Four lighthouse towers built from the Orlando Poe engineering design. These four lighthouses are top right, Little Sable (1874), top middle Presque Isle (1870), top right Seul Choix (1872), and bottom left Au Sable Point (1874).
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Born in 1832 on an Ohio farm, Orlando Metcalfe Poe would gain recognition for both military and engineering accomplishments. Immediately following his 1856 West Point graduation, where he had excelled in mathmatics and finished sixth in his class, he was appointed to the Corps of Topographical Engineers (which would later merge with the Corps of Engineers) in Detroit. His survey work of the Great Lakes ended when the Civil War began.
Orlando Poe at West Point
NPS Photo
Poe's skills helped him become a trusted member of Major General George B. McClellan's staff. His principal wartime duties included surveying positions, sketching routes and preparing maps of battlefields. Despite his contributions to Union successes in Ohio, West Virginia and Washington DC, Poe’s career suffered when McClellan fell out of favor. He did not receive the brigadier general’s rank he expected and was transferred to the Western theater. Prior to 1864 when Union armies moved southeast from Chattanooga, Tennessee into Georgia and the Carolinas, the Western Theater was primarily a geographic designation for the area east of the Mississippi River and west of the Appalachian Mountains. Union movements there forced the Confederacy to defend major rivers leading to the agricultural heartland of the South and would turn the tide of the war. As Poe’s talents became known, he would rise to the position of Major General William Sherman’s Chief Engineer. In his memoirs, Sherman wrote of “Poe’s special task of destruction”. Not only did Poe carry out the order to burn Atlanta in 1864, he built the roads and bridges that made Sherman’s March to the Sea possible. At the end of the war, he was named brevet brigadier general. Since no system of medals existed at the time, the brevet rank, meaningless in terms of real authority, served to recognize gallant conduct or other meritorious service.
Orlando Poe when he worked for the Lighthouse Board
NPS Photo
In 1865, with the war over, Poe became Engineer Secretary of the Lighthouse Board and supervised building projects. By 1870, he was promoted to Chief Engineer of the Upper Great Lakes Lighthouse District. In this capacity, Poe was responsible for all lighthouse construction and designed the “Poe style” tower with a gentle taper from bottom to top. These Italianate structures feature graceful embellishments such as masonry gallery support corbels and arch topped windows found more often on religious buildings or grand homes than lighthouses. He did not skimp on costs. His Spectacle Reef Lighthouse in the treacherous waters of Lake Huron at the eastern end of the Straits of Mackinac was the most expensive construction project of its day.
The Poe Lock in Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan.
NPS Photo
Four years and eight towers later, newly appointed General of the Army Sherman had Poe rejoin his staff as an aide de camp. In that capacity, he advised on engineering and security for four transcontinental railroad lines. Upon Sherman’s retirement in 1884, Poe returned to the Great Lakes. His final years were spent designing locks for the Soo Canal. Upon completion in 1896, the largest shipping lock in the world opened at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. Eight hundred feet long and one hundred feet wide, it was given his name. This work helped grow the shipping industry in the area and facilitated the development of the U. S. steel industry. Great Lakes commerce grew once large ore carrying vessels from mining regions bordering Lake Superior gained access to the lower Great Lakes and Atlantic seaboard. Unfortunately, he did not live long enough to see the Poe Lock open. Erysipelas, brought on by injuries suffered while inspecting the Soo Locks, caused his death in Detroit on October 2, 1895. The epitaph on his simple marker in Arlington National Cemetery includes the following verse from Psalms, “Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace”. Orlando Poe is responsible for much peace and prosperity. Au Sable Light Station is only one of his remarkable towers that continue to guide mariners safely along the shores of Lakes Superior, Michigan and Huron. Although rebuilt in 1968, ships still pass securely through a Poe Lock. Without the steady hand and vision of Orlando Poe, the Great Lakes would likely have played a very different role in our nation’s history. We are proud to preserve this site and tell his story.
