Sand Point Lighthouse, Escanaba Michigan

Date added: August 19, 2023 Categories: Michigan Lighthouse

Sand Point Lighthouse and surroundings (after 1900, before 1938)

In the second half of the nineteenth century, shipment of lumber and iron ore on the Great Lakes was facilitated by the existence of a deep water harbor at Sand Point, now Escanaba, MI. Raw materials from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan played a major role in the development of the Western regions of the United States, and indeed in the industrial growth of the whole nation. During the last year of the Civil War, the need for increased navigational aids to guide ships to the newly built ore dock on the shore of Little Bay de Noc (Lake Michigan) had become apparent. Iron ore, shipped by new railroads from new mines in the Upper Peninsula, and by boat from Escanaba, was too late to aid in the War Between the States, as the first ore shipment did not leave the Escanaba dock until June 1865, and the Sand Point Lighthouse did not go into operation until May of 1868. However, in the years immediately following the war, iron and lumber from the area were needed in the building of towns and industries throughout the heartland of the country, and in the expansion of the railroads to the Pacific. At one time Escanaba shipped more ore than any other iron port in the world, and proudly announced herself as the Iron ore Shipping Capitol of the World. The local newspaper was, simply, The Iron Port. The Sand Point Lighthouse reflects the economic importance of the raw materials of the region. This lighthouse also illustrates the growing participation of the Federal Government in public projects designed to promote shipping on the Great Lakes during the seventy years from 1868 until 1938. In the first years of this period, from the opening of the Light in 1868 until the fatal fire of 1886, Mary Terry, one of the early women keepers on the Great Lakes, was in charge of the Sand Point Lighthouse.

The story of the Sand Point Lighthouse begins with the geological and geographical facts underlying the region of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. In ancient geological times, as much as 500 million years ago, molten lava containing great stores of the minerals iron, copper, zinc, and even gold, bubbled up from the earth s core in the area that is now the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Much later, the region was scoured by glaciers during a series of ice ages. With the retreat of the last ice age, Lake Michigan as it is today was formed, perhaps only two to three thousand years ago.

Near the northern end of Lake Michigan, in the upper part of Green Bay, the lake is divided into the Bays de Noc. Big Bay de Noc is protected on the east by the Garden Peninsula. The Stonington Peninsula separates Big Bay de Noc from Little Bay de Noc which contains the deep water natural harbor now known as Escanaba. The deep water channel of the Escanaba Harbor, well known to mariners and fishermen, is a steep-sided fissure thought to be the remains of an ancient river. Although Little Bay de Noc provides protection from the rigors of waves and storms of the open lake, it is not without its own hazards. The area off the end of the Stonington Peninsula is very shallow, and was known to early sailors as the Devil s Ten Acres. On the western side of Little Bay de Noc, just at the opening to Escanaba Harbor, is a long sandbar extending into the Bay. The portion of this sandbar which is above water is known as Sand Point. Because of this sandbar, the depth of the water in the Little Bay de Noc may change from eighty-five feet to as little as four feet in a very short distance.

By the middle of the nineteenth century, the exploitation of timber resources in the Upper Peninsula was well underway. and sailing schooners carried lumber to the growing towns of the mid-west and returned with needed supplies and with passengers. Cramped and dank below decks, these ships never-the-less carried the first of the settlers to the camps and towns which were being established on this Northern frontier. Many of these people were immigrants who were part of the great wave of those coming to this country to escape the conditions and revolutions of Europe in the 1840s and 50s. Some of these lumbermen and settlers came to Flat Rock at the mouth of the Escanaba River, and soon after the ships began unloading at Escanaba, which provided a better harbor.

Steam vessels were also being introduced onto the Great Lakes, and in 1858 a wooden-hulled side-wheeler, the Queen City, was put into service running between ports on Green Bay. The rail line between Green Bay and Escanaba had yet to be built. John Mitchell wrote for the Delta County Historical Society. By 1890 fourteen steamship lines made Escanaba a regular port of call. The Stephenson dock, on the site of the present Municipal Dock, saw eight to ten freight and passenger steamers per day, with sometimes five large vessels lying at the dock at the same time.

