Place

South Manitou Lighthouse Complex

Looking down to red-roofed t-shaped building on beach alongside turquoise water — The view from the top of the lighthouse.
NPS credit

Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Information, Scenic View/Photo Spot

For nearly a century, lighthouse keepers kept a light burning at the top of this 104 foot tower to guide mariners through the dangerous Manitou Passage. This passage between the mainland and the Manitou Islands once served as a busy transportation highway for schooners and steamships loaded with cargo and passengers bound for large ports like Chicago and Milwaukee. South Manitou Island also provided the only deep, natural harbor between Chicago and the Straits of Mackinaw where ships could seek shelter during storms. Additionally, the island's dense hardwood forest provided an abundant supply of cordwood for steamships needing to refuel.

The United States Lighthouse Service recognized the need for a navigational beacon in this hazardous but busy passage and authorized construction of the first South Manitou Island light in 1838. Not much is known about this first building, other than its critical role as the only light in the area for at least a decade. In 1858, construction of a new Keeper's Quarters with a 35 foot tower and a separate fog signal building began. The current lighthouse's construction commenced in 1871 after the Lighthouse Service realized that the island's harbor was one of the most heavily used refuges on the Great Lakes. The 104 foot tower raised the focal plane of the light to 100 feet while the new Third Order Fresnel Lens projected the light 17¾ miles.

In 1939, the federal government transferred management of all lighthouses to the United States Coast Guard (USCG). The USCG ceased operations of the South Manitou Island light in 1958. Today you can climb the 117 steps to the balcony, see the replica Fresnel lens above you, and enjoy a spectacular view of the Manitou Passage and South Manitou Island!

Hours
The South Manitou Island Lighthouse tower is open for tours during the summer months. No admission is charged.

Fresnel Lens

In 1822, French physicist Augustin Fresnel invented a lens that transformed lighthouse technology. This beehive-like lens is comprised of many glass prisms held in place by a brass frame. The lens houses a light which the glass prisms reflect, refract, and magnify. This lens is more effective than an open flame or a light with a reflector behind it; open flames lose 97% of their light, lights with reflectors lose 60-80%, while lights within a Fresnel lens only lose 20%. Prior to the Fresnel lens, the furthest a lighthouse light could be seen was 12 miles. The Fresnel lens increased that distance to a maximum of 20 miles-all the way to the horizon! The size of the lens determines the distance the light can be seen. Originally there were seven orders, or sizes, of Fresnel lenses.

The Fresnel lens also allowed for lighthouses to be distinguished from one another at night when the tower and accompanying buildings were not visible. The combination of different flash patterns and colored lights gave mariners the ability to know exactly which lighthouse they were passing, and therefore what dangers might lie ahead and where they might be able to take refuge.

Once the United States Coast Guard decommissioned the South Manitou Island light in 1958, the tower and sat dark and quiet on the shores of South Manitou Island for over 50 years. Luckily in 2009, after a restoration of the lantern room and staircase, and with help from park partners, volunteers and park service staff installed a new lamp and replica lens. Today, you can see the light shine once again from the top of this century-old sentinel every night from May to October.

Outbuildings

Whistle Shed and Fuel Storage
Whistle Shed
Sometimes the fog rolling in off of Lake Michigan was so thick, mariners could not see the lighthouse or the light. So the Keeper and his assistants used a fog bell and later a fog whistle as a verbal warning to those making their way through the Manitou Passage. The first fog bell was installed in 1839 and was in use until 1874 when the light station received what was possibly the first steam-powered fog signal whistle on the Great Lakes.

Imagine what it might have been like to live here at the light station on a foggy day. Ronald Rosie, the son of the last lighthouse keeper before the United States Coast Guard assumed responsibility of the light, spoke about the fog horn. He said, "...you could blow that fog horn for three or four days and we never heard it in the house...we had to listen to see if it was blowing...you got used to it, you didn't pay attention to the darn thing."

Oil Shed
This small, circular structure is made of metal and was used to store oil and other flammable fuels such as kerosene used to power the lighthouse's lamp. The lighthouse service chose to construct the building out of metal to reduce the risk of fire should the fuel ignite.

