Spectacle Reef Light
Encyclopedia
Spectacle Reef Light is a lighthouse
eleven miles (18 km) east of the Straits of Mackinac
and is located at the northern end of Lake Huron
, Michigan
. It was designed and built by Colonel
Orlando Metcalfe Poe and Major
Godfrey Weitzel
, and was the most expensive lighthouse ever built on the Great Lakes
. It is said to be the most spectacular engineering achievement in lighthouse construction on Lake Huron, and ranks high among all of those on the Great lakes.
by the United States Lighthouse Board
. Between 1852 and 1860, 26 new lights were built. Even as the United States Civil War and its aftermath slowed construction, a dozen new lights were still lit in that decade. In the 1870s, 43 new lights were built on the Lakes. The 1880s saw more than one hundred lights constructed.
As the new century began, on the Great Lakes the Lighthouse Board operated 334 major lights, 67 fog horns and 563 buoys.
During the 19th century design of Great Lakes lights slowly evolved. Until 1870 the most common design was to build a keeper's dwelling with the light on the dwelling's roof or on a relatively small square tower attached to the house. In the 1870s, so as to raise lights to a higher focal plane, conical brick towers, usually between eighty and one hundred feet tall were constructed. In the 1890s steel
-lined towers began to replace the older generation of brick
buildings. See Big Sable Point Light
for a striking transition and transformation.
The Spectacle Reef Light was part of a forty-year effort—between 1870 and 1910—where engineers began to build lights on isolated islands, reefs, and shoals that were significant navigational hazards. To that time, light ships were the only practical way to mark the hazards, but were dangerous for the sailors who manned them, and difficult to maintain. "Worse, regardless of the type of anchors used lightships could be blown off their expected location in severe storms, making them a potential liability in the worst weather when captains would depend on the charted location of these lights to measure their own ship's distance from dangerous rocks." See, United States lightship Huron (LV-103).
Successively, using underwater crib designs, the Board built on a shoal the Waugoshance Light
(1851), and demonstrated a "new level of expertise" in constructing of the Spectacle Reef Light (1874), Stannard Rock Light
(1882) and Detroit River (Bar Point Shoal)
(also known as the Detroit River Entrance Light) (1885). "The long and expensive process of building lights" in remote and difficult sites "ended in nationally publicized engineering projects that constructed" Rock of Ages Light
(1908) and the White Shoal
(1910) lights.
In the first three decades of the twentieth century the Lighthouse Board and the new Lighthouse Service continued to build new lights on the Great Lakes. For 1925, the Board had under its auspices around the Great Lakes: 433 major lights; ten lightships; 129 fog signals; and about 1,000 buoys. Of these 1,771 navigational aids, 160 stations had resident keepers
, as most navigational aids were automated. By 1925 nearly all of the Great Lakes lighthouses that today exist (excepting e.g., Poe Reef Light
and Gravelly Shoal Light
) had been constructed.
This is part of a larger pattern of building 14 reef
lights around Michigan, which was intended to help ships navigate through and around the shoals and hazards around the Straits of Mackinac.
in 1868.
The construction was undertaken under the auspices of the Lighthouse Board, and was quite a feat of civil engineering
and endurance. Construction began in 1870, in answer to the disastrous loss of a large number of ships during the 1860s at the site; in particular, two schooners ran aground and broke up in 1867. The massive cost of the loss helped convince Congress that it would be more cost effective to build a light and reduce the probability of future tragedies.
The reef
that the lighthouse is built upon is shaped like a pair of eyeglasses (hence its name) and is located in the path of littoral
commerce on Lake Huron
. As the freighter
traffic increased through the straits, so did the impending likelihood of more ship losses.
The Spectacle Reef Lighthouse cost $406,000. Significantly, one costly item was the purchase of a steamer
to convey the materials to the site.