In 1841 Douglas Houghton, Michigan s first State Geologist, conducted a survey of Upper Michigan and documented the existence of copper ore in the Upper Peninsula. The pure copper deposits, close to the surface in places, had been known and exploited by the Native Americans since pre-historic times. In September of 1844, William Burt was conducting a combined geological and land survey in the area where the city of Negaunee now stands. Suddenly his surveying instruments ceased to function in a normal manner. He instructed his crew to look around on the surface to see what they could find, and this led to the discovery of iron ore in the region. During the next thirty years, the discovery of the Menominee and Gogebic iron ranges were added to this initial discovery of the Marquette Range.

Mining operations were started almost at once. The attempt to transport ore by mules, wagons, and scows proved impracticable; it was obvious that there must be a means of shipping the ore to the manufacturing centers on the lower lakes by water. Although the locks at Sault St. Marie were to be opened in 1865, there was a need for a shorter route with a longer shipping season via Lake Michigan.

In The Century Book, 1863-1963 O.W. Brooks, author of the chapter on the Chicago and North Western Railway, writes Civil War gripped the nation and there was an immediate need for iron ore. There was plenty of it in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan but the question was how it could be gotten to the mills far to the southeast, efficiently and economically. William B. Ogden, a former mayor of Chicago, was first president and part-owner of the newly formed Chicago and North Western Railroad Company. By 1861 the line had been pushed northward from Chicago as far as Appleton, Wisconsin, but the war left no time to finish the line as far North as the mines in the Upper Peninsula. Ogden decided to leap-frog the wilderness, to build a completely separate railroad in the Upper Peninsula from the mines to a harbor on the lake. On April 22, 1862, a new railroad corporation was organized, The Peninsula Rail Road Company of Michigan; it's objective: to build a line from Little Bay de Noquet to the Jackson mines at Negaunee and then on to Marquette.

Efforts to obtain land for an ore terminal at the head of Little Bay de Noc at Gena (now Masonville) were unsuccessful, and a location with a good harbor was selected at Sand Point, now known as Escanaba. Charles T. Harvey, builder of the Soo Canal, was the engineer in charge of planning the new rail line. In 1862 a survey was made by Harvey, work was started in 1863, and it was completed in the fall of 1864, according to R. A. Brotherton, surveyor and local historian. Meanwhile, the parent company, the Chicago and North Western had extended its line north to Fort Howard (Green Bay) in 1862. The ends of the two rail lines were connected by water; a steamship line was formed, and supplies, passengers, and even engines and ore cars, came in by steamship for the new rail line out of Escanaba. R. A. Brotherton, wrote, G.H. Weidman told me in 1903 that he brought the first locomotive from Fort Howard on a lumber scow on Christmas Day 1864. He unloaded it on the new tracks, ran it through to Negaunee on the first trip ever taken over the Peninsula Railroad, now the Chicago & Northwestern.

In 1864, with increasing traffic of supplies and passengers into Escanaba and in anticipation of ore shipments out, the federal Lighthouse Service asked the US Congress for money to build lighthouses at the entrance to Little Bay de Noc, at Peninsula Point, and at the entrance to the Escanaba Harbor, at Sand Point, also on Little Bay de Noc. This legislation, part of a much larger appropriations bill, was passed on July 2, 1864, during the final convulsive year of the Civil War, and signed by President Abraham Lincoln.

