Lake Michigan Port Entrance Lighthouse in MI

Frankfort North Breakwater Light, Frankfort Michigan

Date added: November 07, 2024

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Michigan
Lighthouse

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The North Breakwater Light has been an important aid to navigation in the Frankfort vicinity for over 100 years. It marks the entrance to the port and has been Frankfort's signature lighthouse since 1912. Initially established on the Lake Betsie entrance channel's north pier, it was relocated to its present position at the offshore end of Frankfort's north breakwater in 1932.

This property has promoted safe use of the Great Lakes and the port of Frankfort for shipping, and demonstrates the Federal government's role in providing for a system of navigational aids on state waters. This lighthouse's signal light and daymark have guided mariners safely into and out of the port of Frankfort from 1912 to the present. Its fog signal has also alerted vessels of danger whenever fog obscured visibility in the area.

Frankfort's successful development as a commercial port dates to 1859 when private interests undertook work to improve shipping to and from the anchorage in Lake Betsie. This gave vessels better access to local businesses and expanded trade based on the area's natural resources. In 1867, the Federal government assumed responsibility for navigation improvements and maintenance at Frankfort. This included the Lake Betsie entrance channel where the port's first lighthouse was built at the head of the south pier in 1873.

In the 1880s and 1890s, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers extended and improved the entrance channel's north and south piers. Whenever an extension was made to the south pier, its wooden lighthouse was relocated to the new pierhead. In 1912 a new square steel pyramidal tower was erected on the north pier. In the early 1930s the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began constructing a pair of reinforced concrete breakwaters to form a new arrowhead-type harbor entrance for Frankfort. In 1932 the lighthouse standing at the head of the north pier since 1912 was relocated to the new north breakwater, where it is today.

The ports of Lake Michigan, more than those of the other Great Lakes, are known for their lighthouses on piers and breakwaters. Breakwater lights had to be strong enough to withstand the impact of waves and vibration, yet lightweight and compact enough to fit in the limited space at the end of a breakwater. The Frankfort North Breakwater Light is of special interest because it was originally constructed as a pierhead light before being rebuilt as a breakwater lighthouse, thus combining characteristics of both.

Two hundred years ago, the newly-independent United States included the old Northwest Territory which covered much of the present-day upper Midwest region. It covered what is now all or part of the states of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.

This vast area overlapped four of the five Great Lakes, and their great expanses of open water provided an efficient means for widespread water transportation. There were thousands of miles of shoreline with numerous bays, coves, islands, and locations were rivers emptied into the lakes. River mouths were especially attractive settlement places for people moving into the area. They often provided sheltered anchorages favorable to commercial development, given the region's heavy emphasis on shipping for transporting goods and passengers.

Settlement of the Great Lakes region increased substantially during the early nineteenth century. Economic demands related to this stimulated the development of canals for transporting freight and passengers between lakeshore ports and other population centers and transportation hubs. In 1825 the Erie Canal opened, connecting the Hudson River at Albany with Lake Erie at the port of Buffalo. Though limited to canal boats, it was the first water-borne transportation route connecting the Great Lakes with the U.S. eastern seaboard.

In 1829, the British-built Welland Canal opened in Canada, providing the means for vessels to bypass Niagara Falls and navigate between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. This allowed commercial shipping to move between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean via the St. Lawrence River. Three years later in 1832, the 333-mile-long Ohio and Erie Canal opened a connection between Cleveland on Lake Erie and the Ohio River, deep within the continental interior. In 1848, the 97-mile-long Illinois and Michigan Canal opened, connecting Chicago with the Illinois River and linking Lake Michigan with the Mississippi River system. Other canals were also built during this era. Altogether, these contributed a great deal to the expansion of shipping traffic on the Great Lakes.

