Whitefish Point Light

First lit in 1849, the Whitefish Point Light shares honors with that at Copper Harbor for being the first lights on Lake Superior. It stands guard over the entrance to Whitefish Bay, sometimes the only shelter to be found for a ship trying to escape the fury of the lake. Whitefish Point is known as the “Graveyard of Ships” as more vessels have been lost here than in any other part of Lake Superior. Raging northwest winds, building up over 160 miles of open water, create waves of unbelievable proportions. These violent storms and wild waters erupt with a suddenness that often catches sailors unprepared. The mountainous waves strike harder and more often than any ocean wave. The waves come roaring in from two or three different directions, ricocheting off the shores and returning with even more intensity. These monstrous storms, of hurricane force and duration, strike with all the ferocity and brutality of any ocean storm.

The very first ship known to sail on Superior, the sixty-foot trading vessel Invincible, perished in gale-force winds and towering waves near here in 1816. Many other vessels have suffered the same fate. Some were big, well-known ships such as the Edmund Fitzgerald, and their destruction made headlines across the country. Others were smaller unknown vessels, but every loss was tragic. Hundreds of vessels, including the famed Edmund Fitzgerald, lie on the bottom of the bay and its approaches. The lighthouse marks the end of an 80 mile stretch of shoreline known as Lake Superior’s Shipwreck Coast. This light has shined onto the big lake unfailingly for nearly 150 years, except for the night when the Edmund Fitzgerald went down.

At 4:30 p.m. on November 10, 1975, as the Edmund Fitzgerald struggled towards Whitefish Bay, forty-eight miles to the south, the light and the radio beacon at the remote navigational station at Whitefish Point suddenly clicked off. The Fitzgerald, already crippled by non-functioning storm damaged radar, was now without homing capability from the automated system at Whitefish. The Fitzgerald was left to fend for itself in unbelievable weather conditions.

To many lake sailors the light is more than a navigational marker, it is a welcoming call from home. The Whitefish Point Lighthouse is a remarkably modern and functional structure. This is especially notable when you consider that it was built in 1861, the beginning of the Civil War. A steel cylinder some eighty feet tall, it is supported by a skeletal steel framework. The iron skeleton with a very wide base gradually narrows to support a central steel cylinder. The narrow cylinder in turn supports the octagonal parapet and lantern room above. A red dome caps the lantern. This design was intended to take stress off the building during high winds.

The surrounding buildings were once home to the Coast Guard personnel stationed at this light and responsible for its maintenance. Automated by the Coast Guard in 1970, the Light Station no longer has a resident keeper. Appropriately, the dwelling now houses the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. The Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society, a group of divers researching the wrecks, opened the museum in 1986. This is the only museum dedicated to shipwrecks on the Great Lakes.

The lighthouse and museum are open from May 1st until October 31st, daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (open Friday and Saturday only in November). The museum is very informative and interesting, and well worth the cost of admission. There is no charge to visit the lighthouse grounds.

Getting There…

Follow M-123 north through the town of Paradise, about 11 miles to the end of the road at Whitefish Point.

Clues…

Follow the narrow cement path from behind the observation tower. When you meet up with the wide, sandy path, follow this down toward the water. The beach at Whitefish Point is one of the few places you can find concentric banded agates, so watch the stones as you walk! Follow the water’s edge in a northwesterly direction past several rows of old wooden pilings that extend out into the water. Once you reach the last row of pilings, locate three pines growing on the ridge at 170 degrees. Standing on the back side of these pines, see a red-tipped post in the woods at 260 degrees. Following this same directional line, you will find a double-trunked pine, just a few steps beyond the post. Find the box hiding under a dead branch at the base of the pine.