Records of the Sand Point Lighthouse show the frustration felt in 1865 and 1866 at the delay in building the Sand Point Lighthouse due to the inability to gain a clear title to the site on Sand Point. The Peninsula Point Lighthouse was built in 1865, but the construction of the Sand Point Lighthouse was delayed until 1867. In 1866 The Annual Report of the Lighthouse Service read, The necessity for this light is considered one of great urgency, marking, as it does, the approach to the harbor of Escanaba, a place of growing commercial importance and already one of the main shipping ports of the Lake Superior iron ore. It is recommended that this light be built in a more substantial manner than was anticipated when the appropriation was made, and with this view an estimate of an additional appropriation (seven thousand dollars) is submitted. This was passed, and construction of the Sand Point Lighthouse took place in 1867. In 1867 the Lighthouse Service reported, It is expected that the light will be exhibited for the first time on the opening of navigation next spring. The following year s report confirms the expectation. The Sand Point Lighthouse began operation with the beginning of the shipping season, May 13, 1868.

Looking back on the period of time beginning with the opening of the docks at Escanaba the 1936 Progress Edition of the Escanaba Daily Press summarized the history of the harbor as follows, Escanaba s meteoric development from a small and obscure community to a city of great affluence in a comparatively short span of years can be traced directly to the expansion of lake shipping in this port.....In the period from 1864 when the first docks were built here to 1888, Escanaba developed into the outstanding iron port of the world. At the turn of the century, ore shipments from Escanaba exceeded that of any other port in the world. By the time this was written (1936) Escanaba was no longer the leading ore shipping port, but the article goes on to mention the shipping of coal, pulpwood, and other freight, as well as iron ore, as continuing.

Throughout the seventy years from the showing of the first light in 1868 until the end of the shipping season in 1938, the Sand Point Lighthouse made the deep water harbor at Escanaba a safe place for vessels of all sorts.

Mary Terry Woman Lighthouse Keeper

John Terry, of St. Catherine s, Ontario and his wife, Mary Terry, b. 1816, in St. Catherine s, moved to Escanaba, MI in 1867. John Terry had been appointed to be the first lighthouse keeper at the Sand Point Lighthouse, then under construction. However, before its completion, he died of consumption an April 5, 1868, at the age of 49. Mrs. Terry was appointed keeper on April 18, 1868, upon recommendation of the citizens of Escanaba, and over the objections of government officials who strongly opposed the services of a woman in a lighthouse. Thus, when the light went on for the first time, at sunset Wednesday, May 13, 1868, it was under a woman s management.

Mary Terry s appointment was an excellent choice. The Escanaba Iron Port states, She was a very methodical woman, very careful in the discharge of her duties and very particular in the care of the property under her charge. She was equally effective in her personal life. She acquired $4,074 in savings, a large amount for the time, and also purchased seven valuable building lots in the city of Escanaba. She was a respected citizen of the community and managed the lighthouse for seventeen years, until 1:00 am in the morning of Friday, March 5, 1886, when fire consumed portions of the lighthouse, and Mary Terry with it.

It was known that the lighthouse furnace was in bad condition, and a workman whom she employed about the place, Bordman Leighton, had said to Mrs. Terry on the Thursday preceding the day of her death that the wood pile near the furnace was hot. She replied that she expected to be burned out someday, but that she slept with one eye open. This conversation was reported in the Iron Port of March 6, 1886. A six-man coroner's jury was appointed by Justice Emil Glasure. On March 13 the Iron Port reported: The verdict of the coroner's jury that Mrs. Terry came to her death from causes and by means to the jury unknown was the only one that could be rendered. There was and is a general feeling of suspicion, based on Mrs. Terry's known cool-headedness, that she did not come to her end accidentally and this feeling is strengthened by the fact that the south door was found open and that the lock was found with the bolt shot forward as though the door had been forced, not unlocked, but the theory of robbery does not find support in the fact that money, gold pieces, were found where they could have fallen from the cupboard, the place where she usually kept what she had in the house, and that a bundle of papers, insurance policy, deed, etc., charred throughout but preserving its form sufficiently to show what it had been, was also found. The verdict, then, was the only one possible and the truth of the affair can never be known. There may have been foul play, but there is no evidence to justify an assertion that there was; no circumstances that are not consistent with a theory of accidental death. The suspicions of murder, robbery, and arson were never resolved.

