Happy 150th Birthday, Spectacle Reef Light Station! This crib light station, the first of it’s kind, has been known as “the most spectacular engineering achievement” in lighthouse construction. This 1870’s model had set the standard for crib lights and had been featured at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. Spectacle Reef Light Station, eighteen miles east of Cheboygan, had been the first crib light built on Lake Huron. Join Chuck and I as we search for the Cheneaux Island base camp where the construction for this monolith and others had occurred.
Spectacle Reef Light Station will be 150 years old in June! Photo Credit: Patrick McKinstry (top right)
The name, Spectacle Reef, had been derived from the shape of the shallow shelf of rocks. It actually looks like a pair of glasses.
Special thanks to Patrick McKinstry and Terry Pepper (Sept. 10, 1948 – Feb. 23, 2019) for their tireless dedication to keeping lighthouse history alive through hard work, fascinating stories and written articles.
Eighteen Crib Lights
Did you know that out of the 129 lighthouses and range lights on the Great Lakes, there are eighteen crib lights? These structures stand alone as beacons to ships marking shoals and reefs. Crib lights are forced to endure wind, waves and ice. How were these structures built over a century ago in the vast expanse of water?
We Begin Our Search
With our breath visible in the air we slid our boat, Sea Raven, into Lake Huron to begin our search for Government Island (also known as Island #6). Records have shown a base camp where men had assembled the cofferdams and shaped limestone blocks for most of the Great Lake’s crib lights. We were curious if we’d find any evidence since over a century has passed since the crib lights’ construction.
Sea Raven had glided smoothly between the thirty-six Cheneaux Islands.
The Cheneaux Islands
This group of islands had been carved 12,000 years ago when the glaciers had finally receded.
The Cheneaux Islands had once been home to the Wyandotte and Odawa tribes. In 1634 Jean Nicolet, a French explorer, had traveled among these 36 islands and had named them “Les Cheneaux,” which means “The Channels.” Thirty-two of the thirty-six islands have been given individual names. Many are labeled for animals (Eagle Island, Goat Island, Bear Island) and several names honor French explorers. (Marquette Island, LaSalle Island, and Point Brulee for Etienne Brule)
In 1850 Father Andrew Piret, a Catholic priest, has been known as the first permanent white settler. Soon, lumberman and fishermen followed creating small communities by the 1880’s.
In the late 1800’s many well-to-do industrialists from large cities (Detroit, Cincinnati, Chicago) had built summer residences on these private islands. This area isn’t as well known as Petosky and Charlevoix, but the traditions have held over centuries. Every August, since 1978, there has been the largest wooden boat festival in the world held in the Cheneaux Island community.
Dollar Island
Dollar Island had captured my interest! A huge home, surrounded by water, had stood proudly in the channel. Check this out!
Resources have varied as to which structure is the kissing booth.
“Dollar Island” had been purchased from the government for one dollar in 1913. At that time it only had a cabin and a windmill. Today, this .6 acre spot of land balances a large home and a three stall boathouse. It even has a “kissing booth!” More recently, this island had sold for $850,000.
Scammon’s Cove
We had motored through channel after channel when we had finally came to Scammon’s Cove. This harbor has kept the name of the Captain Scammon, who’d sought shelter in this deep water during an 1860 storm. It has been used many times for the same purpose.
We spied pilings along a shore. “It’s Government Island.” Chuck pointed. “It still has pilings from the old dock! I can’t believe it!” Chuck resonated. “I thought it’d be difficult to find evidence of the workcamp, but here it’s pretty obvious!”
The Schooner Belle had been secured to this pier. She had housed 60 workmen and had been used as a kitchen.
These piling hold memories. Some have been of tugs hauling ‘timber crib,’ foundations for light stations out into the open water. Others have been of deliveries containing blocks of limestone.
Government Island
After we had come ashore I twisted and wound the rope hoping to secure Sea Raven to a tree. Turning to Chuck I cocked one brow. “Will you check this? I don’t think I did it right.” Chuck had chuckled as he had inspected the line of MANY knots. “I think it’ll hold.” I shrugged and noted that I’d need to practice my knot tying skills. As I adjusted my bug shirt we had started our search for further evidence of the workcamp.
Government Island had been purchased in 1870 for a workcamp near Scammon’s Harbor. (Now Scammon’s Cove)
Moss-covered foundation rocks and depressions in the ground had revealed a hidden history. Like a secret held in the rocks showing lives lived long ago. The rustle of the pine and cedar trees had whispered their stories from the past. The workers who had lived here had overseen the construction of the crib lights on the Great Lakes.
Today, kayakers can camp on Government Island. A few firepits and even picnic tables can be found along these “pack in / pack out” shoreline sites.
Building Spectacle Reef Crib Light Station
On March 3, 1869 Congress had appropriated $100,00.00 in funds for the construction of an off-shore lighthouse marking Spectacle Reef in Lake Huron. The construction had taken four years and is still regarded as a marvel of engineering!
First the men had constructed a wooden box out of twelve-inch square timbers called a cofferdam. This ‘timber crib’ had measured ninety-two feet square and twenty-four feet high. On July 18, 1871 the tugs, Champion and Magnetic, had dragged this cofferdam to Spectacle Reef.
Photo Credit: Terry Pepper
The wreck of the Nightingale had to be removed from the reef before the cofferdam could be placed.
Next the tug, Hand, had pulled a barge filled with 1550 tons of stone. This stone had been used to fill and sink the cofferdam.
I marvel at how these men could accomplish this intense work without the help of power saws, large cranes or dump trucks.
Over the next few months one squad of workmen had built a pier, which had been completed in September. At the same time another team of divers had to caulk the gaps between the wooden beams in the cofferdam with ropes soaked in tar. Once the sides of the cofferdam had been completely sealed, the timber crib could be pumped dry which had occurred on October 14, 1871.
