Michigan Lights - Frying Pan and Little Rapids Cut

Frying Pan Island Light. 10/7/24 dwm

 The small tower stands between an iron fence and the local headquarters of the United States Coast Guard.

 It's name, Frying Pan, is from the island on which it stood near the village of De Tour two miles upstream from the mouth of St. Mary's River.

 The island is only a couple hundred feet around and just a few feet above water. It got its name from a ship's captain who discovered a frying pan left behind by Native Americans, then used it to name the small piece of land.

 The light warned ships away from the barely discernible land mass. After a light was placed on nearby Pipe Island, the two lights served as range lights for ships entering the De Tour passage.

 The Frying Pan lighthouse was attended from 1882 to 1921 when its light keeper was sent elsewhere, leaving it unattended. Skeleton towers replaced the lighthouse in the 1950s. 

Another view.

 The lighthouse sat on Frying Pan Island until 1988 when the Coast Guard picked it up and brought it to their office at 337 Water Street in Sault Ste. Marie.

It left the island but kept the name while hiding in plain sight. If I didn't have the resources of Lighthouse Friends and its maps to find lighthouses, I might have thought it was a do-it-yourself lighthouse statue. 

A few miles east of the Coast Guard and Frying Pan Island Lighthouse is another light moved away from its original home.

As the Soo Locks developed so ships could get around the 21-foot rise from the river to Lake Superior, various navigation aids were placed on the small islands in the St. Mary's river so captains could follow the channel coming up or going down stream.

The Little Rapids Cut light. 10/7/24 dwm

 The Little Rapids Cut light doesn't look like a lighthouse, it resembles an over-built deer stand except that it stands high above water at the landing for a ferry that takes cars from Sault Ste. Marie over to Sugar Island.

 Here again, Lighthouse Friends helped because I knew what it looked like, which wasn't like a lighthouse!

 It was built to guide ships through a confusing section of the St. Mary's River where a number of islands wind the water in multiple directions. 

 The Little Rapids Cut, also known as North Entrance Number 27 marked the way into Hay Lake Channel. The lighthouse was removed in 1919. Later it was moved to a place known as Mission Point (not to be confused with the Mission Point where we spent a week as keepers on the lower Michigan Peninsula).

Little Rapids Cut stands tall. 10/7/24 dwm

That's where it stands today, next to the ferry landing where the boat takes cars on a short ride to Sugar
Island. 

As it happens with some of the less-artistic lights, there is signage close by. You can see the top of a neon green board indicating this is light #99, which, is on the Coast Guard light list, is called the Little Rapids Cut Upper West light.

If you check out this light, there is a drive-in restaurant next to the landing. We were there too early, it didn't open until after we left.

The Little Rapids Cut light (above), Frying Pan Island light (below). 10/7/2024 dwm photo