Have you ever been covered in cobwebs and mayflies while climbing a 20-foot ladder above Lake Michigan?  Well, I have.  After a 15-mile excursion in our Zodiac (inflatable rescue boat) from Wilderness Point, Michigan, I climbed the White Shoal lighthouse ladder (See above photos).  When Chuck mounted the ladder, he embraced the mayflies as a protein snack.

On July 20^th, 2019, the White Shoal Lighthouse was open for public tours for the first time since it was completed in 1910.   My husband, Chuck, and I were the only public visitors to arrive by our own boat and tour the structure. Others have taken a tour boat or received a ride from the lighthouse volunteers.  The White Shoal has a water level platform and a stairway for an easier climb.  However,  the owner’s boat was already in the slip, so we had to tie up at the ladder and ascend.

Causally standing on the platform was Brent Tompkins, one of the two owners of the lighthouse.  He and his business partner, Mike Lynch, bought the lighthouse in 2016 with a bid of $110,009.00.  The first two years of the multi-year remodel of the lighthouse was exceptionally tedious.  Brent and his partner engineered plumbing and used a crane to haul supplies, a washer, a stove and sink into the kitchen.  Inside they scraped the curved walls removing the lead base paint and clear coated the interior to create an authentic 1900’s look.

Brent has a family with three children.  I had to ask how his family felt about this endeavor.  He shrugged and explained that the volunteers have been invaluable as this has been a much larger project than he’d realized.  With ALL the volunteers the opening is five years ahead of schedule!

Sitting at a picnic table were a couple who had just spent the night in one of the five remodeled bedrooms.  Each had paid $500.00 for the chance to sleep inside a lighthouse surrounded by water plus a shuttle by boat to and from the mainland.  They were the first overnight guests.  They said their sleep was so peaceful in the middle of the big lake.  They enjoyed watching freighters glide by at all hours.

Brent and Mike’s vision is the eleven story, five bedroom structure will become a small scale resort for groups and individuals who would like to spend time snorkeling, fishing and boating. It will be able to sleep up to 20 people plus two crew members.  It would be like a step back in time with guests sharing stories while working a jigsaw puzzle and listening to a record player.

Beside taking your own boat out to the crib lighthouse another way is to organize a tour through the White Shoal Light Historical Preservation Society.  They sometimes offer lighthouse tours that are short (3 hours) or long (6 hours) as well as overnight stays.  Other commercial options include Shepler’s Ferry in Mackinaw City.  They offer three-hour lighthouse tours.

The White Shoal crib lighthouse stands alone in Lake Michigan 20 miles west of the Mackinac Bridge.  The White Shoal Light was built during a 40-year span from 1870-1910.   Twenty-six new lighthouses were built between 1852 and 1860 marking navigational hazards such as shoals, islands and reefs.  Even with the Civil War, construction of more lighthouses continued.   At the mark of the new century (1900) the Great Lakes Lighthouse Board operated 334 lights, 67 fog horns and 563 buoys.  Currently there are 388 lighthouses on the Great Lakes.  These were automated in the 1970’s which has made these historical structures more mystical to me and still valuable for navigating ships.

If you are interested in visiting this isolated historic structure, please use the contacts listed below for the White Shoal Light Preservation Society and like their Facebook page:

preservewhiteshoal@gmail.com

preservewhiteshoal.org

White Shoal Light 
Facebook Page