Michigan Lights - Seul Choix

The Suel Choix Light Gulliver, Michigan
9/22/2017          dwm photo

In French it means only choice.

As in, if you don't dock your boat here, you will not find a safe harbor nearby.

In the 1880s, as ship traffic increased on the Great Lakes, the 100 mile stretch west of the Straits of Mackinac was treacherous because the shoreline didn't offer much shelter from strong winds and building waves.

Seul Choix is at the end of a point that created a harbor and shelter in bad weather.

Lighthouse  9/22/17
dwm photo

The light and the keepers quarters were up and running in 1892.

A mere 80 years later, the Coast Guard decided to make the light automatic and switched out the third order Fresnel lens for a newer beacon which can be seen by boats 17 miles away.

The Home's dining room.  9/22/17
dwm photo

The State of Michigan purchased the light and land in 1977 and in 1989 the town of Gulliver Historical Society took over and began restoration.

It opened for tours in 1996.

Seul Choix, by the way, is pronounced "Sis - shwa" which is what the French Explorers and Native Americans called the land.

Lake Michigan from the Lantern.
9/22/2017   dwm photo

The Historical Society has a nice museum on the grounds and a gift shop where we bought a cookie jar shaped like a lighthouse!  Thankfully there isn't a beacon on the cookie jar to flash every time I grab a treat.

A nice feature of the visit was the 8 miles of quiet road from U.S. 2 to the light.  It is one of several lights a distance from the main road. 

I'm the shadow on the right.
dwm photo

The miles through forests with occasional glimpses of water creates excitement and anticipation.

At the end of the highway, a dirt road cuts a narrow path to the Seul Choix point when above the tops of trees a white tower and red lantern appears.

The cost for a tour and tower climb was worth it.  The home is legendary and supposedly still home to the ghost of an early light keeper.

I didn't see him.

At first.  But when I looked into the Tower's shadow some faint gleams of light appeared to conceal small puffs of pipe smoke.  The kind of pipe smoked by light keeper.  If you see him, say I said hello.