Lake Michigan’s Grays Reef Lighthouse between Beaver Island and Emmet County, Michigan. Image: U.S. General Services Administration
By Josh Bender
If you’re in the market for some truly unique property, four Lake Michigan lighthouses are up for auction by the federal Government Services Administration.
For sale: The North Manitou Offshore Lighthouse near the Manitou Islands, the Minneapolis Shoal Lighthouse at the entrance to the Little Bay de Noc in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the White Shoals and Grays Reef lighthouses, both between Emmet County and Beaver Island, Michigan.
The North Manitou Offshore Lighthouse began operating in 1935. It was one of the last lighthouses operated by an actual crew until it became automated in 1980, according to Great Lakes lighthouse historian Kraig Anderson’s Lighthouse Friends database.
The White Shoals light began operating in 1910, according to the University of North Carolina Lighthouse Directory. Grays Reef switched on in 1936. Both became automated and saw their last manned crews leave in 1976, according to Great Lakes Lighthouse historian Terry Pepper’s Seeing the Light database
The Minneapolis Shoal Lighthouse began operating in 1936, according to Seeing the Light. Its crew left in 1979 after the light became automated and solar powered.
So how do you bid on a Great Lakes lighthouse?
Fire lantern from the North Manitou Offshore Lighthouse. Image: Ken Bosman
The Government Services Administration’s has an auction site a lot like eBay, said National Parks Service maritime historian Anna Holloway.
As of Feb. 2016, five Michigan and three Wisconsin lighthouses have been publicly auctioned, according to Government Services Administration records. The agency has auctioned to the public 45 lighthouses nationwide since 2000.
Public auction is a last resort if a suitable nonprofit preservation group cannot be found to assume ownership, said Cat Langel, regional public affairs specialist for the administration.
Prices have ranged from $10,000 for Cleveland’s East Pierhead Lighthouse to $986,000 for Boston’s Graves Light Station, she said.
There are 388 lighthouses in the Great Lakes Basin, of which 70 percent still provide navigational support, according to Great Lakes Lighthouse Keepers Association 2014 statistics.
Many owners convert lighthouses into their own private getaway, Holloway said. But some turn them into a Great Lakes retreat for others to escape from the humdrum of daily living.
The Minneapolis Shoal Lighthouse began operations in 1936 and became automated in 1979. Image: U.S, Coast Guard
They include lights like the Big Bay Lighthouse Inn in Big Bay in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The light has a history as rich as the scenery it overlooks. It was built in 1896, said co-owner Jeff Gamble. “At that time there was nothing between here (Big Bay) and Marquette but timber and porcupines.”
All the building materials had to be brought by ship to Big Bay, he said. Big Bay was a company town for bowling equipment giant Brunswick.
Before the town gained the funding for a proper schoolhouse in 1915, local kids we’re taught by the assistant keeper’s wife right in the lighthouse and using educational materials provided by the Coast Guard, he said.
The lighthouse was bought in 1961 by Chicago plastic surgeon John Pick, Gamble said. Pick had been a reconstructive surgeon during World War I and made his fortune setting up plastic surgery programs at medical schools across the country.
The surgeon spent $500,000 rehabbing the lighthouse, which by that time had a partially caved-in roof and a host of other structural and cosmetic issues, Gamble said.
The Big Bay Lighthouse from Lake Superior. Image: Big Bay Lighthouse Bed & Breakfast
The lighthouse went through several more owners before Gamble, his wife Linda and a friend encountered it while on a trip, he said.
They returned several times before buying the lighthouse, whose previous owners were already operating it as a bed and breakfast, he said.
Today the Big Bay Lighthouse Bed and Breakfast offers seven rooms and operates all year excluding deer hunting season due to the risk to forest-traversing tourists who won’t wear orange clothing, he said.
The Coast Guard pays the owners a nominal fee of $1 every year to lease the top floor owhere the actual light sits, he said. The Coast Guard continues to operate the light as a navigational aide to passing ships.
The Big Bay and Sand Hills lighthouses are among the only 12 lighthouse bed and breakfasts in the United States, said Sand Hills Lighthouse Inn co-owner Mary Matthews.
A view from the balcony of the Sand Hills Lighthouse Inn. Image: Virgil Hubbard
When Matthews and her husband Bill Frabotta bought the Sand Hills light on Lake Superior, the place had been boarded up since 1961, she said. It was covered in graffiti, had no running water or windows, and the copper had been gutted from the ceilings.
After three years of renovation, the Sand Hills Inn opened in 1995, with a Victorian-inspired decor to match the gourmet meals served at the lighthouse, she said. The inn has been featured on TBS and NBC’s Today Show.
Built between 1917 and 1919, the seven-story lighthouse is the largest in the Great Lakes Basin, she said. It was the last staffed lighthouse in the basin and once housed three lighthouse keepers and their families.
Among the guests to stay at the inn have been 14 veterans who trained at the lighthouse when it was a Coast Guard boot camp during World War II, she said.
Seeing the impact hospitality has on guests is the most rewarding part of owning a lighthouse bed and breakfast, she said. “We’re not filling beds — we’re filling hearts.”