During the 1860s and 1870s, entering the harbor at Grand Marais was difficult due to sandbars that built up outside of the bay. A federal project was adopted on August 5, 1881, to build a safe channel into the harbor, and thus create a harbor of refuge. Over the next decade, more than $250,000 (equal to $6.5 million today) was expended to construct parallel 700 foot (213 m) piers with a deep channel dredged between them, and then between 1895 and 1897, a 5,770 feet (1,760 m) dike was built east of the piers to enclose the harbor and protect anchorage during storms. This dike eventually eroded away and was rebuilt a few years ago.
Along the southern shoreline of Lake Superior, lighthouses were erected beginning in the mid-19th century to warn ships of treacherous points and guide them into harbors. In its 1892 annual report, the Lighthouse Board made the following request for funds to erect a light for the new harbor of refuge:
There is no harbor between White Fish Bay and Grand Island. Grand Marais has been for some time under improvement by the United States as a harbor of refuge, and the work has now advanced to a point where it is desirable to light it. It is estimated that a suitable light and bell can be established here at a cost not exceeding $15,000, and it is recommended that an appropriation of this amount be made therefor.
1892 annual report of the Lighthouse Board
Congress provided the requested amount on March 2, 1895, and in November of that year, the Point Iroquois bell tower, which had been replaced by a steam fog signal, was taken down and transported to Grand Marais, where it was bolted to the western pier and capped with a decagonal iron lantern room. The square, the pyramidal tower stood forty-three feet tall, was open at its base, and had two enclosed rooms, one above the other, just beneath the lantern room. The upper room served as a service room for the light, while the lower room housed the striking apparatus for the fog bell and opened onto an elevated wooden walkway that led shoreward. The tower’s fixed white light and fog bell were placed in operation on December 10, 1895, by Keeper Samuel F. Rogers, who had previously been in charge of Spectacle Reef Lighthouse in Lake Huron.
After completing the pierhead light and bell, the Lighthouse Board had enough funds to construct a keeper’s dwelling and a second light to form a range, but as the appropriation was for just “a light and bell,” it had to ask for authorization to repurpose the money. On June 4, 1897, Congress passed an act that allowed the Lighthouse Board to build an additional light and complete the station as long as it didn’t spend more than $2,000. A contract for a metal tower was made on September 27, 1897, and the tower was delivered to the depot in Detroit roughly two months later. After the inner end of the west pier had been strengthened, the metal tower was erected the following June, and the rear range light was first exhibited on July 18, 1898.
The new iron tower stood nearly sixty-two feet tall, and like its companion front tower, was painted white with a black lantern room. The rear tower has an enclosed, eight-and-a-half-foot-tall watch room, accessed by an iron ladder in two flights, and features a fifth-order, Henry-Lepaute Fresnel lens that originally produced a fixed white light.
In 1905, the characteristic of Grand Marais Range Lights was changed from fixed white to fixed red so mariners could differentiate them from the lights along the shore, and the front tower was moved seaward near the end of the recently extended pier. An elevated metal walkway, 560 feet long, was built to bridge the gap between the existing walkway, and the front tower in its new location. A storm on January 6, 1906, carried away roughly 250 feet of the new walkway, but it was replaced the following May. A fireproof oil house was built near the keeper’s dwelling in 1909. In November 1922, the fog signal in the front light was changed from a bell to an electric siren, and the light was changed from fixed red to a red flash every two seconds. Then, on June 12, 1923, the fog signal was changed to an air diaphone, sounding a one-second blast every fifteen seconds. At some point, the current steel tower replaced the old wooden bell tower used for the front range light.
During the 1960s and 70s, portions of the pier the range lighthouses sat on were capped with concrete. In addition, the west pier was lengthened by 802 feet (244 m) by the addition of a cellular sheet pile extension. Keepers stayed in the keeper’s quarters until 1982; in 1984, the Grand Marais Historical Society received and restored the house.
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Head Keepers: Samuel F. Rogers (1898 – 1904), George A. Barkley (1904 – 1916), Otto Bufe (1916 – 1925), Roger W. Campbell (1925 – 1928), Archebald Davidson (1928), Roger (Raleigh) W. Campbell (at least 1930 – at least 1940), Thomas E. Radcliff (1935 – at least 1941).
The Grand Marais harbor entrance still has two lighthouses, located on opposite ends of the channel leading into the harbor 2,610 feet (800 m) apart. To visit the lighthouses, drive past the marina and out the short peninsula (Coast Guard Point) that runs along the west side of the bay and you will find a parking area. There is a west pier and an east pier which protect a narrow channel that allows boats to access Grand Marais Bay. The outer range lighthouse is located on the north at the end of the west pier. The inner range lighthouse is located on the south end of the pier. Coho, steelhead, and whitefish can be caught off this structure. If you visit the lighthouses or fish off the pier, please be careful in high wave conditions.
The current outer range lighthouse was erected in 1908. It is automated, has a steel structure, with a room perched on top, and has a total height of 34 feet. The inner range light was also erected in 1908 but is made of cast iron. This light is a bit taller at 55 feet. Both range lights are still operational, and although the lantern in the outer range light has been replaced with a modern acrylic lens, the inner range light retains its Fresnel lens, one of the few Fresnel lenses still in use in lighthouses. By lining up the lights, vessels are guided into the harbor. Range lights aren’t warning lights, they’re welcoming lights!
Cites:
https://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=723
Grandmaraismichigan.com
Wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Grand_Marais_Harbor_of_Refuge_Inner_and_Outer_Lights_(June_2021).jpg