Submerged 11 feet (3.4 m) below the surface, the foundation was laid in a cofferdam
protected by a crib made from 12 inches (304.8 mm) timber. The crib was constructed upon slipways at the depot, like building a ship
, then launched and towed by tugboats to the reef, where it was sunk and grounded on the site. This crib is massive: 8464 square feet (786.3 m²) by 24 feet (7.3 m) high (203,136 cubic feet total). This afforded a protected pond, making a base for the cofferdam, a wharf
, and worker's quarters. In due course, the cofferdam was pumped out to expose the bedrock
, upon which the masonry courses were laid.
The light's 20-month construction process had to be spread out over a calendar period of four years (1870–1874), because no work was possible during the winter, most of the spring, and most of the fall.
Bois Blanc Island
is the nearest point of land, 10 miles (16.1 km) to 12 miles (19.3 km) to the northwest; but neither it nor Ninemile Point, 10.3 miles (16.6 km) to the south, formed a suitable staging area for construction, which had to take place entirely on site. After the construction of workers' quarters on the pier, a fourth-order Fresnel lens
was temporarily installed on the roof of one of the buildings. Construction was almost complete in the fall of 1873, when the onset of winter's storms forced the work site to be abandoned until the following spring. In the spring of 1874, work on the lighthouse began again. With the installation of the cast-iron lantern room and a new second-order Fresnel lens, the work was complete, and the light was put into service for the first time in June 1874.
The location of the lighthouse makes it susceptible to wave fetch
, which for this reef is 170 miles (273.6 km) to the southeast. Lake Huron ice fields, known as drift ice
which in this lake can be as much as two or more feet thick and measure thousands of acres in size, are moved by wintertime currents. Masses of these dimensions create "an almost irresistible force", which for Spectacle Reef Light was "overcome by interposing a structure against which the ice is crushed and by which its motion is so impeded that it grounds on the 7–foot shoal" and in turn this creates an effective wall "against other ice fields."
The tower is formed as a "frustum
of a cone
". The 32 feet (9.8 m) diameter base rises 93 feet (28.3 m) above water level, and is 11 feet (3.4 m) below water level.
As the Coast Guard notes: "The focal plane is 4 in 3 in (1.3 m) above the top of the parapet
, making it 97 in 3 in (29.64 m) above the top of the submerged rock and 86 in 3 in (26.29 m) above the surface of the water. For 34 feet (10.4 m) up the tower is solid and from them on up it is hollow. In it are five rooms, one above the other each 14 feet (4.3 m) in diameter, with varying heights. The walls of the hollow portion are 5 in 6 in (1.68 m) at the bottom, tapering to 16 inches (406.4 mm) at the spring of the cornice
."
Just below the cornice, the blocks of stone are 2 foot (0.6096 m) thick. They are interlocked in each course, and fastened together with wrought iron
bolts
2 inches thick and 2 foot (0.6096 m) long. Likewise, the tower is bolted to the foundation rock with bolts 3 foot (0.9144 m) long. After "the stones were in place they were plugged with pure portland cement
, which is now as hard as the stone itself. Hence the tower is, in effect, a monolith
."
The stones were cut at the depot at Scammon’s Harbor, 16 miles (25.7 km) away. They were fitted, course by course, on a platform of masonry. The stones fit so well that each course took but three days to set, drill, and bolt. The light has been described as "the best specimen of monolithic stone masonry in the United States." and "one of the greatest engineering feats on the Great Lakes
."
In September 1872, a severe gale
did considerable damage, which had to be repaired at very great expense. In passing, it should be noted that the term "gale" is being used loosely, as there was no wind speed device being monitored in the winter at that location; and in a similar location on Lake Superior at Granite Island, Michigan, wind speeds of 143 mi/h were recorded on January 18, 2003.
"After the winter of 1873–74, when the keepers returned to the newly completed tower, they found the ice piled against it at a height of 30 feet (9.1 m), or 7 feet (2.1 m) higher than the doorway, and they could not gain entrance until they had cut away the iceberg of which the lighthouse formed the core."