Although the dramatic story of Mary Terry s death still interests visitors to the Sand Point Lighthouse, it is in her life that we find historical significance. Mary Terry, while not the first woman to serve as a light keeper on the Great Lakes, was one of a handful so employed in her time. Her life exemplifies the often overlooked careers of working-class women of the 19^th Century who stepped into men's jobs when the need or opportunity arose and performed competently and well. After John Terry died, Mrs. Terry lived at a location that was beautiful, but also exposed to ice, snow, and wind in the winter and driving rains, winds, and lightning during the summer. At the time of her death, she was nearing the end of eighteen years in the Lighthouse Service, and her seventieth birthday was approaching. Mary Terry was still climbing the narrow, circular wrought-iron staircase to the lantern room forty-four feet above the lake to keep the light burning at the Sand Point Lighthouse.

Site Description

The Sand Point Lighthouse is a simple brick structure consisting of a square light tower and an attached one-and-one-half-story gable roof dwelling. The building is of white brick with a red roof and a black iron lantern room. It has six-over-six windows and plain detailing. The 1.52-acre site also contains a boat house and storage buildings as well as a modern radio tower and steel pole building which serve the present-day Coast Guard Aids to Navigation Team.

The lighthouse is built on a full basement of stone. A brick chimney rises from the east gable, while at the west end, an attached square tower supports the lantern. The stairs within the tower provide access to both the lantern room and the family bedrooms on the second floor of the house itself. The dwelling is 27 feet by 29 feet at the foundation. The light tower is 9' 4" by 9' 4" at the base of the brickwork and at the parapet and is circular within. The circular stairway has a diameter of 6' 8". The foundation of the tower is 9' 8" by 9' 8" and is solid of stone, as noted in a 1904 inspection report. The height of the tower from base to focal plane of the light is 39', and the focal plane is 44' above lake level. The tower is surmounted by a cast iron lantern room with glazing on ten sides, and houses a 4th-order Fresnel lens. From the time when it was first lit in May of 1868, until its use was discontinued at the end of the 1938 shipping season, this lighthouse always displayed a fixed red light.

In 1886 a fire damaged the lighthouse and caused the death of Mary Terry, the Keeper. The Lighthouse Service Annual Report for 1886 reads: "Escanaba, near Little Bay de Noquette, Green Bay, Lake Michigan, Michigan. The light-keeper was burned to death and the station damaged by fire which originated in the dwelling on the night of March 4, 1886. The wood-work and stone caps and sills of the building were destroyed, but the brick-work and metal-work of the dwelling and tower were left comparatively uninjured. The damage was repaired as soon as practicable, the work having been commenced on April 1 and finished on May 31. The light was shown on the opening of the navigation season. The actual cost of the repairs was $2,302.72. The station is in good order."

The windows in the west gable, which are not on the original drawings but appear in later photographs, seem to have been added at the time of repair of the fire damage. The decision was made by the Historical Society to keep the restoration true to the drawings.

At the time of the construction of the lighthouse, in 1867, the site on Sand Point was at the very entrance to the Escanaba Harbor. Dredging and filling changed and enlarged the land to the south and east of the Lighthouse. This was done by the city in 1936-37. Today, the Sand Point Lighthouse overlooks, on the south, the Yacht Club, Aronson Island Park, and the Escanaba Bathing Beach, none of which existed in the 1800s. To the east of the lighthouse building are the present-day Coast Guard Aids to Navigation Station, and, on city property, the Delta County Historical Museum and the Escanaba City Water Filtration Plant. West of the lighthouse are the streets of the city of Escanaba: Loren Jenkins Drive in Ludington Park, First Avenue South, and Ludington Street, the city s main street. On the north, the Sand Point Lighthouse retains its historic shoreline proximity to Escanaba s deep water harbor.

Sand Point Lighthouse is on its original site and foundation, but changes to its surroundings brought changes to its function. When the shoreline to the east was changed in 1937, the lighthouse was no longer on the end of the point of land at the entrance to the harbor. Therefore the use of this building as a navigational aid was discontinued and a crib light was built in the bay to replace it. This Crib light went into operation at the beginning of the 1939 ore shipping season.

