Lighthouses

Point Pinos is the oldest continuously operating lighthouse on the West Coast, located in the town of Pacific Grove at the tip of the Monterey Peninsula. The light is a third order Fresnel with lenses, prisms and mechanism manufactured in France in 1853.

Storm clouds over Sturgeon Bay Coast Guard Station

Madeline sailing past the Sturgeon Bay Coast Guard Station and lighthouse

Sturgeon Bay Pier Head light tower

Big Red- Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal Pierhead. First built in 1882, the two-story steel fog signal building stands at the end of the North Pier, making the east entrance to the canal safe for seafaring travelers. Originally painted white, the structure was later painted red.

Mobile Bay & Picton Castle sail past the Sturgeon Bay Pierhead light tower before entering Lake Michigan.

The Picton Castle motoring past the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal Pierhead

Sherwood Point Lighthouse at Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. A summer kitchen with sloping roof was added to the back of the original house.

Sherwood Point Lighthouse at the southern end of Sturgeon Bay in Door County, Wisconsin.

Sherwood Point Lighthouse, Door County, Wisconsin

Sherwood Point Lighthouse: The tower is 35 feet tall and sits atop a limestone bluff. The light's total height above Green Bay is 60 feet.

Sherwood Point Lighthouse, Sturgeon Bay, Door County, WI

Sherwood Point Lighthouse: The white pyramid-shaped wooden fog signal building stands in front of the lighthouse. The original bell, which rang several times a minute to warn mariners in the area during fog conditions, was eventually replaced by compressed air foghorns, whose moan could be heard for ten miles.

The Sherwood Point Lighthouse holds the distinction of being the final manned light on the Great Lakes. Shortly after celebrating its centennial, the light was automated.

Sherwood Point Lighthouse: To the far right is the fuel storage building made of red brick with a red roof.

Sherwood Point Lighthouse and fog signal building. Looking out toward the waters of Green Bay.

Eagle Lighthouse, Peninsula State Park

Eagle Bluff Lighthouse in Peninsula State Park, Door County, Wisconsin. Built of Cream City brick brought by boat from Detroit, Michigan and MIlwaukee. The light tower is 43 feet tall, so the light shines 76 feet above the bay. It is topped by a ten-sided cast iron lantern room The original Third-and-a-half order Fresnel Lens was replaced with a smaller Fifth Order Fresnel Lens in 1918. This lens remains in the lantern tower although it is no longer operational. The beam that shines across the bay each night is now powered by energy created from a small solar panel at the top of the tower.

Eagle Bluff Lighthouse was built in 1868 to guide ships through one of the two shipping channels between the city of Green Bay and points north and east. This east channel is narrow and treacherous with the park bluffs on one side and the large, flat shoals of the Strawberry Islands on the other. The second channel, west of Chambers Island, lies several miles west of the Wisconsin shore. A lighthouse almost identical to Eagle Bluff's was built on Chambers Island in the same year, to guide ships using the west channel.

Eagle Lighthouse, Peninsula State Park

Lilac time at Eagle Lighthouse, Peninsula State Park

Eagle Bluff Lighthouse in Door County's Peninsula State Park

Eagle Bluff Lighthouse in Peninsula State Park, Door County, Wisconsin.

The square tower of the Eagle Bluff Lighthouse in Peninsula State Park, Door County, Wisconsin.

Baileys Harbor's Old Birdcage Lighthouse was built by Mr. Alison Sweet. Selecting a one thousand foot by two hundred and fifty foot island as the best location for the tower, Sweet's crew began construction in 1852. With lake levels extremely low that year, they were able to transport all the building materials directly to the island. Built of native stone from Sweet's quarry, the fifty-two foot tower was capped with a birdcage-style lantern room, and equipped with a fixed white Sixth Order Fresnel lens. As was usual in lantern rooms of this style, the lens was supported in the center of the tower with no platform or catwalk surrounding the lantern room. The lens was later upgraded to a fixed white Fifth Order Fresnel in 1858.

Old Baileys Harbor "Birdcage" Lighthouse: As a result of significant deterioration, in 1866 the Lighthouse Board recommended that the light be rebuilt, and $15,000 was appropriated for the project. However, it was determined that the harbor would be better served through the construction of range lights on the west shore, and the coastline would be better served through the construction of a light on Cana Island. Thus the decision was made to abandon the light as soon as the range lights were constructed.

Cana Island, Baileys Harbor, Door County, WI. This is the first view you have of the lighthouse as you walk from the causeway to the island.

Cana Island, Baileys Harbor, Door County, WI

Cana Island, Baileys Harbor, Door County, WI

Cana Island, Baileys Harbor, Door County, WI

Cana Island, Baileys Harbor, Door County, WI

Cana Island, Baileys Harbor, Door County, WI

Lighthouse as viewed from the lakeshore at Cana Island, Baileys Harbor, Door County, WI

Another shoreline view of Cana Island light, Baileys Harbor, Door County, WI

Cana Island, Baileys Harbor, Door County, WI

Cana Island, Baileys Harbor, Door County, WI

Cana Island, Baileys Harbor, Door County, WI

Cana Island, Baileys Harbor, Door County, WI

Cana Island, Baileys Harbor, Door County, WI

Cana Island, Baileys Harbor, Door County, WI

Cana Island, Baileys Harbor, Door County, WI

Cana Island, Baileys Harbor, Door County, WI

View of the lighthouse from the shore at Cana Island, Baileys Harbor, Door County, WI

Outbuildings at Cana Island, Baileys Harbor, Door County, WI

The original Plum Island Lighthouse was built in 1848 but was moved to Pilot Island some years later. The Plum Island range lights were constructed in 1896 and first lit the following year. The lights are located on the southern end of the island, the Front Light to the east, the Rear Range Light about a third of a mile to the west. These lights guide sailors safely from Lake Michigan through this sometimes difficult passage into Green Bay. The Rear Range Light consists of a tubular and skeletal shaped tower sixty-five feet tall. A spacious two-story keeper's dwelling and a fog signal building stand nearby.' The present Front Range Light is a modern metal skeletal forty-foot tower built in the 1960s.

Plum Island Lighthouse is located "plumb" in the middle of the treacherous Death's Door Passage between Lake Michigan and Green Bay, at the tip of the Door County peninsula of Wisconsin.

Plum island rear range light and keeper's quarters

Plum Island front range light.