The light has an attached fog signal building, oil house and storage building. There are davit
s to raise and lower boats.
The Lighthouse Board built a model of this light, and it was featured in the Aids to Navigation display at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition
, also known as "The Chicago World's Fair
" in Chicago
, Illinois
.
The combination of a crib foundation with monolithic stone masonry worked so well that the Lighthouse Board used the design and a similar process in producing the Stannard Rock Light
in Lake Superior
in 1878. Further economies were achieved by getting 'double duty' from the "costly apparatus and machinery purchased" for the Spectacle Reef project.
.
After the Fresnel lens was replaced by a modern acrylic lens, the Spectacle Reef Light continues to serve as an active aid to navigation as of 2007.
In July 2005, "Spectacle Reef Light Station" was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
as site #05000744, and said to be "Located in northern Lake Huron, 10.3 mi (16.6 km). NNE of Ninemile Point, Benton Township, Michigan
".
Spectacle Reef Lighthouse was one of five lighthouses chosen for the "Lighthouses of the Great Lakes" series postage stamp designed by Howard Koslow
in 1995. There was one lighthouse chosen on each of the Great Lakes
. The five lighthouses are Split Rock Light
on Lake Superior
, St Joseph Light on Lake Michigan
, Spectacle Reef Light on Lake Huron
, Marblehead Light (Ohio) on Lake Erie
and Thirty Mile Point Light
on Lake Ontario
.
s.
Short of that, Shepler's Ferry Service out of Mackinaw City offers periodic lighthouse tours in the summer season. Its "Eastbound Tour" includes passes by St. Helena Island Light, and even offers a luncheon. Schedules and rates are available from Shepler's.
Another alternative is to charter a seaplane
to make a tour of the Mackinac Straits and environs.
As of 2008, the Great Lakes Light Keepers' Association operates a single annual "Grand Light Tour" that is conducted by Shepler's Mackinac Island Ferry, and it includes a pass-by of the Spectacle Reef Light.
Lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....
eleven miles (18 km) east of the Straits of Mackinac
Straits of Mackinac
The Straits of Mackinac is the strip of water that connects two of the Great Lakes, Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, and separates the Lower Peninsula of Michigan from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It is a shipping lane providing passage for raw materials and finished goods, connecting, for...
and is located at the northern end of Lake Huron
Lake Huron
Lake Huron is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. Hydrologically, it comprises the larger portion of Lake Michigan-Huron. It is bounded on the east by the Canadian province of Ontario and on the west by the state of Michigan in the United States...
, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
. It was designed and built by Colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
Orlando Metcalfe Poe and Major
Major
Major is a rank of commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every military in the world.When used unhyphenated, in conjunction with no other indicator of rank, the term refers to the rank just senior to that of an Army captain and just below the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...
Godfrey Weitzel
Godfrey Weitzel
Godfrey Weitzel was a major general in the Union army during the American Civil War, as well as the acting Mayor of New Orleans during the Federal occupancy of the city.-Early life and career:...
, and was the most expensive lighthouse ever built on the Great Lakes
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...
. It is said to be the most spectacular engineering achievement in lighthouse construction on Lake Huron, and ranks high among all of those on the Great lakes.
Overview
The period between 1852 and the beginning of the 20th century saw great activity on the Great LakesGreat Lakes
The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...
by the United States Lighthouse Board
United States Lighthouse Board
The United States Lighthouse Board was the agency of the US Federal Government that was responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of all lighthouses in the United States...
. Between 1852 and 1860, 26 new lights were built. Even as the United States Civil War and its aftermath slowed construction, a dozen new lights were still lit in that decade. In the 1870s, 43 new lights were built on the Lakes. The 1880s saw more than one hundred lights constructed.
As the new century began, on the Great Lakes the Lighthouse Board operated 334 major lights, 67 fog horns and 563 buoys.
