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5 great/Wisconsin lighthouses

On Wisconsin's two Great Lakes, beacons attract lovers of lore.

Near Baileys Harbor, visitors make their way to the Cana Island Lighthouse over a rock causeway.

Lucky Wisconsin — it has not one Great Lake, but two.

That means it's got lots of scenic coastline, lined with cliffs, beaches, islands — and lighthouses.

To many, lighthouses are irresistibly romantic. In a harsh environment, they were outposts of civilization, and their keepers often became heroes, saving the lives of shipwrecked sailors.

Modern-day visitors relish these stories. The people who lived through them, however, often felt differently.

"I hate lighthouses," said Cecilia McLean, a keeper's wife who spent 30 years on Raspberry Island and other isolated Lake Superior islands. "If I had my life to live over again, it would not be in light stations."

Still, lighthouse lovers can't get enough of them. In Bayfield, people snap up tickets for the Lighthouse Celebration cruises in September, says Rochelle Miller, who sells the tickets at Keeper of the Light gift shop.

"They come for four or five days, and they try to hit every one," she says. "They come from California and Maine; we've had people from England. We have people who are trying to see every lighthouse in the United States."

Many of the pilgrims even want to see where lighthouses used to be, Miller says.

"They want to see ruins," she says. "They want to see anything."

In Wisconsin, there are lighthouses all the way from the 1913 breakwater light at the Superior entry to Duluth-Superior Harbor, on Wisconsin Point, to the 1880 Wind Point Light in Racine, near Illinois.

On Lake Superior, all of the Wisconsin lighthouses except Superior's are in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, whose 21 islands have the greatest concentration of National Park Service lighthouses in the nation (see Lighthouses of the Apostles).

Big Lake Superior is famous for its storms, which gather fury over hundreds of miles of open water and smash hapless boats against rock.

But Lake Michigan also is dangerous because of its many sandy reefs and shoals, which can snag a boat just as easily. Its coast is lined with lights, 10 of them in Door County. The Door County Maritime Museum's annual Lighthouse Walk is held in May, with special cruises and trolley tours, but many of the lights can be seen or visited all summer.

All of the lighthouses are interesting, but below are five especially worth seeking out.

Pottawatomie Light, Rock Island

This is the oldest lighthouse in Door County, built in 1858 after an 1836 station washed away, apparently due to faulty mortar. It's also the most remote, requiring two ferry rides from the mainland, to Washington Island and then Rock Island, now a state park.

Once on Rock Island, visitors hike a mile to the lighthouse, restored and furnished as it was in 1910. Volunteer docents recruited by the Friends of Rock Island give tours, pointing out the stone privy that is the oldest building in Door County and telling stories about the keepers, such as David Corbin, whom a government inspector found to be so lonely and sullen he was told to take a three-week leave so he could find a wife.

The lighthouse is open daily from Memorial Day through Columbus Day. Pottawatomie Light allows volunteers to live in the house while giving tours; for details, see Living in a lighthouse. For more on Rock Island, see Wisconsin's Icelandic outpost.

Big Red, Sturgeon Bay

At the end of the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal, Big Red is small but striking, especially in early evening, when it glows fire-engine red.

Visitors can walk toward it on the canal pierhead, to which the 1882 fog-signal light is connected only by an elevated catwalk. The towering 1903 Ship Canal Light sits on land just behind it, on an active Coast Guard station that's off-limits to visitors.

People can drive to the lights or see them from the deck of the Fred Busse, a former Chicago fireboat that cruises the bay and canal daily in warm weather. At the mouth of Sturgeon Bay, cruise passengers also will see the 1883 Sherwood Point Light, which in 1983 became the last U.S. lighthouse on the Great Lakes to be automated. Cruises leave from the dock outside the Door County Maritime Museum, 1-920-825-1112 or 1-920-495-6454, www.doorcountycruises.com. For more on Sturgeon Bay, see Door to the Door.

Michigan Island Lights, Apostle Islands

Michigan Island got the Apostles' first lighthouse, though it was supposed to be built on Long Island. The contractor apparently had been told by local mariners that a light on Michigan was more important to their safety, and instead of waiting months for approval, he went ahead. A year later, in 1858, a government inspector had the light turned off and a lighthouse built on Long Island. But the light was reactivated in 1869 and used until 1929, when a taller steel tower was brought in and the light put on that. Today, visitors can tour both lights.

In peak season, Apostle Islands Cruise Service offers a daily afternoon cruise that stops at Michigan Island; other cruises offer stops at Sand, Devils and Raspberry islands, 1-800-323-7619, www.apostleisland.com.

To read stories about Apostles lighthouses and their keepers, look on www.nps.gov/apis, the National Park Service Web site.

Cana Island, Baileys Harbor

Near the Door County village of Baileys Harbor, the shining white Cana Island Light is one of Lake Michigan's prettiest. Visitors pick their way over a rock causeway, sometimes through water, to get to the 1870 lighthouse, which is operated by the Door County Maritime Museum and open daily. The tower is still active and can't be toured, but there's a museum and gift shop inside the cream-brick keeper's quarters, 1-920-743-5958, www.dcmm.org.

Nearby, two range lights were built the same year, one with a red light and one with a white light, which sailors lined up to get "on range" while entering the harbor. Today, they're part of Ridges Sanctuary, a nature preserve.

Eagle Bluff, Peninsula State Park

Deep in one of Wisconsin's most popular state parks, Eagle Bluff Light can be reached by car, by foot or by bike; it's along the five-mile Sunset Trail, which brings in bicyclists from adjoining Fish Creek, 1-920-868-3258, www.wiparks.net.

The cream-brick lighthouse was built on the bluff in 1868, and the light still is guiding ships past the shoals on Green Bay. In 1960, the Door County Historical Society began restoring and furnishing the lighthouse for use as a museum, with the help of Walter Duclon, who was a year old when he, his parents and six brothers moved into the lighthouse in 1883. His parents were the keepers for the next 35 years. Tours are on weekends until mid-June, then daily through mid-October. 1-920-839-2377, www.eagleblufflighthouse.org.

Last updated on August 4, 2008

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