After the US Coast Guard took over the operation of lighthouses in 1939, remodeling converted the building into a larger dwelling for Coast Guard personnel. The building, with its roof raised and tower lowered, was almost unrecognizable as a lighthouse, and remained in this guise until 1985. In 1985, the Coast Guard decided to discontinue the use and maintenance of this building, and consideration was given to razing the entire structure. At this point, the Delta County Historical Society, recognizing the building's unique, but hidden, significance, decided to undertake its restoration. A thirty-year license was negotiated with the Coast Guard by the Historical Society. Because numerous photographs and paintings survived in the Collections of the Historical Society s Museum, and because copies of the original plans were available, it was possible to return the lighthouse to its original dimensions and appearance with an assurance of accuracy. Approximately three-fourths of the present structure is original, with the remaining restored/reconstructed portions rebuilt to the specifications of the 1867 drawings. A summary of the 1938 alterations and 1987-89 reversals follows.

United States Coast Guard alterations to the Sand Point Lighthouse included:

The Removal of the lantern room and circular stairs.
Reduction of tower height by ten feet and installation of square wooden staircase to the bedroom floor.
Raising the roof four feet and installation of new bedroom windows.
Changes in window openings and windows on first and second floors.
Rearrangement of floor plans, especially on the second floor.
Later, in the 1950s, Styrofoam insulation and metal siding were added over the exterior brickwork.

Delta County Historical Society 1987-89 Restoration of the Lighthouse included:
Removal of insulation and siding from exterior brick.
1939 frame walls removed down to height of the original brick walls.
Roof structure (original) lowered to 1867 height on original sill.
Gables, chimney, and tower brickwork reconstructed to the 1867 specifications
. All door and window openings restored as per 1867 drawings.
Windows installed to match style and dimensions on 1867 plans
. Second floor walls and openings restored to original floor plan.
Installation of a circular staircase in circular interior of tower.
Lantern Room (a duplicate of original Sand Point Lighthouse lantern brought from Poverty Island Light by the US Coast. Guard) installed at top of tower at original height.
Fourth Order Fresnel lens (leased from the US Coast Guard) installed.
Exterior paint, white brick, red roof, and black tower trim as in historic photos and paintings.
Interior finished in historic colors, as determined by paint layers, and furnished as it would have been at the turn of the century, following the fire of 1886 and subsequent repairs.

In summary, the exterior of the lighthouse is as it appeared when built in 1867. The interior (kitchen, parlor, and second-floor living spaces) are as they would have been when occupied by a keeper s family circa 1900. These spaces, together with an exhibit room on the first floor (in space designated on the plans as a bedroom) are open to the public. The tower and lantern room with the view over the Escanaba harbor and ore docks, the Yacht Harbor, the streets of the city of Escanaba and out over Lake Michigan, are also open to the public. The entire building has become a lighthouse museum.

Storage Building (Formerly a garage.)
Sixty feet east of the lighthouse is a building now used by the Coast Guard for storage. When the Delta County Historical Society began its work on the lighthouse property this building stood in front (west) of the lighthouse facing the street. Since the historic photos do not show a building in this location when the lighthouse was in use, permission was granted by the Coast Guard and the Michigan State Historic Preservation Office to move the garage storage building to the back (east) of the lighthouse yard. The building is of frame construction, painted white. This building is not listed on the 1930 inventory of the property but is listed and described in 1940. In this 1940 report, both the old boat house and the old garage are stated to be dilapidated, and the garage as disfiguring the front of the lighthouse. The recommendation is made that these two buildings be auctioned off, or demolished for scrap materials. However, both are still in use.

Radio Tower
This steel tower to the SE of the lighthouse is a part of the present day Coast Guard Aids to Navigation Station equipment.

Coast Guard Aids to Navigation Building
This is a 30 by 30 steel pole building used as the base station for the present Aids to Navigation Team.

Flag Poles
Two flag poles, one to the west of the front door of the lighthouse, and one to the south of the Aids to Navigation Station.