During the 19th century design of Great Lakes lights slowly evolved. Until 1870 the most common design was to build a keeper's dwelling with the light on the dwelling's roof or on a relatively small square tower attached to the house. In the 1870s, so as to raise lights to a higher focal plane, conical brick towers, usually between eighty and one hundred feet tall were constructed. In the 1890s steel
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
-lined towers began to replace the older generation of brick
Brick
A brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction, usually laid using various kinds of mortar. It has been regarded as one of the longest lasting and strongest building materials used throughout history.-History:...
buildings. See Big Sable Point Light
Big Sable Point Light
The Big Sable Point Light is a lighthouse on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan near Ludington in Mason County, Michigan, at the Ludington State Park. It is an active aid to navigation.-History:...
for a striking transition and transformation.
The Spectacle Reef Light was part of a forty-year effort—between 1870 and 1910—where engineers began to build lights on isolated islands, reefs, and shoals that were significant navigational hazards. To that time, light ships were the only practical way to mark the hazards, but were dangerous for the sailors who manned them, and difficult to maintain. "Worse, regardless of the type of anchors used lightships could be blown off their expected location in severe storms, making them a potential liability in the worst weather when captains would depend on the charted location of these lights to measure their own ship's distance from dangerous rocks." See, United States lightship Huron (LV-103).
Successively, using underwater crib designs, the Board built on a shoal the Waugoshance Light
Waugoshance Light
The lighthouse at Waugoshance protects boats from a shoal area at the northern end of Lake Michigan. The lighthouse is located in Emmet County, Michigan, United States, and in U.S. Coast Guard District No. 9.-Reason for lighthouse:...
(1851), and demonstrated a "new level of expertise" in constructing of the Spectacle Reef Light (1874), Stannard Rock Light
Stannard Rock Light
The Stannard Rock Light, completed in 1883, is a lighthouse located on a reef that was the most serious hazard to navigation on Lake Superior. The exposed crib of the Stannard Rock Light is rated as one of the top ten engineering feats in the United States. It is from the nearest land, making it...
(1882) and Detroit River (Bar Point Shoal)
Detroit River Light
The Detroit River Light, also known as Bar Point Shoal Light, was first established as a lightship in 1875. The current sparkplug lighthouse was built in 1885. It sits in Lake Erie, south of the mouth of the Detroit River, from land and about from the Ambassador Bridge in the Detroit River. It...
(also known as the Detroit River Entrance Light) (1885). "The long and expensive process of building lights" in remote and difficult sites "ended in nationally publicized engineering projects that constructed" Rock of Ages Light
Rock of Ages Light
The Rock of Ages Light is a U.S. Coast Guard lighthouse on a small rock outcropping approximately miles west of Washington Island and west of Isle Royale, in Keweenaw County, Michigan...
(1908) and the White Shoal
White Shoal Light (Michigan)
The White Shoal Light is a lighthouse located 20 miles west of the Mackinac Bridge in Lake Michigan. It is an active aid to navigation.-Overview:...
(1910) lights.
In the first three decades of the twentieth century the Lighthouse Board and the new Lighthouse Service continued to build new lights on the Great Lakes. For 1925, the Board had under its auspices around the Great Lakes: 433 major lights; ten lightships; 129 fog signals; and about 1,000 buoys. Of these 1,771 navigational aids, 160 stations had resident keepers
Lighthouse keeper
A lighthouse keeper is the 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. Keepers were needed to trim the wicks, replenish fuel, wind clockworks and perform maintenance tasks such as cleaning...
, as most navigational aids were automated. By 1925 nearly all of the Great Lakes lighthouses that today exist (excepting e.g., Poe Reef Light
Poe Reef Light
Poe Reef is a lighthouse located at the east end of South Channel between Bois Blanc Island and the mainland of the Lower Peninsula, about six miles east of Cheboygan Poe Reef has historically caused problems for shipping...
and Gravelly Shoal Light
Gravelly Shoal Light
Gravelly Shoals Light is an automated lighthouse that is an active aid to navigation on the shallow shoals extending southeast from Point Lookout on the western side of Saginaw Bay. The light is situated about offshore and was built to help guide boats through the deeper water between the...
