COPPER HARBOR LIGHTHOUSE

Copper Harbor Lighthouse Tours

Location: KEWEENAW PENINSULA/LAKE SUPERIOR
Station Established: 1849
Year Current Tower(s) First Lit: 1866
Operational? NO
Automated? YES 1919
Deactivated: 1933
Foundation Materials: DRESSED STONE/TIMBER
Construction Materials: BRICK
Tower Shape: SQUARE
Markings/Pattern: NATURAL W/BLACK LANTERN
Relationship to Other Structure: ATTACHED
Original Lens: FRESNEL 1856

Historical Information:

Copper Harbor is one of the first two lighthouses to be established on Lake Superior (Whitefish Point is the other).
1847 – Congress appropriated $5,000 for a lighthouse at this site.
1849 – 1st lighthouse built.
1856 – 4th order Fresnel lens installed.
1866 – Current tower built.
1883 – The lighthouse was discontinued due to waning harbor traffic.
1888 – The lighthouse was re-established. The original lens had been relocated to another lighthouse, so a new 4th order lens was installed.
1927 – The light was removed from the lighthouse and put on a steel tower.
1937 – Light electrified and 300 mm lens installed.

Keepers:

Henry Clow (1849 – 1853)
Henry Shurter (1853 – 1855)
Napoleon Bonaparte Beedon (1855 – 1869)
John Power (1869 – 1873)
Charles Corgan (1873 – 1881)
Edward Chambers (1881 – 1882)
James Rich (1882 – 1883)
Henry Corgan (1883 – 1919)

Researched and written by Marie Vincent, a volunteer through the Chesapeake Chapter of the U.S. Lighthouse Society.

WHITEFISH POINT LIGHTHOUSE

COPPER HARBOR LIGHTHOUSE