The Lighthouses of Lake St. Clair
Published: Friday, April 10, 2015 7:00 am
Windmill Point Lighthouse
With a large increase in the number of commercial vessels seeking the entrance to the Detroit River from Lake St. Clair in the early nineteenth century, the federal government established a short stone lighthouse tower and detached dwelling on Windmill Point in 1838. The lighthouse quickly became a vital guide, and by the middle of the century mariners were complaining that the aging lighthouse was neither tall nor bright enough to serve their needs. Heeding their mounting calls, Congress appropriated $18,000 to improve the old station in 1873. The old structures were demolished the following year and replaced by a 57-foot tall brick tower and large attached dwelling. With changes in navigation through the river system, the lighthouse was automated in the late 1920’s and the dwelling and outbuildings demolished to make way a new Marine Hospital, leaving only the untended tower standing. This tower was also removed in 1933, replaced by a short cylindrical steel tower on an octagonal concrete plinth. The area is now the site of Mariner Park, and with all traces of the historic lighthouse and Marine Hospital long gone, the 1933 tower alone remains as a shadow of the magnificent lighthouse that once stood here.
The Lake St. Clair Light
The shipping channel dredged by the Army Corps of Engineers across the lake between the Detroit and St. Clair Rivers did not take the form of a straight line, but included a slight dogleg off St. Clair Shores. Experiencing difficulty in locating this turning point at night in the open lake, mariners lobbied the Lighthouse Board to establish a light to mark the point. Without a positive response, mariners anchored a private lightship in the lake in the 1860’s. Finally responding to repeated requests from the maritime community, a federally owned lightship was placed to mark the dogleg 1887. Exposed to ice and storm, the vessels were expensive to maintain and difficult to man. To reduce expense, the first remotely controlled lightship was anchored at the turning point in 1935, its light and fog signal radio controlled from the St. Clair Flats Canal Range Light Station on Harsens Island. In a move to reduce the cost of aids to navigation throughout the country, responsibility for the nation’s aids to navigation was transferred to the Coast Guard in 1939, and construction of the existing permanent modern steel and concrete caisson to replace the light ship was completed in 1941
St. Clair Flats range lights
After crossing Lake St. Clair in darkness, early nineteenth century mariners entering the St. Clair River had no alternative but to drop anchor and wait until daybreak to proceed. Fresh from its 1851 success in building the first offshore light on the Great Lakes off Waugoshance Point in 1851, the Lighthouse Board solved the problem in 1859 with the construction of a pair of lights off the southeastern point of Harsens Island. Known as the St. Clair Flats range lights, the lights were positioned in such a way that by keeping the taller rear light aligned above the shorter front light, an up-bound mariner would be guided directly into the river entry. Sadly, the lights were extinguished in 1934 after the river entry channel was moved to the east. Abandoned and without maintenance, the historic structures deteriorated and were in danger of collapse, when the non-profit Save Our South Channel Lights group was formed in 1989 with the mission of restoring both lighthouses to their original glory. Over the ensuing years, the group has erected seawalls around both structures and restored the rear range tower, and now plans on doing the same with the diminutive front light.
St. Clair Flats Canal Range lights
The move of the navigational channel to the east created the need for a new pair of range lights to guide mariners from the lake into the St. Clair River, and to this end The St. Clair Flats Canal Range lights were established on Harsens Island in 1934.The forty-foot front range tower was erected in front of a brick keepers dwelling on the eastern shore of the island, while the 100-foot rear range tower was erected approximately 4,000 feet to its northwest in the swampy land on the island’s western shore. Repurposed locomotive headlamps atop the tower were visible for seven miles in clear weather and lead mariners directly into the river from the elbow in the main channel at mid lake. After serving as the control base for the St. Clair light ship until it was replaced by the permanent St. Clair light, the light station served as a Coast Guard station for area until the early 1990’s. The station was sold at public auction to Jeff Shook in 2002, and since that time, Jeff has been involved restoring the entire complex to its original 1934 appearance.
