GRANITE ISLAND LIGHTHOUSE

NW END GRANITE ISLAND/LAKE SUPERIOR
Station Established: 1868
Year Current Tower(s) First Lit: 1869
Operational? NO
Automated? YES 1939
Deactivated:
Foundation Materials: ROCK
Construction Materials: GRANITE
Tower Shape: SQUARE
Markings/Pattern: NATURAL W/BLACK LANTERN
Relationship to Other Structure: ATTACHED
Original Lens: FOURTH ORDER, FRESNEL 1869

Historical Information:

• 1865 – Congress approved lighthouses for Granite Island and Huron Island.
• 1866 – 67 – Government condemned the land in order to acquire it for the Granite Island lighthouse.
• 1867 - $20,000 appropriated for lighthouse.
• 1869 – Lighthouse lit for 1st time.
• 1872 – Lighthouse Keeper Isaac Bridges drowned after his boat capsized.
• 1879 – Fog signal built. The bell used was the same one that had previously been removed from Thunder Bay Island lighthouse.
• 1902 – New boathouse built.
• 1937 – Boathouse and boat destroyed during the winter.
• 1939 – Lighthouse automated.
• 1999 – Lighthouse sold, along with the entire island, into private hands.

Keepers:

• Isaac Bridges (1868 – 1872)
• David Campan (1872 – 1873)
• Samuel Barney (1873)
• Isaac Wilson (1873 – 1880)
• Frank Reuben (1880 – 1885)
• William Wheatley (1885 – 1893)
• James Wheatley (1893 – 1915)

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