The Great Lakes region underwent enormous growth in settlement, population, and trade from the early 1820s until the 1861 onset of the Civil War. The population of the former Northwest Territory increased from about 800,000 in 1820 to more than nine million by 1860, nearly one-third of the total population of the United States. The region's excellent maritime transportation system was a major factor in this expansion. Farm produce, lumber and coal were carried aboard vessels traveling from west to east, while manufactured goods and immigrants moved along lake shipping routes from east to west. In 1855, about four million tons of products worth $600 million moved through the Great Lakes. This was slightly more than the total value of all United States foreign trade.

Maritime traffic in the Great Lakes continued to grow through the second half of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In 1888, the port of Chicago had approximately 20,000 arrivals and departures of major vessels over the eight months of the region's navigation season, compared to New York's 23,000 vessel movements spread over the entire year.

During the 1888 shipping season, a total of 8,832 ships moved through the St. Mary's Falls Canal, and 31,404 vessels passed Limekiln Crossing on the Detroit River. This represented an average of 140 vessels per day, or six per hour. By 1910, the Great Lakes fleet amounted to more than one-third of America's entire merchant shipping tonnage. Total shipments that year amounted to about eight million tons of products. By the late 1960s and early 1970s, the average amount of Great Lakes cargo shipped per annum had reached more than 200 million tons.

Along Lake Michigan's eastern shore, the natural channels of river mouths tend to be deflected by shoreline currents driven by the region's prevailing northerly winds. This commonly bends natural channels to an orientation approximately parallel with the shoreline, and leads to the formation of long sand spits between rivers and Lake Michigan. At places where a natural river mouth is formed in this manner, navigational access can be improved by dredging a channel from the river across the sand spit to Lake Michigan. This approach is especially useful in places where a large inland lake, such as Lake Betsie, has inadequate natural access to Lake Michigan. The movement of shipping can be further improved by constructing parallel piers on either side of a river mouth or dredged channel. In the Lake Michigan area piers of this nature have generally been constructed as close to one another as practical, normally 200 feet apart or less. This allows the natural flow of river currents to carry sediment away and reduce its settling to the channel bottom between the piers.

During the nineteenth century, the initial improvements to harbors in the Great Lake region were often were undertaken locally, funded by private business interests whose prosperity depended on reliable water transportation. The Federal government became involved in this following passage of an 1826 law making funds available for navigation-oriented examinations, surveys, and improvements. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers directed harbor improvement projects in various locations between 1824 and 1839. However, these related only to the construction of improvements and not aid to navigation lighting of a harbor. The onset of the Civil War interrupted Federally-funded harbor improvements, but they were resumed after the war ended.

The Great Lakes region's immense maritime traffic and commerce made aids to navigation crucial to vessel safety, even where entering harbors was easier after entrance piers were constructed. The first lighthouses on Lake Michigan were the Chicago Harbor Light and one at the entrance to the St. Joseph River, both completed in 1832. The U.S. Lighthouse Establishment added 16 more lights on Lake Michigan between 1841 and 1852 (Hyde 1996). Two-thirds of these lighthouses were located at harbors or river entrances, including on ends of the piers where they helped navigators discern how to approach and where to enter a harbor. The rest marked islands, points, shoals, and reefs.

Once a harbor entrance was dredged, piers constructed, and lights established, a ship running before a storm was still not safe from potential danger. It was difficult in rough weather for early lake vessels, many of which still navigated under sail, to proceed safely into a harbor entrance no more than 200 feet wide. If a vessel got into trouble when entering a harbor, it would often happen right at the piers. In an attempt to correct this problem, the parallel pier on the north (weather) side was often extended beyond the south pier. This allowed the north pier to act as a breakwater behind which vessels could correct themselves before proceeding through the harbor entrance.

Modifications to the basic Lake Michigan pier plan in the period following the Civil War included constructing one or more detached breakwaters offshore. These were set at angles to the harbor entrance and formed a protected outer harbor with partially enclosed wave-stilling basin. The basin allowed waves that got past the breakwater to expand and lose force instead of directly entering a port's confined shipping channel. This reduced the potential damage from storm surges inside a port's inner harbor.

