Front Range Lighthouse open for season with new upgrades and ongoing restoration

Cheboygan Daily Tribune
·3 min read
The Front Range Lighthouse in Cheboygan.
The Front Range Lighthouse in Cheboygan.

CHEBOYGAN — There’s a lighthouse in downtown Cheboygan. It’s tucked behind the Eagle’s Building on Main Street, on the Cheboygan River, and has been an active aid to navigation since it was built in 1880.

During the lumbering days, the Front Range Lighthouse was essential to vessels that came to ship lumber from the many mills along the Cheboygan River.

In the late 1940s, a Coast Guard station was established at the Front Range, following the elimination of keepers. At that time, the rear addition was added to serve the Coast Guard crew.

The station was one of the busiest on the Great Lakes, with responsibility for offshore lighthouses, aids to navigation on the Inland Waterway and serving as the shore support base for the U.S. Coast Guard Icebreaker Mackinaw.

More: Dining room set comes home to Cheboygan’s Front Range Lighthouse

This is what the Front Range Lighthouse looked like in 1904 in the City of Cheboygan.
This is what the Front Range Lighthouse looked like in 1904 in the City of Cheboygan.

The Coast Guard station closed in 1985, with duties transferred to Station St. Ignace. For 20 years, the lighthouse was used by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“Excessed” by the government in the early 2000s, the Front Range is now owned by the Great Lakes Lighthouse Keepers Association (GLLKA).

The lighthouse is currently being restored to the 1940s time period, when the bright red daymarks were added to the tower.

The lighthouse continues to be an active aid to navigation, working in tandem with the Rear Range Tower — an iron structure set about a quarter mile south in the municipal parking lot on Water Street. The lights designate the mouth of the Cheboygan River to mariners. When both tower lights are lined up — one above the other — that signifies the center of the river channel.

Volunteers at the Front Range Lighthouse have installed a new garden in what used to be a water tank holding marine cable.
Volunteers at the Front Range Lighthouse have installed a new garden in what used to be a water tank holding marine cable.

Volunteers during the last year have completed a decorative stairway railing on the upper tower levels and installed a new garden in what used to be a water tank holding marine cable. Volunteers also act as lighthouse keepers all summer when the lighthouse is open to visitors on weekends, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursday-Sunday.

If you would like to be a volunteer keeper, contact the GLLKA office in Mackinaw City at (231) 436-5580.

Guests can tour the Front Range Lighthouse to see the ongoing restoration. They will also see the original dining room furniture, purchased by keeper John Duffy more than 100 years ago.

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Guests at the Front Range Lighthouse can see the original dining room furniture, purchased by keeper John Duffy more than 100 years ago.
Guests at the Front Range Lighthouse can see the original dining room furniture, purchased by keeper John Duffy more than 100 years ago.

Duffy and his wife Nellie came to the Front Range Lighthouse in 1899, when he was just 35 years old. Shortly after his arrival, he bought dining room furniture in Detroit, which was sent to Cheboygan by train. The furniture was donated back to the lighthouse in 2021 by Duffy’s great-granddaughter, Linda McCleod Birely, who lives in Fowlerville.

This year, GLLKA celebrates 40 years of educating about lighthouse history. Come to the lighthouse on Saturday, Aug. 19, to tour, see demonstrations, hear speakers and more. Join GLLKA to learn about and celebrate Michigan’s lighthouse history.

Also, check the live video streaming 24/7 from the lighthouse tower camera to see both out to Lake Huron, and upriver, at gllka.org.

This article originally appeared on Cheboygan Daily Tribune: Front Range Lighthouse open for season with new upgrades and ongoing restoration