with the Coast Guard and an experienced offshore lighthouse restoration contractor, to get a first hand view of its condition, inside and out. This would be a major undertaking, with costs in the $1-million range. However, a plethora of technical assistance and grants are available for projects of this kind, and successes with similar facilities provide excellent models. Best of all, this project would provide a number of very challenging volunteer opportunities for MIMS members!

If you would like to participate in or comment on this project, please signify your interest using the "comment/volunteer" link provided above.

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