) had been constructed.
This is part of a larger pattern of building 14 reef
Reef
In nautical terminology, a reef is a rock, sandbar, or other feature lying beneath the surface of the water ....
lights around Michigan, which was intended to help ships navigate through and around the shoals and hazards around the Straits of Mackinac.
Construction
The site was first marked by a buoyBuoy
A buoy is a floating device that can have many different purposes. It can be anchored or allowed to drift. The word, of Old French or Middle Dutch origin, is now most commonly in UK English, although some orthoepists have traditionally prescribed the pronunciation...
in 1868.
The construction was undertaken under the auspices of the Lighthouse Board, and was quite a feat of civil engineering
Civil engineering
Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including works like roads, bridges, canals, dams, and buildings...
and endurance. Construction began in 1870, in answer to the disastrous loss of a large number of ships during the 1860s at the site; in particular, two schooners ran aground and broke up in 1867. The massive cost of the loss helped convince Congress that it would be more cost effective to build a light and reduce the probability of future tragedies.
The reef
Reef
In nautical terminology, a reef is a rock, sandbar, or other feature lying beneath the surface of the water ....
that the lighthouse is built upon is shaped like a pair of eyeglasses (hence its name) and is located in the path of littoral
Littoral
The littoral zone is that part of a sea, lake or river that is close to the shore. In coastal environments the littoral zone extends from the high water mark, which is rarely inundated, to shoreline areas that are permanently submerged. It always includes this intertidal zone and is often used to...
commerce on Lake Huron
Lake Huron
Lake Huron is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. Hydrologically, it comprises the larger portion of Lake Michigan-Huron. It is bounded on the east by the Canadian province of Ontario and on the west by the state of Michigan in the United States...
. As the freighter
Cargo ship
A cargo ship or freighter is any sort of ship or vessel that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year; they handle the bulk of international trade...
traffic increased through the straits, so did the impending likelihood of more ship losses.
The Spectacle Reef Lighthouse cost $406,000. Significantly, one costly item was the purchase of a steamer
Steamboat
A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels...
to convey the materials to the site.
Submerged 11 feet (3.4 m) below the surface, the foundation was laid in a cofferdam
Cofferdam
A cofferdam is a temporary enclosure built within, or in pairs across, a body of water and constructed to allow the enclosed area to be pumped out, creating a dry work environment for the major work to proceed...
protected by a crib made from 12 inches (304.8 mm) timber. The crib was constructed upon slipways at the depot, like building a ship
Shipbuilding
Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to before recorded history.Shipbuilding and ship repairs, both...
, then launched and towed by tugboats to the reef, where it was sunk and grounded on the site. This crib is massive: 8464 square feet (786.3 m²) by 24 feet (7.3 m) high (203,136 cubic feet total). This afforded a protected pond, making a base for the cofferdam, a wharf
Wharf
A wharf or quay is a structure on the shore of a harbor where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers.Such a structure includes one or more berths , and may also include piers, warehouses, or other facilities necessary for handling the ships.A wharf commonly comprises a fixed...
, and worker's quarters. In due course, the cofferdam was pumped out to expose the bedrock
Bedrock
In stratigraphy, bedrock is the native consolidated rock underlying the surface of a terrestrial planet, usually the Earth. Above the bedrock is usually an area of broken and weathered unconsolidated rock in the basal subsoil...
, upon which the masonry courses were laid.
The light's 20-month construction process had to be spread out over a calendar period of four years (1870–1874), because no work was possible during the winter, most of the spring, and most of the fall.
