Michigan Lights - Mission Point

Mission Point Lighthouse
9/21/2019 dwm photo

The best thing about living in a lighthouse is...  living in a lighthouse!

The lantern was a room I checked a few times during gift shop hours.

Before we opened, I opened a small door and propped it open so fresh air could get in.  At day's end I closed the door.

Our second night a couple hours after dark I made my way up using little light.  At the top, I sat in the middle of the lantern floor and looked up.

Lake Michigan is near record high levels 9/18/19 (dwm)

 It was a clear sky.  A dark sky.  Other than a security light over the parking lot, there was no light pollution,  I saw millions of stars.  There was a satellite tracing a line across the heavens.  It was beautiful.

Shipping experts agreed in 1859 a light was needed to warn ships about the shallow water around the point.  Because of the Civil War, construction didn't start for 10 years.  It opened in 1870.

The lamp was powered by whale oil.  The keeper's job was to trim the wick every four hours and clean the lantern.  They cleaned soot from the flames inside the glass and washed the outside panes.

Mission Point's Oil House built 1898.    5/20/18 (dwm)

Before electricity and gas lines one of the most difficult keeper jobs was carrying fuel to the lamp.  A five gallon container weighs 40 pounds.  Imagine carrying that up the stairs.

Mission Point has only 37.  The New Presque Isle Light has 130.

Not long after Mission Point opened, the preferred fuel was Kerosene.  It was so flammable, the U.S. Lighthouse service required it to be kept away from the house.  If it exploded or caught fire, it wouldn't destroy the lighthouse.

Cleaning the lantern glass.  9/19/2019 (dwm)

Mission Point served the shipping lane around the northwest corner of the state until 1938 when it was de-activated.  In 1911, a buoy was anchored at the north end of the rocky shoals that extended from land.

In 1933, an acetylene gas line lit the lamp in the tower under the watch of the final keeper until it closed in 1938.

While I cleaned the inside of the glass every day, on the third day I cleaned the outside too.

Large swarms of Gnats were irresistible to spiders who spun webs in the corners of the glass (see photo at left, notice black dots to left of my hand).  They looked bad and took away from the expansive lake view.  I fit through the small lantern door, (maybe 24 inches by 30 inches) and washed the exterior with Windex.

Early Morning Light.  9/19/2019 dwm photo

It was a little extra effort and a treat to enjoy a different view from the top.  It was also satisfying that I fit through the narrow door with little difficulty (thanks Anytime Fitness)!

Maybe the keepers of the Mission Point Light enjoyed the quiet of watches on still summer nights.

I suspect the stress, boredom, and loneliness drained the tranquility of its mystery and charm.

Vacationing volunteer keepers get to enjoy it.

Mid-morning sunshine. 9/21/19 (dwm)

While mornings and nights were special because of the solitude; I noticed other moments when the old house displayed its charms.

Saturday morning, I was outside at 11 trying to get pictures of guests looking at the lake from the lantern.  When I walked to the northwest corner of the house for a different angle the sun winked from behind the tower.

Thanks to a small aperture setting on the camera, it captured individual rays of the sun like we used to draw as kids.

The waves hitting shore are a metronome of white noise which wiped away beeps, rings, and whirs of modern technology - creating an audio oasis of what things were like 150 years ago when the Mission Point light was under construction.

The "new" second generation Mission Point light signals
ships where it is safe to turn south for Traverse City.
9/17/2019 dwm photo

The mornings and nights are the best time to see the successor to the light at the end of M 37.

Every six seconds, a white light flashes from the top of a 25 foot cylindrical steel tower which rests on an equipment room atop a crib built in the 1930s to replace the old light.

It is effective in doing its task.  But the utility misses the romance and whimsy of a lighthouse - imagining the work and wonder that went with living in one.