Fuel Storage/Magazine
This simple brick building with a metal roof was used to store flammable fuel, such as the kerosene used in the lamp housed inside the Fresnel lens. Each morning, the keeper or his assistants filled buckets with kerosene and carried them up the 117 steps to the top of the tower. They refilled the lamp so that it was ready to be lit as the sun was setting that evening. On bad weather days, the lamp might be lit all day and all night, requiring several trips to the fuel storage shed. A Fourth Order Fresnel lens consumed about 5.25 ounces of fuel per hour and a Third Order lens about 7 ounces. Prior to kerosene, whale oil was a common fuel used in the lamps.

Life of a Keeper

Daily Life
From 1840 to 1939, 17 lighthouse keepers and 32 assistants faithfully tended to the South Manitou Island Lighthouse along with help from their families. The life of a lighthouse keeper, though often romanticized, was a difficult job. Keepers and assistants spent most of their time with the very unromantic task of cleaning. They cleaned the glass of the lamp and the prisms of the Fresnel lens every morning. They also had to occasionally polish the lens prisms and the brass framework with special polish.

Reflectors around the lamp needed dusting and polishing, too. The revolving mechanism and associated clockwork that made the lens rotate had to be cleaned of dust and oiled regularly. The floors and stairs were to be kept clean and free of dust, debris, and residue. Besides this daily and weekly maintenance, keepers were also responsible for painting the lighthouse, inside and out, whenever needed. They also kept the whistle shed, steam whistle, and Keeper's Quarters clean and tidy. Other mundane, but necessary duties include keeping track of all supplies used (including food and household items, such as soap) on a daily basis in order to report back to the Lighthouse Service.

All of these tasks were necessary to keep the light burning bright all night long and during foul weather. The true job of keepers and assistants was to keep mariners safe, after all. Because of this, the light itself was almost always constantly attended to-especially during storms. Keepers and assistants kept watch from the lookout room below the balcony; they noted the condition of the light and the fog signal, kept track of shipwrecks and offered aid to shipwreck victims when necessary. The lighthouse complex could never be left unattended, so either the keeper or one of his assistants was always on duty.

Isolated duty stations often meant that life as a lighthouse keeper could be very lonely; however, the keepers at South Manitou were lucky. Even though they lived on an island, the small community of farmers, fishermen, and the United States Life Saving Service crew kept life interesting. One advantage of being a lighthouse keeper, even if you lived in a remote location, was being able to have your family with you. Wives often served as Assistant Keepers. Children helped with the many chores around the station and helped tend to gardens and livestock. They had some time for fun, too! The keeper's children attended school at the island's one room school house and had their friends over to play. One of these island children, John Tobin, fondly recalled spending time with his Ron Rosie, the assistant lighthouse keeper's son. He said in an oral history interview: "His dad was the lighthouse keeper...I was up there and run them hallways...all over the place, me and Ronald...we'd go down there and raise the dickens."

The Sheridan Family Tragedy
Life at a lighthouse could also be dangerous. Lake Michigan is an inland sea with dangerous gales, fog, snow, and ice. Living on South Manitou Island meant that if the weather was foul, or you were iced-in, you could be stranded on the island and cut off from medical help, supplies, and mail for long periods of time. Accidents didn't just happen to ships sailing through the Manitou Passage, but to those that lived on the island as well. There are many harrowing tales of accidents and illness on South Manitou, but one of the most tragic is that of Julia and Aaron Sheridan.

Aaron Sheridan, a Civil War veteran, became Keeper of the South Manitou Island light in 1866. He and his wife Julia started a family on the island, eventually having six sons! After the new 104 foot lighthouse tower was constructed, the Lighthouse Service appointed Julia as the very first Assistant Keeper, making her the only woman to officially serve at the South Manitou Island light. In March of 1878, Julia, Aaron and their youngest son Robert were returning to the island from a boat ride. The boat capsized and tragically, all three Sheridan's drowned. Their five other children went to live with their grandparents. Today, descendants of Aaron and Julia often visit the island and share their story. They placed grave stones for Julia, Aaron, and Robert in the island cemetery in 2006.

The Last Lighthouse Keeper
Ronald Rose, Sr. became the last Assistant Keeper of the South Manitou Island Light. He and his wife, Johanna, and two sons, Ronald, Jr. (Ron) and Roger, arrived in 1935. They lived in the Keeper's Quarters for four years before Ronald was transferred to another lighthouse. In 2009, Ron was interviewed about his boyhood on the island as a part of an oral history project for Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. He shared many stories about the work of a lighthouse keeper, attending school at the one-room schoolhouse, and becoming friends with other members of the island community. In the clip below, listen to Ron describe how his father lit the light every night and how the fog horn functioned.