Bois Blanc Island
Bois Blanc Island (Michigan)
Bois Blanc Island is coterminous with Bois Blanc Township, Mackinac County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The island covers about and is about 12 miles long, 6 miles wide and has 6 lakes. Bois Blanc is located in Lake Huron southeast of Mackinac Island and almost due north of the city of...
is the nearest point of land, 10 miles (16.1 km) to 12 miles (19.3 km) to the northwest; but neither it nor Ninemile Point, 10.3 miles (16.6 km) to the south, formed a suitable staging area for construction, which had to take place entirely on site. After the construction of workers' quarters on the pier, a fourth-order Fresnel lens
Fresnel lens
A Fresnel lens is a type of lens originally developed by French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel for lighthouses.The design allows the construction of lenses of large aperture and short focal length without the mass and volume of material that would be required by a lens of conventional design...
was temporarily installed on the roof of one of the buildings. Construction was almost complete in the fall of 1873, when the onset of winter's storms forced the work site to be abandoned until the following spring. In the spring of 1874, work on the lighthouse began again. With the installation of the cast-iron lantern room and a new second-order Fresnel lens, the work was complete, and the light was put into service for the first time in June 1874.
The location of the lighthouse makes it susceptible to wave fetch
Fetch (geography)
The fetch, often called the fetch length, is the length of water over which a given wind has blown. It is used in geography and meteorology and is usually associated with coastal erosion. It plays a large part in longshore drift as well....
, which for this reef is 170 miles (273.6 km) to the southeast. Lake Huron ice fields, known as drift ice
Drift ice
Drift ice is ice that floats on the surface of the water in cold regions, as opposed to fast ice, which is attached to a shore. Usually drift ice is carried along by winds and sea currents, hence its name, "drift ice"....
which in this lake can be as much as two or more feet thick and measure thousands of acres in size, are moved by wintertime currents. Masses of these dimensions create "an almost irresistible force", which for Spectacle Reef Light was "overcome by interposing a structure against which the ice is crushed and by which its motion is so impeded that it grounds on the 7–foot shoal" and in turn this creates an effective wall "against other ice fields."
The tower is formed as a "frustum
Frustum
In geometry, a frustum is the portion of a solid that lies between two parallel planes cutting it....
of a cone
Cone (geometry)
A cone is an n-dimensional geometric shape that tapers smoothly from a base to a point called the apex or vertex. Formally, it is the solid figure formed by the locus of all straight line segments that join the apex to the base...
". The 32 feet (9.8 m) diameter base rises 93 feet (28.3 m) above water level, and is 11 feet (3.4 m) below water level.
As the Coast Guard notes: "The focal plane is 4 in 3 in (1.3 m) above the top of the parapet
Parapet
A parapet is a wall-like barrier at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony or other structure. Where extending above a roof, it may simply be the portion of an exterior wall that continues above the line of the roof surface, or may be a continuation of a vertical feature beneath the roof such as a...
, making it 97 in 3 in (29.64 m) above the top of the submerged rock and 86 in 3 in (26.29 m) above the surface of the water. For 34 feet (10.4 m) up the tower is solid and from them on up it is hollow. In it are five rooms, one above the other each 14 feet (4.3 m) in diameter, with varying heights. The walls of the hollow portion are 5 in 6 in (1.68 m) at the bottom, tapering to 16 inches (406.4 mm) at the spring of the cornice
Cornice
Cornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown molding.The function of the projecting...
."
Just below the cornice, the blocks of stone are 2 foot (0.6096 m) thick. They are interlocked in each course, and fastened together with wrought iron
Wrought iron
thumb|The [[Eiffel tower]] is constructed from [[puddle iron]], a form of wrought ironWrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon...
bolts
Screw
A screw, or bolt, is a type of fastener characterized by a helical ridge, known as an external thread or just thread, wrapped around a cylinder. Some screw threads are designed to mate with a complementary thread, known as an internal thread, often in the form of a nut or an object that has the...