Mariners soon realized that the protected area behind these breakwaters provided good shelter during storms without the risk from approaching a harbor's entrance piers. These breakwater-protected areas came to be known as Harbors of Refuge. The sheltered areas within such breakwaters also allowed for developing additional docking facilities outside the confines of a port's inner river harbor.

During the late nineteenth century, breakwaters became widespread harbor improvements in the Great Lakes region. The first ones at Chicago were completed by the mid-1870s. In the 1880s, construction began on a large breakwater system encompassing almost the entire Milwaukee lakefront. Additional breakwaters were built in the 1890s at harbors in other Great Lakes. The popularity of this type of harbor improvement led to the majority of breakwater lighthouses built in the U.S. being constructed in the Great Lakes region.

A variation of the breakwater harbor design called the "arrowhead" was introduced on Lake Michigan after 1905. It consists of two breakwaters that extend perpendicular to shore, north and south of an entrance channel's original piers. These breakwaters converge at a 90-degree angle offshore to form a new harbor entrance. When necessary, an entrance channel's original piers were shortened to clear the outer harbor area. The Lake Michigan ports of Holland, Ludington, Manistee, and Muskegon have this type of harbor.

An arrowhead harbor was also built at the port of Frankfort, Michigan. The Frankfort North Breakwater Light is situated on its northern breakwater.

During the early 1850s, the commercial firm Tifft and Company of Buffalo owned a number of sailing vessels engaged in transporting goods between Buffalo and Chicago. One under the command by a Captain Snow was damaged by a violent storm on Lake Michigan. Seeking shelter in a protected anchorage, Captain Snow brought his vessel into Lake Aux Becs Scies (Betsie) by riding a wave across the shallow sand bar separating it from Lake Michigan. Snow explored the area prior to departing, and upon returning to Buffalo reported finding it to be a "splendid natural harbor". Word soon spread of Tifft's "discovery" of the harbor at Lake Betsie. Before long, a number of easterners began buying land around the lake in anticipation the area was ripe for settlement and development.

Historical accounts of industry and commerce in the Frankfort area are scarce for the time prior to construction of a man-made harbor entrance at Lake Betsie. Before then, it appears the town was undeveloped and the local population scattered. Available information indicates the people who first settled there made their living as fishermen, trappers, and loggers.

Lake Betsie's potential to become an active port was realized in 1859 when private interests undertook its first harbor improvement. They spent $16,000 to build two short piers at the lake's connection with Lake Michigan, and dredge a channel between them. In 1867, Congress directed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to undertake additional harbor improvements at Frankfort. This work helped spur significant growth in the area.

"In 1867-8 the tide of settlers, ex-soldiers and land speculators came pouring in from every quarter in such numbers that they could not construct buildings, or provide accommodations fast enough to meet the demands. Not only was Frankfort being settled and built up, but the government land through the county was being rapidly located and settled, so that in 1869 it was difficult to find a forty-acre tract in the county that was not preempted as a homestead, or purchased for agricultural or speculative purposes … ".

The local logging and lumber industry expanded rapidly with and following the new shipping channel's construction. The Island Mill, a business established by Hubbel and Whitwood, was built in connection with the Corps of Engineers harbor improvement project and continued operating until the 1890s. Other lumber-related businesses that sprang up around Lake Betsie included saw, planing, and shingle mills founded by Lawrence W. Crane, an Irish immigrant.

One commercial development resulting from the 1867 harbor improvements was the huge Frankfort Iron Works in South Frankfort, now the town of Elberta. It dates to 1869 when work began on building its blast furnace. The headquarters for this business was in Detroit. During its years of operation, this was the largest and most extensive manufacturing industry in Benzie County.

By 1871 the community and port of Frankfort were thriving, with commerce and communication linked to and dependent upon maritime traffic. A lighthouse was constructed at the head of Frankfort's south pier in 1873 and lit for the first time on 15 October of that year. This light took the form of a timber-framed pyramidal tower with an enclosed service room below a square gallery platform. The service room served as a work area and place of shelter from inclement weather when working on the light. The lighthouse's octagonal iron lantern was centered atop the gallery and housed a fixed red sixth-order Fresnel lens. This optic had a focal plane 25 feet above lake level with a visible range of about 12 miles in clear weather. An elevated timber walkway extended from shore along the pier to a door in the lighthouse's service room wall to provide for safe access.

