Eagle Harbor Light

Eagle Harbor Light, Eagle Harbor, Keweenaw County, Michigan

EAGLE HARBOR LIGHT

Location: WEST END OF HARBOR/LAKE SUPERIOR 
Station Established: 1851 
Year Current Tower(s) First Lit: 1871 
Operational? YES 
Automated? YES 1980 
Deactivated: n/a 
Foundation Materials: DRESSED STONE/TIMBER 
Construction Materials: BRICK 
Tower Shape: OCTAGONAL 
Markings/Pattern: WHITE TOWER ON RED DWELLING 
Relationship to Other Structure: INTEGRAL 
Original Lens: FOURTH ORDER, FRESNEL 1857

Historical Information:

• 1849 – Congress appropriated $4,000 for a lighthouse at this site.
• 1851 – Light lit for the 1st time.
• 1857 – Lantern updated and 4th order lens installed.
• 1870 – Congress appropriated $14,000 for a new lighthouse.
• 1895 – Fog signal added.
• 1928 – Fog signal upgraded to a diaphone.
• 1929 – Radio beacon installed in fog signal watch room.
• C. 1930s – Electricity brought in to the lighthouse.
• 1962 – Fresnel lens replaced with aerobeacons.
• 1978 – Fog signal replaced by off-shore bell buoy.
• 1980 – Lighthouse automated.
• 1983 – Keweenau County Historical Society opened a museum in the keeper’s house.

Keepers:

• John Griswold (1851-1859)
• John Alexander (1859)
• George Griswold (1859-1860)
• James Bouden (1860-1861)
• R. Latterly (1861-1865)
• Peter Bird (1865-1874)
• George Bird (1875-1877)
• Stephen Cocking (1877-1889)
• Henry Pierce (1889-1893)
• Thomas Thomson (1893-1903)
• William Rohrig (1st Assistant 1895-1902)
• Jean Dimet (1st Assistant 1905-1917)
• John Nolen (1904-1915)
• Frank Irwin (1st Assistant 1905)
• Albert Peppler (1st Assistant 1906-1907)
• Thomas Bennetts (1st Assistant 1907-1908)
• Claude Burrows (1st Assistant 1908)
• Riley Cox (1st Assistant 1908-1910)
• Elmer Byrne (1st Assistant 1910-1913, Keeper 1916-1918)
• Hans Christensen (1st Assistant 1913-1925)
• Hans Robinson (1918-1939)
• William Miller (2nd Assistant 1924-1928)
• Louis Wilks (1st Assistant 1926-1929)
• Edward Byttyle (1st Assistant 1929-1939)
• Earl Duffy (2nd Assistant 1936-1939)
• Albert Stridfeit (2nd Assistant 1939, Keeper c. 1970)
• James Brander (1939-1940)
• Thomas Brander (1940)
• Leon Lee (c. 1980)
• Jerry McKinney (USCG, c. 1982)

Researched and written by Marie Vincent, a volunteer through the Chesapeake Chapter of the U.S. Lighthouse Society.