2 inches thick and 2 foot (0.6096 m) long. Likewise, the tower is bolted to the foundation rock with bolts 3 foot (0.9144 m) long. After "the stones were in place they were plugged with pure portland cement
Portland cement
Portland cement is the most common type of cement in general use around the world because it is a basic ingredient of concrete, mortar, stucco and most non-specialty grout...
, which is now as hard as the stone itself. Hence the tower is, in effect, a monolith
Monolith
A monolith is a geological feature such as a mountain, consisting of a single massive stone or rock, or a single piece of rock placed as, or within, a monument...
."
The stones were cut at the depot at Scammon’s Harbor, 16 miles (25.7 km) away. They were fitted, course by course, on a platform of masonry. The stones fit so well that each course took but three days to set, drill, and bolt. The light has been described as "the best specimen of monolithic stone masonry in the United States." and "one of the greatest engineering feats on the Great Lakes
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...
."
In September 1872, a severe gale
Gale
A gale is a very strong wind. There are conflicting definitions of how strong a wind must be to be considered a gale. The U.S. government's National Weather Service defines a gale as 34–47 knots of sustained surface winds. Forecasters typically issue gale warnings when winds of this strength are...
did considerable damage, which had to be repaired at very great expense. In passing, it should be noted that the term "gale" is being used loosely, as there was no wind speed device being monitored in the winter at that location; and in a similar location on Lake Superior at Granite Island, Michigan, wind speeds of 143 mi/h were recorded on January 18, 2003.
"After the winter of 1873–74, when the keepers returned to the newly completed tower, they found the ice piled against it at a height of 30 feet (9.1 m), or 7 feet (2.1 m) higher than the doorway, and they could not gain entrance until they had cut away the iceberg of which the lighthouse formed the core."
The light has an attached fog signal building, oil house and storage building. There are davit
Davit
A davit is a structure, usually made of steel, which is used to lower things over an edge of a long drop off such as lowering a maintenance trapeze down a building or launching a lifeboat over the side of a ship....
s to raise and lower boats.
The Lighthouse Board built a model of this light, and it was featured in the Aids to Navigation display at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition
World's Columbian Exposition
The World's Columbian Exposition was a World's Fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. Chicago bested New York City; Washington, D.C.; and St...
, also known as "The Chicago World's Fair
World's Fair
World's fair, World fair, Universal Exposition, and World Expo are various large public exhibitions held in different parts of the world. The first Expo was held in The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, United Kingdom, in 1851, under the title "Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All...
" in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
.
The combination of a crib foundation with monolithic stone masonry worked so well that the Lighthouse Board used the design and a similar process in producing the Stannard Rock Light
Stannard Rock Light
The Stannard Rock Light, completed in 1883, is a lighthouse located on a reef that was the most serious hazard to navigation on Lake Superior. The exposed crib of the Stannard Rock Light is rated as one of the top ten engineering feats in the United States. It is from the nearest land, making it...
in Lake Superior
Lake Superior
Lake Superior is the largest of the five traditionally-demarcated Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded to the north by the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Minnesota, and to the south by the U.S. states of Wisconsin and Michigan. It is the largest freshwater lake in the...
in 1878. Further economies were achieved by getting 'double duty' from the "costly apparatus and machinery purchased" for the Spectacle Reef project.
Current status
The original second-order Fresnel lens (by Henry Lepaute of Paris, France) was removed in 1982. It is now on display at the Inland Seas Maritime Museum (also known as the Great Lakes Historical Society Museum) at the Vermilion Light in Vermilion, OhioVermilion, Ohio
Vermilion is a city in Erie and Lorain counties in Ohio, on the North Coast of the U.S.A. The population was 10,927 at the 2000 census. The current mayor is Eileen Bulan...
.
After the Fresnel lens was replaced by a modern acrylic lens, the Spectacle Reef Light continues to serve as an active aid to navigation as of 2007.
