Grand celebration planned for Old Presque Isle Lighthouse

by Peter Jakey–Managing Editor

A midsummer celebration is in the works for one of Presque Isle County’s popular tourist destinations. Old Presque Isle Lighthouse will be 175 years old.

While it was dedicated in November 1840, members of the Presque Isle Township Museum Society (PITMS) want to commemorate the occasion when there will be more people around.

“We are going to have a weeklong series of events,” said Tom Neumeyer, PITMS chairman. “We will have a kickoff on Saturday, July 11, and hopefully if it does not rain, (finish up) July 19. We will have several other events during the week.” Both Saturdays will be full of events and displays.

Neumeyer said plans are still being finalized, “But we hope to have a whole bunch of people…it makes no sense to have it in November, so we will have it in July during the height of the tourist season.” He added that the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary would be part of the celebration on both Saturdays.

Facilites and projects manager Matthew Bedard is working on various projects. “There is some restoration work that needs to be done to the lighthouse and Matt Bedard is heavily involved with that,” said Neumeyer. The actions include stair-tread repair, replacements, window hardware repair and cabinet repairs in the kitchen.

According to the PITMS Web site, funding for the 1840 light was appropriated by Congress the year after Michigan gained statehood.

An advertisement inviting proposals for the project ran in the Detroit newspapers July 10, 1839. Sixteen days later Abraham Wendell, U.S. Superintendent of Lighthouses for the district, and Jeremiah Moors, a Detroit architect and builder, signed an agreement.

In the late summer of 1839, A.E. Hathon surveyed the Lighthouse Reservation at Presque Isle.  Later s

urveys would show that the point opposite the lighthouse property, now called Crystal Point, was the center of harbor activity during this period.

By 1868, less than 30 years after construction, the original Keeper’s House was rapidly deteriorating. Plans to renovate the dwelling and attach it to the tower were drawn up. It is possible that the $7,500 price tag for this project helped trigger reassessment of the light’s suitability as an aid to navigation. In July 1870 Congress appropriated an additional $28,000 for construction of a new, taller lighthouse at the north end of Presque Isle peninsula.

On November 14, 1964, the Old Light was listed on the Michigan Register of Historic Places.