The Grand Island Harbor Rear Range Light is a lighthouse located off M-28 in Munising Township, Michigan. It is also known as the Bay Furnace Rear Range Light, Christmas Rear Range Light,[7] or End of the Road Light.[8] The corresponding front range light was replaced in 1968; the rear range light was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.[6] It is no longer an active aid to navigation.
The grounds only are publicly accessible, but a hike is required.[9]
History
The Grand Island Range Lights were lit first in 1868.[1] The original front range light was a wooden pyramid that held a sixth-order Fresnel lens.[1] The original rear range light was a sixth-order Fresnel lens in a wooden tower atop a frame keeper's house,[5] 500 feet (150 m) to the rear of the front range light.[1]
By 1914, these original frame structures were severely rotted, and both were replaced[1] as part of a broader effort of replacing nearly all harbor lights with steel-framed structures.[2] The new front range light was a 23-foot-tall (7.0 m) iron mast.[1] A new automated[2] rear range light was installed 750 feet (230 m) to the rear of the front range light.[1] The new rear range light was a 64-foot (20 m) tower, the upper half (painted white)[10] of which was part of a tower originally located at the Vidal Shoals.[1] near Sault Ste. Marie.[10][11] In 1939, the sixth-order Fresnel lenses were replaced with 350 millimeter glass lenses, which still used acetylene gas.[5] In 1968, the front range light was replaced with a "D9" style tubular steel structure;[5] in 1969 the lights were deactivated.[2]
Rear range light description
The 1914 Rear Range Light is a steel conical tower, 64 feet (20 m) high, with a round lantern.[2] The light of one of the tallest, if not the tallest, of the riveted steel plate light towers installed around the Great Lakes.[2][12] The tower sits on a concrete foundation; a metal door in the base of the tower and interior spiral stair provides access to the light. The tower is painted black on the bottom and white on the top, with a black lantern room. The existing light was built in 1914 replacing the original 1868 station.[2][13]
Gallery
Interior of rear range light
1968 front range light; foundation of 1914 front range light is to left
