Michigan Lights - St Joseph and New Buffalo

St Joseph range lights
9/18/2017  dwm photo

New Buffalo is actually the first lighthouse after crossing from Indiana into Michigan, but as my former editors might remind me, that would bury the lead.

St. Joseph deserves the top of the blog.

When we found a place to park, I checked the electronic parking attendant.  The only options were paying for a half-day or whole-day.  The lot was nearly empty, and I wouldn't be there a half-hour, so I worked fast.

My loss, I didn't walk the pier toward the lights.

Joined on the beach by a guy with a metal detector, the second light caught my attention when it came into view.  Together the two become range lights.

In addition to identifying a safe harbor to boats on the water, the two offer specific instructions.

Looking at the lights from the right angle, the lights of the front and lower light will line up exactly with the back, taller beacon.  If the captain doesn't line up with the beams, the ship is off course.  It is especially important when guiding boats through a shallow or narrow channel.

From this angle, the second light is covered.
St. Joseph, Michigan.  dwm photo

You won't find many remaining range lights still in operation; GPS and other electronics on-board now guide ships to port.

St. Joseph's original lighthouse was built in 1832, shortly after the first one started operation in Chicago.

The third generation was installed as a pair in 1870.  For more than a century they helped guard the coast, making it safe for the men and women on the water.

By 2008, the U.S. Coast Guard determined the lights were no longer needed.

The city of St. Joseph was handed the keys in 2013.  Renovations began and the lights and their houses were restored by the end of 2016.

St. Joseph lights on
a US Stamp (internet image)

If the light looks familiar, it was featured by the USPS on a stamp in 1995.

Our first Michigan Lighthouse was a bit closer to the Indiana state line, in the small community of New Buffalo.

It appeared to be an attraction when I looked for lights along the Lake Michigan Circle Route.  However, in a book I purchased while on the trip, "A Traveler's Guide to 116 Michigan Lighthouses" the New Buffalo Light doesn't make the cut.

New Buffalo Lighthouse
A replica of a destroyed 1840 light.
9/18/2017  dwm photo

The area was identified in 1834 by a captain who had sailed from Chicago along the coast of Indiana and Michigan, as a good spot for a light.

He got his employer to purchase land where the Galien River emptied into the lake, and New Buffalo was born.  The captain's home port,  Buffalo, New York.

The captain, mindful of ship wrecks in Lake Michigan, joined the effort to convince the U.S. Government to build a lighthouse.  It opened in 1840, but it didn't last; erosion and disrepair pegged it for demolition in 1857.

It wasn't missed because the  lights in Michigan City, Indiana, Chicago, and St. Joseph were doing the job.

The one I found along a beach next to a marina's harbor is a replica of that long-lost light of the lake.