White Shoal Light Station

White Shoal, Michigan, USA

Lake Michigan

White Shoal Light is located in the open waters of northern Lake Michigan, about twenty miles due west of old Mackinac Point. The red and white spiral paint job, resembling a candy cane, makes this one of the most instantly recognizable lighthouses on the Great Lakes.

White Shoal Light was first lit on September 1, 1910, replacing the light ship WHITE SHOAL that was stationed there in 1891. In 1912, after White Shoal went into service, nearby Waugoshance Light was abandoned. White Shoal was fully automated in 1976.

The lantern room once contained a Second Order Fresnel lens, shaped like a clam shell. It was removed in 1983 and is now displayed at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum located at Whitefish Point in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

A Life-Saving Beacon for 75 Years

The plaque in the museum reads: "This Second-Order Fresnel Lens was originally located in northern Lake Michigan, 20 miles west of the Straits of Mackinac and warned sailors of treacherous shallows known as White Shoal. Replaced in 1983 by a more modern beacon, this lens is now on permanent loan to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society from the United States Coast Guard. Built by Barbier, Bernard and Tureene of Paris, France for the United States Lighthouse Service, this 9-foot diameter, 350-pound lens literally floats on a bearing surface of liquid mercury allowing for near frictionless rotation.

344 separate precision-ground, leaded crystal prisms are exactly arranged to refract and magnify a modest light source into an intense beam that can be seen for a distance of over 28 miles.

A clockwork mechanism (nearly identical to grandfather clock workings) drives gears to turn the unit, regulated by a pendulum dropping 44 feet through a tube into the heart of the 125-foot tower. Every 2 hours and 18 minutes through the night, the light-keeper had to wind the mechanism that produced a distinctive 7 1/2 second pause between light beams."