In the hazy background is what caused the demise of Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse in 1957, the Mackinac Bridge. Today, the lighthouse serves as a museum and a reminder of how marine navigation once was accomplished. Visitors to St. Ignace soon will be able to enjoy a stroll through downtown while learning about the community’s history with the aid of a walking tour guide being completed by Michilimackinac Historical Society.

Society President Keith Massaway announced at the organization’s regular meeting Thursday, June 9, that the guide booklet committee is continuing to gather historical information and meets every Thursday afternoon at the St. Ignace Library.

Thirty-one red, numbered plaques will be posted in St. Ignace, with Kiwanis Park as the starting point. Along the tour, attention will be directed to various historical aspects of St. Ignace, including lumbering at the Mill Slip, fishing, ships of the Great Lakes, French fur traders, and boat building. Mr. Massaway said participants will also learn about specific places in town, such as the old Chief Wawatam dock, the former Northern Hotel, and the tall ship Roseway that will be moored in St. Ignace this summer.

“The purpose of this project is to refresh and educate the community about the wealth of history St. Ignace has,” said Mr. Massaway. “It will also educate our tourists and get them exposed to downtown, which, in turn, could help revitalize our businesses.”

The booklets will be sold in St. Ignace, with the price and location for sales yet to be decided.

The historical society will be involved with the Culturama 2005 fall event with Michigan State University Extension to creat an event thi.s year that emphasizes the French voyageur and fur trade era. The historical society is booking a reenactors group of the 52nd Scottish Highlanders for Culturama. Mr. Massaway said there may be as many as 100 soldiers encamped by the Mackinac Bridge.

Lighthouse History Explored at Mackinaw City

At the society’s June 9 meeting, Steve Brisson, chief curator for Mackinac State Historic Parks, presented a lecture on the history of Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse and its keepers in Mackinaw City. The lighthouse, built in 1892, is undergoing a $2.5 million restoration project that is expected to be completed in 2009. It was opened as a public exhibit last year.

The lighthouse is being restored to its 1910 condition, a time before modern electronic communications. Since its reopening last year, its roof, interior walls, and floors have been finished and an old barn has been moved back to its original spot after being used for storage at a nearby site for many years. Finished just last week, said Mr. Brisson, was the re-installation of a picket fence around the property.

The most expensive part of the restoration process will be replacing the brick exterior of the lighthouse building, said Mr. Brisson, which will cost $1 million.

The restoration process is now part of the tour of the lighthouse. It features interactive and interpretive displays, which tell a story of the artifacts on display and describe the lifestyles of the light keepers and the conditions in which they worked.

Visitors can climb the tower to where the Fresnel lens used to beam its light to oncoming ships. The lens was invented in 1822 by a French physicist and is now on loan from the United States Coast Guard and is displayed next door in the fog station-turned-museum store.

Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse served as a beacon for the state ferries crossing between Mackinaw City and St. Ignace. It was rendered obsolete in 1957 with the opening of the Mackinac Bridge.

The lighthouse had four keepers and families during its existence as a federally owned facility. George Marshall, the son of the longest-serving sergeant at Fort Mackinac on Mackinac Island, was lighthouse keeper from 1890 to 1919.

Mr. Marshall’s son, James, then served from 1919 to 1940. Henrick Olsen was the third lighthouse keeper. He held the post from 1941 to 1951, while John Campbell, whose son, Dick, lives down the street from the lighthouse, was the last lighthouse keeper, serving from 1951 to 1957, when the lighthouse was decommissioned.

A lighthouse keeper’s duties were to tend to the light, clean the lens every five hours, cut wood, wash floors, and paint, which, said Mr. Brisson, took most of the keeper’s time.

With new technology came new responsibilities for the keepers, such as mowing lawn with a gas-fueled lawn mower and operating the radio beacon, which began in 1938 and was used for general navigation for railroad car and automobile ferries.

The Mackinac Island State Park Commission purchased the 150-foot by 166-foot property from the United States General Services Administration for $600 in 1960. It was converted into a museum and campground, which was then known as the Michilimackinac Marine Park. Camping was eliminated from the property in 1972.

By the 1980s, said Mr. Brisson, the lighthouse was showing its age and was closed down owing to the Park Commission’s tight budget.

Restoration began in 1999.