In 1884, a violent storm destroyed 90 feet of the lighthouse's elevated walkway and severely damaged 170 feet more. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers repaired it, and also extended the south pier an additional 200 feet by the end of the 1884 season. In conjunction with this work, the lighthouse was lifted and moved 195 feet further from shore to the new pierhead.

In 1893, a timber-framed pyramidal tower for a fog signal was erected eight feet to the rear of the existing lighthouse. It measured 10 feet by 16 feet at the base and was similar in appearance to the lighthouse. The new tower's lower section was enclosed to house the fog bell's striking apparatus. The bell was suspended in the tower's upper section, which was left open to allow the sound signal to carry in all directions. A covered walkway was erected between the two towers.

In January 1893, the Toledo, Ann Arbor, and North Michigan Railroad began operating a pair of railroad car ferries at Frankfort. These carried railroad cars between there and Kewaunee, Wisconsin. The 1907 annual report of the Chief of the Corps of Engineers states that nearly all of Frankfort's maritime commerce that year was transacted by railroad car ferries operating from the port.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built another extension onto the Lake Betsie entrance channel piers in 1896. This work included constructing new tower foundations at the head of the south pierhead, and the lighthouse and fog signal towers were lifted and moved to their new positions. The elevated catwalk providing access to these structures was extended an additional 600 feet. In 1897, a second light was installed on the south pier to provide a sighting range to aid mariners approaching the opening between the piers. This range light consisted of a lens lantern atop a 60-foot tall steel post 600 feet shoreward from the pierhead light. U.S. Lighthouse Board reports in 1898 and 1906 note that the south pierhead light's characteristic continued as fixed red.

A square steel pyramidal light tower was erected on the north pier in 1912. It was sheathed with steel plates painted white, and stood 44 feet tall from its base to the ventilator ball atop the lantern. This lighthouse's optic was a fourth-order Fresnel lens with a focal plane of 46 feet and visible range of 12 miles in clear weather. In conjunction with this structure, the south pier's rear range light was moved to the north pier. This range light's lens lantern was remounted atop a 66-foot tall wooden post erected 200 yards behind the new north pier lighthouse. The south pier's wooden light tower and fog signal building were both demolished and an acetylene-powered lens lantern on a 35-foot tall, open-framed pyramidal structure was erected 5 yards from the south pier's end.

By 1924, the total car ferry tonnage passing through Frankfort was twenty-five times greater than freight tonnage before the ferries were established. In the same year, the Corps of Engineers began building a reinforced concrete, arrowhead-type breakwater system at the port. This was designed to create a large stilling basin that would protect the port's Lake Betsie entrance channel. Once the breakwaters were completed in the early 1930s the entrance channel's north and south piers no longer served any purpose and were shortened to stub piers.

In 1932 the north pierhead lighthouse was lifted from its foundation and relocated to the offshore end of the new north breakwater. There, it was mounted atop a 25-foot tall steel-clad concrete base which raised its overall height to 67 feet above the breakwater's deck. This gave the lighthouse optic a focal plane 72 feet above Lake Michigan's mean low water level.

Frankfort's significance as a shipping port declined in the years following the end of World War II in 1945. The principal basis for the city's maritime commerce, the railroad car ferries, shut down permanently in 1981. In that year the S.S. City of Milwaukee, the last railroad car ferry operating from Frankfort, was retired. It remained laid up there until 2000 when it was towed to Manistee, Michigan, where it is presently on display as a museum ship.

Today, the North Breakwater Light remains an important guide for navigation and safety in the Frankfort locality. Though most vessels that pass by now are recreational watercraft, its light signal and daymark continue serving as aids to navigation. In addition, this lighthouse continues to stand out as a prominent local landmark as it has for decades.