In July 2005, "Spectacle Reef Light Station" was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
as site #05000744, and said to be "Located in northern Lake Huron, 10.3 mi (16.6 km). NNE of Ninemile Point, Benton Township, Michigan
Benton Township, Cheboygan County, Michigan
Benton Township is a civil township of Cheboygan County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the township population was 3,080.-Geography:...
".
Spectacle Reef Lighthouse was one of five lighthouses chosen for the "Lighthouses of the Great Lakes" series postage stamp designed by Howard Koslow
Howard Koslow
Howard Koslow is an illustrator.Some of Koslow's works are at the United States Air Force Academy and The Pentagon. Several of his paintings which were commissioned by NASA are on exhibition at the National Air and Space Museum, Washington D.C. and the NASA Art Gallery, Kennedy Space...
in 1995. There was one lighthouse chosen on each of the Great Lakes
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...
. The five lighthouses are Split Rock Light
Split Rock Light
Split Rock Lighthouse is a lighthouse located southwest of Silver Bay, Minnesota, USA on the North Shore of Lake Superior. The structure was designed by lighthouse engineer Ralph Russell Tinkham and was completed in 1910 by the United States Lighthouse Service at a cost of $75,000, including the...
on Lake Superior
Lake Superior
Lake Superior is the largest of the five traditionally-demarcated Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded to the north by the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Minnesota, and to the south by the U.S. states of Wisconsin and Michigan. It is the largest freshwater lake in the...
, St Joseph Light on Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron...
, Spectacle Reef Light on Lake Huron
Lake Huron
Lake Huron is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. Hydrologically, it comprises the larger portion of Lake Michigan-Huron. It is bounded on the east by the Canadian province of Ontario and on the west by the state of Michigan in the United States...
, Marblehead Light (Ohio) on Lake Erie
Lake Erie
Lake Erie is the fourth largest lake of the five Great Lakes in North America, and the tenth largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has the shortest average water residence time. It is bounded on the north by the...
and Thirty Mile Point Light
Thirty Mile Point Light
The Thirty Mile Point Light is currently part of the Golden Hill State Park, a New York State Park.. The lighthouse is open to the public. It gets its name because it is the point 30 miles east of the Niagara River. Lake Ontario can bee seen from the top...
on Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south by the American state of New York. Ontario, Canada's most populous province, was named for the lake. In the Wyandot language, ontarío means...
.
Getting there
Although the light and crib are closed to the public, a private boat is optimal to see this light close up. It is a long way from shore in dangerous and open water, fraught with shoalShoal
Shoal, shoals or shoaling may mean:* Shoal, a sandbank or reef creating shallow water, especially where it forms a hazard to shipping* Shoal draught , of a boat with shallow draught which can pass over some shoals: see Draft...
s.
Short of that, Shepler's Ferry Service out of Mackinaw City offers periodic lighthouse tours in the summer season. Its "Eastbound Tour" includes passes by St. Helena Island Light, and even offers a luncheon. Schedules and rates are available from Shepler's.
Another alternative is to charter a seaplane
Seaplane
A seaplane is a fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing on water. Seaplanes that can also take off and land on airfields are a subclass called amphibian aircraft...
to make a tour of the Mackinac Straits and environs.
As of 2008, the Great Lakes Light Keepers' Association operates a single annual "Grand Light Tour" that is conducted by Shepler's Mackinac Island Ferry, and it includes a pass-by of the Spectacle Reef Light.
Sources
- Barnard, J.G. "Lighthouse Engineering As Displayed at the Centennial Exhibition." American Society of Civil Engineers Transactions 8 (Mar 1879), p. 55.
Specialized further reading
- "A Tour of the Lights of the Straits." Michigan History 70 (Sep/Oct 1986), pp. 17–29.
- Taylor, Paul (October 2009) Orlando M. Poe: Civil War General and Great Lakes Engineer (Kent State University Press) ISBN 1-60635-040-4; ISBN 978-1-60635-040-9.