Looking Back: Charlevoix's lighthouse gets a facelift
CHARLEVOIX — This Looking Back, third in a series, and two for the rest of September celebrate the 75th anniversary of the installation of Charlevoix’s south pier light. It was put in place on Sept. 30, 1948, the fourth light to be built on the piers that provide entry from Lake Michigan into Round Lake.
A celebration of that anniversary event will take place in the pavilion at Lake Michigan Beach on Saturday, Sept. 30, between 2-4 p.m. Included will be live entertainment from area musician Pat Ryan, historical information, a lighthouse keeper interpreter, children's activities, the sound of the 1937 original foghorn nicknamed “Ferdinand” after the Disney cartoon character Ferdinand the Bull, and Historical Society lighthouse merchandise. Refreshments provided by Bywater Café at the beach will be available for purchase. Mark your calendars.
By the end of World War II and a few years beyond, the 1885 wood lighthouse that had originated on the north pier, then was moved to the south pier in 1911, was deteriorating badly. Something had to be done before it collapsed. By 1948, Coast Guardsmen stationed nearby on the lower channel expressed the certainty that every time they stepped out of the station after a windstorm, they expected to see a pile of lumber where a lighthouse once stood. Time to bite the bullet, and fast.
So that same year, an all-steel, 6-feet-taller lighthouse was fabricated in Milwaukee. Steel was chosen because of its inexpensiveness, strength, watertight capabilities, and slow rate of deterioration if properly maintained. The structure was shipped to Charlevoix on the Coast Guard cutter Woodbine in late September and deposited channelside near the fish hatchery, now the Great Lakes Fisheries research station. It was an odd looking thing, perfectly flat on top, because It didn’t have a lens-housing lantern where one should have been, plus railing.
That was because the original 1885 cast iron housing was found still to be in such good condition that it was saved, detached and removed from the old. The old structure was shifted several feet to the east along the pier. A cement platform about three feet tall was constructed in the area formerly marked by its four bulky corner supports.
Once the cement had set, the Woodbine lifted the new lighthouse into position atop it. Finally, the black lantern was lifted by helicopter and swung up to be attached to the new. Its red light started beaming into Lake Michigan the same day. The lantern is still there, now 138 years old. The Woodbine steamed away with the old lighthouse.
Thus our current one took its place as companion to the 61-foot white, openwork skeletal structure holding a pulsating white light that had been installed on the north pier in 1913. The new odd couple, neither moving a muscle, resumed their relationship for 20 more red-white years.
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The accompanying photo leads to the question — might there be a magic wand available to discover how many times since 1880 to today a camera has been pointed at our lighthouses, and their portraits taken? Every day and evening in summer, the lower channel bridge is lined with both visitors and locals taking their shots, from morning to sunset. Hundreds of them. Factor in those who photograph from the beach. Factor in those who use drones, from multitudinous heights, angles and directions, taking multiple exposures. The total number today, after 14 decades, has to be in the multimillions if not billions.
The red-white color scheme was altered in 1968, when — blasphemy! — the federal government ordered the south pier light to be painted white, much to the disgruntlement of locals, resorters, and habitual visitors alike. That situation lasted another 18 years.
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Looking Back: Charlevoix's lighthouse gets a facelift
