11 Most Endangered
Michigan's Historic Lighthouses, Exemplified by DeTour Reef Light
Year Listed: 1998
Location: , Michigan
Current Status: Saved
Threat: Deterioration, Neglect, Poor Public Policy
Latest News
The preservation of this 11 Most site was supported by Save America's Treasures, a program that is facing elimination in the proposed federal budget. Join our campaign to save this component of preservation funding, which has restored 1,100 structures and collections and created 16,000 jobs coast to coast.
Significance
Located a mile offshore at the entrance to the busy Saint Mary's River linking Lake Huron and Lake Superior, this 74-foot steel Classical Revival-style lighthouse has been a fixture on Michigan's Upper Peninsula coastline since 1931. As one of approximately 120 lighthouses in Michigan--the largest collection of these maritime landmarks in the United States--DeTour Reef Light stands as a testament to the importance of shipping in the regions political, economic and social history. However, advances in navigation technology made DeTour Reef Light and its counterparts obsolete and the federal government wanted to dispose of these historic properties. To date the Coast Guard has disposed of nearly 40 Michigan lighthouses, including DeTour Reef Light, which are currently undergoing the complicated disposal process; approximately 40 others are slated for eventual disposal.
Updates
The all-volunteer DeTour Reef Light Preservation Society (DRLPS), formed in 1998, completed major interior and exterior restoration on the lighthouse in 2004. Projects have included manufacture and installation of both of the deck cranes, interior and exterior restoration of the building, and reinstallation of one of the original foghorns. Public tours and overnight keeper programs to this historic Light began in July, 2005. Planned work in the future includes making the original F2T fog horns operational, construction of a tour boat landing dock and access stairway to better facilitate public tours of the lighthouse, creating interpretive signs, and development of an onshore visitor's center. Read more.
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