Ohio Lights - Behm

Behm. 10/4/2025 dwm

While preparing a list of lighthouses to visit on our fall trip to Ohio, I was surprised to see the Lighthouse Friends map included three in the west-central part of the state on Grand Lake. It's also known as Grand Lakes St Marys. 

 

The Behm Lighthouse is featured first because it's the first one we visited on our trip. 

 

According to the brief history in Lighthouse Friends, the manager of the State Park in the 1990s, Glenn Cobb, thought the lake should have lighthouses on all four sides.

 

Stan Grimm, who owned Behm's Landing and Restaurant on the south side of the lake, thought there should be one across from the Northwoods light on the lake's north side.

 

Grimm was quoted as saying, "If you've been on the lake, you recognize the reason for a bearing of some sort because everything looks the same at night."

 

Behm's landing. The lake is behind the light. dwm

 Grand Lake at one-time was the world's largest man-made lake, created in the 19th century to serve as a reservoir for the Miami and Erie Canal connecting Lake Erie to the Ohio River.

 

 The canal was a success for thirty years until the efficiency of transporting goods by a new form of transportation was born, the railroad. 

 

 For its size, the lake isn't deep, with its deepest part measuring seven feet. 

 

 I wasn't aware the lake was man-made until preparing to write this post, but I suspected it from the start because that blue dot in western Ohio is the largest lake within the borders of the state, and it's not close.

 

The Behm Lighthouse. 10/5/2025 dwm

The frame of the lighthouse was designed by a local man, and assembled before the forty-eight-foot-tall tower was placed on a small island near the restaurant.

 

From the couple of hours we spent around Grand Lake, it was evident that people who live on the lake year-round, as well as visitors, get everything they can out of the water.  

 

Thanks to the three lights, boaters can do it safely thanks to the lights around the lake.