One of the highest and most potent beacons on the Great Lakes is the Rock of Ages Lighthouse, which is located in Lake Superior, five miles off the northwest tip of Isle Royale. In 1908, the brick masonry tower with a steel frame was finished. It is supported by a concrete-filled, 50′ diameter steel crib that is fastened to a slender rock protrusion. Along the busy trade route between Port Arthur (Thunder Bay) and Duluth, the Rock of Ages reef had claimed two huge ships, the Cumberland (1877) and the Henry Chisholm (1898), and threatened numerous more large boats.
The Rock of Ages Light is a 50 by 200-foot (15 m × 61 m) U.S. Coast Guard lighthouse situated atop a tiny rock outcropping . Eagle Harbour Township, Keweenaw County, Michigan, is roughly 2.25 miles (3.62 km) west of Washington Island and 3.5 miles (5.6 km) west of Isle Royale. It actively facilitates navigation.
The United States Lighthouse Board was quite active on the Great Lakes between 1852 and the turn of the 20th century. A total of 26 additional lights were constructed between 1852 and 1860. In the decade, a dozen new lights were lit despite the United States Civil War and its aftermath slowing down building. Forty-three additional lights were constructed on the Lakes in the 1870s. Over a hundred lights were built in the 1880s.
The Lighthouse Board ran 563 buoys, 67 fog horns, and 334 large lights on the Great Lakes at the start of the new century.
The Great Lakes lights’ design gradually changed over the 19th century. Up until 1870, the most popular design for a keeper’s home was to place the light on the roof of the house or on a small, square tower that was connected to the house. Conical brick towers, typically ranging from 80 to 100 feet in height, were built in the 1870s to elevate lighting to a higher focal plane. The earlier generation of brick buildings started to give way to steel-lined towers in the 1890s. A remarkable change and transition may be seen at Big Sable Point Light.
In 1896, the U.S. Congress was originally advised by the Lighthouse Board to construct a light tower on the reef. $25,000 was set up in 1905 for planning and a site survey. The light tower was designed by Captain Charles Keller of the U.S. Corps of Engineers. It had a four-story conical portion that tapered to 17′ at the foot of the lantern section, and a two-story cylindrical base that was 25′ in diameter. Walter F. Beyer of Detroit completed the construction. In its day, the construction of the 130-foot tower on the isolated reef was regarded as an engineering achievement on par with the light towers constructed on Stannard Rock (1882) and Spectacle Reef in Lake Huron (1874). A total of $125,000 was spent on construction.
The lighthouse was manned by a crew of four until 1977. They occupied the tower’s ten floors. The crib had two basement levels with water tanks and a boiler that heated the levels above with steam via a pipe and radiator system.
One of the Great Lakes’ most distinctive beacons is the Rock of Ages Lighthouse. It is one of four lighthouses that have provided services to Isle Royale and the surrounding area. The reef is still a popular destination for small fishing boats and divers looking at the wrecks below, even if transportation between Port Arthur and Duluth has diminished.
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