Finally, work could begin on leveling the shoal to support the base of the tower. 2 1/2″ diameter iron rods, 36″ long, were sunk into the reef and cemented. Limestone blocks had been delivered to Government Island where they had been shaped and styled to inter lock with the pieces above and below.
Amazingly, the first course of stone had been completed just thirteen days later. A second layer of stone had been added before it had become too cold to work.
Two men had remained on the reef until December in order to tend to the 4th Order Frensel Lens and steam fog whistle.
On May 3, 1872 work had resumed even though a coating of ice had covered every surface. Challenges continued as they had labored month by month. A September storm had caused setbacks, but the steady progress of cutting, shaping and delivering stone continued. By October 1872 the lower portion of the tower and five courses of the upper tower had been completed.
The mortar had fused these limestone blocks which had formed a massive monolithic structure. Patrick McCann had been the first to lite the lamp in June 1874!
1902 Spectacle Reef The upper portion of the tower contains five rooms.
In 1888 repairs to the crib had needed to be made. Then again in 1920 concrete had been added to the base of the light. Constant and consistent maintenance had needed to be completed during it’s service years from 1874-1972.
Spectacle Reef – World’s Fair 1898
Photo Credit: Terry Pepper
The Spectacle Reef Crib Light design had been featured at the 1893 World’s Fair. Just think, the work completed on a tiny Michigan island had influenced marine safety around the world!
More Crib Light Stations
Shortly after the turn of the century, Government Island workcamp had been reopened for the construction of more crib lights around the Great Lakes: Fourteen Mile Shoal, Martin Shoal Light Station, Poe Lighthouse, etc. Most of the eighteen crib lights had gotten their start on Government Island.
White Shoal (Built 1909), Martin Reef (Built 1927), Spectacle Reef (Began service in 1874)
The Brave and Lonely Light Keepers
Can you even imagine living on a crib light? Over 100 light keepers have manned the Spectacle Reef Light Station since the first keeper, Patrick J. McCann in 1874, to the last light keeper, Richard LeLievre in 1972.
There have been so many stories of bravery. One that has stuck with me had been from December 1927 when an icy sheet had covered the tower, sealing the door which had trapped the keepers for four days. They had signaled desperately with the light.
The Poe Lightship keeper had been returning to Cheboygan for the winter when he had noticed the light flickering at Spectacle Reef. He investigated and found the crib station encased in a thick, icy coating. The crib keepers had to lower themselves out of the fifth story window and across the ice to the Poe Lightship. They all made it to the mainland safely!
Just to give you an idea of the ice build up, here’s a photo taken in 1902from the National Archives.
This situation, along with the annual build-up of two-feet of ice, had prompted Leudtke Engineering in 1934 to drive steel piles into the shoal around the perimeter of the crib. They had used 110 rods. These had acted as additional protection against the powerful ice.
Spectacle Reef 1971
Additional adjustments have needed to be made to the crib light over the decades. Crews are still at work today preserving this 150 year old monolith. More on that in a minute. . .
William Wyman – Pilot 1959
Another Spectacle Reef story that has seared my soul is the sad tale of Air Force pilot, Sargent William Wyman. On February 22, 1959 Sgt. Wyman had been flying from Saginaw to Kinross Air Force Base, located in the upper peninsula, when his plane went down in Lake Huron a few miles from Spectacle Reef Light.
The search for Wyman had ended on March 3rd. He’d been presumed dead. Then, on April 8th the Spectacle Reef Light keeper opened the crib light station and had found a note from Sgt. Wyman.
“I tried to make it in but could not stretch my glide this far,” Wyman Wrote. “I landed in the water. I did not try to land on the ice as it did not appear to be thick enough…the plane went down within two minutes. But before it did it floated close enough to an ice floe for me to jump. The ice was not over two inches thick. Another large body of water separated me from the lighthouse, so I waited. Suddenly the wind shifted to the northeast and the ice I was on started to move. At the very last moment one corner of the ice grounded against the ice packed around the lighthouse.”
In Wyman’s final letter he had apologized for eating the canned food and the mess he’d made. He had explained how he’d tried to get the radio to work, but couldn’t. So, he’d flickered the light with the message, “SOS,” trying to call for help. His final sentence had said that he was going to hike across the ice. Sadly, he was never found.
Even sadder, had been that residents had reported seeing odd lights from Spectacle Reef and had notified the Coast Guard. These reports had not been taken seriously. Sgt. William Wyman had never been found.
Ponderings
The Great Lakes is chocked full of human experience, both successes and hardships. Imagining the work of the crews building these crib lights and the keepers who had lived in them leaves me in awe. I have a difficult time wrapping my brain around the intense tasks these men had accomplished. They had poured their ingenuity into The Spectacle Reef Light structure which has lasted 150 years! We have learned from their engineering and have been able to move forward into less strenuous days which makes me thankful for my comforts. Continue to search for “awe” in the world around us!
Spectacle Reef Crib Light Today
Spectacle Reef Volunteers Photo Credit: Patrick McKinstry (foreground)
June 2024 marks Spectacle Reef’s 150th birthday. The Spectacle Reef Preservation Society, a group of volunteers, has been working diligently to restore this piece of history. Their hope is to establish a museum facility where the public can tour and learn first hand knowledge of these beacons lighting the darkness. You can donate here and check out the links below.
Related Links:
Join DaViking for a work weekend at Spectacle Reef Light in this YouTube video.
I am an explorer and staff writer for the Restless Viking. I recently retired as a early elementary educator. In almost three decades, I was "Poppins" to 642 toothless grins. I travel authentically to meet transformative people and understand their passions.
