Lighthouses for sale, U.S. Coast Guard says they’re not needed
(BY PEGGY WALSH-SARNECKI-FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER)
For sale: historic waterfront property with unusual winding staircase and a great view of Lake Michigan or Lake Huron. May need work.
The public may get a chance to buy a Michigan lighthouse if no government or nonprofit organization steps forward to preserve three that the U.S. Coast Guard no longer needs:
The Frankfort North Breakwater Lighthouse; the Middle Island Lighthouse, across Thunder Bay from Alpena, and the South Haven South Pierhead Lighthouse.
Eight others are for sale across the country.
The first crack at owning one will go to communities, museums or nonprofit groups with a commitment — and the means — to maintain them.
But if no suitable local group is found, the lighthouse will go up for auction, possibly by spring. What could it be sold for? The Granite Island Lighthouse in Lake Superior sold for $86,000 in 1999.
“These lighthouses are still an important part of our heritage,” said Jennifer Radcliff, president of the Michigan Lighthouse Fund. “These lighthouses will tell us to remember that the lakes are still an important part of our economy.”
Owners will need cash, dedication
Lighthouses were once a sailor’s only assurance against disaster, their lights guiding many a Great Lakes ship home safely from the strongest storms.
Michigan’s most famous wreck, the Edmund Fitzgerald in 1975, may have been helped to its watery grave because the Whitefish Point Lighthouse on Lake Superior was blacked out by a power failure.
With GPS and modern navigation, lighthouses are no longer needed to guide ships. Their value now lies in the role they played shaping maritime history, and in their significance as a historic symbol of their community.
“They draw tourism and economic development to the community, so they have a broader importance than just being historic monuments,” said Martha MacFarlane Faes, Michigan Lighthouse project manager with the State Historic Preservation Office.
Eleven lighthouses were just made available to communities or the public through the National Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000, which allows lighthouses to be transferred from the U.S. Coast Guard to new parties with the means and commitment to maintain them.
