Round Island Lighthouse near Mackinac Island, MI

There are lighthouse fanatics and aficionados, just as there are railroad/train fanatics, airplane fanatics and so on.One of the very interesting lights for these folks and for more casual tourists is Round Island Lighthouse near Mackinac Island, Michigan.

Among the many islands in the Straits of Mackinac, ships and smaller craft had to use extreme caution travelling to and from three of the Great Lakes: Superior, Michigan and Huron.  Round Island Lighthouse was the second of two lighthouses built to make this water travel safer and more efficient.  Old Mackinac Point Light was constructed in 1892.

A couple of years later, Congress made $15,000 dollars available for the Round Island structure, the only building on what is now the Round Island Wilderness Area (in the Hiawatha National Forest).  While not all the tourists who visit famous Mackinac Island stop at Round Island, nearly a million people pass the site on their way to the well-known stop.

The Round Island Lighthouse site actually includes a three-story red brick structure that was home to the keep and assistants, as well as the maintenance building for the light.  The light itself was of the type known as the Fourth Order Fresnel Lens.  Round Island Lighthouse was automated 30 years after it was built.  The site was essentially abandoned as a working light with the construction of the Round Island Passage Light at another location (1947).

Round Island is uninhabited now, and over the years the elements took their toll on the unused lighthouse.  Public interest and effort saved the light from disappearing altogether.  Historic Preservation funds of more than $100,000 helped restore the site.  It now serves as an aid to navigation again, without the human keeper.