Structure Description

The Frankfort North Breakwater Light is situated 0.3 mile from shore in Lake Michigan at the city of Frankfort in Benzie County, Michigan. It is 67 feet tall and includes a two-story rectangular concrete and steel foundation surmounted by a four-story square pyramidal steel tower. The tower supports a ten-sided lantern. The structure's overall exterior is painted white with black doors, windows, handrails, and lantern. The upper portion of this lighthouse was built in 1912 on the north pier of the Lake Betsie entrance channel at Frankfort. In 1932, this tower was moved to its present position. The existing structure's two-story foundation section was built in 1932 to support the relocated tower. The U.S. Coast Guard continues to operate this lighthouse as an aid to navigation. It is identified as number 18375 on the Coast Guard's light list for the Great Lakes. The lighthouse's existing optic is a fourth-order Fresnel lens that displays a fixed white light with a range of 16 miles. This lens was installed when the structure was built in 1912 on the north pier. This property includes the U.S. Coast Guard-owned lighthouse structure, only. The concrete breakwater beneath it is owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

This lighthouse property is located in the northwestern portion of Michigan's Lower Peninsula. It stands at the offshore end of the northern of two converging breakwaters that extend westward from shore to form the arrowhead-shaped outer basin of the port of Frankfort. This outer basin shelters the Lake Betsie entrance channel leading to Frankfort's inner harbor. The entrance channel is flanked by piers on the north and south, as well as associated revetments.

The North Breakwater Light's design relates to the first lighthouse at Frankfort, constructed at the offshore end of the Lake Betsie entrance channel's south pier in 1873. It was an enclosed timber-frame pyramidal beacon with a square gallery. There was an enclosed service room below the lantern that served as both a work area and place to escape bad weather when repairing or tending the light. The 1873 wooden light tower was replaced in 1912 by a square steel pyramidal tower erected nearby on the entrance channel's north pier. In 1932, this north pier tower was moved 0.2 mile to the west and mounted at its present location on the north breakwater.

The Frankfort North Breakwater Light is 67 feet tall. Its tower is square at the base, six stories tall, and surmounted by a cast iron lantern. This structure sits upon a rectangular concrete pier at the offshore end of Frankfort's north breakwater. The lighthouse's orientation is rotated 45 degrees from the pier's rectangular configuration. The combined height of the pier and tower give the lighthouse's optic a focal plane 72 feet above the level of Lake Michigan.

This light tower includes a two-story foundation section and a three-story upper section. A cast iron lantern sits atop the tower. The tower's exterior is painted white while the lantern is black. The tower's first and second-story doorways, balcony, windows, and handrails are also painted black.

The two-story foundation section was built in 1932. It is 15.5 feet square in plan by 25 feet tall. This part of the lighthouse is rectangular in elevation and built of concrete with steel sheathing. Its fenestration consists of 16 rectangular windows, 12 inches wide by 38 inches tall. These are situated two on each side of both the first and second story levels. The structure's main entrance is a two-leaf door opening on the first story's eastern facade. The original door has been replaced. One half is now closed with a steel plate while the other half is a steel, water-tight single door. This doorway is three feet above the pier's surface with a 3-foot square by 3-foot tall concrete platform in front. The platform has steel ladder rungs attached on one side for access from the pier's deck, and a steel pipe handrail at its top. There is another doorway directly above this on the second story. It has a steel single door measuring 2.5 feet wide by 6 feet tall, and a 6-foot wide exterior steel balcony with railing in front. Access to this upper door is provided by a series of steel ladder rungs attached to the tower's eastern facade from its base to the balcony.

The tower's upper section is built of steel framing and sheathing. This part of the structure is three stories tall and pyramidal in shape. It is 14.5 feet square in plan at its base, and 10 feet square at the top. As mentioned above, it was relocated from the Lake Betsie north pier to its present position in 1932.

This upper section sits atop the lighthouse's two-story foundation section and includes the structure's third, fourth, and fifth stories. Its fenestration consists of 16 round port-light windows. There are two port lights on each side of the third story, one port light on each side of the fourth, and one on each side of the fifth story. Both the third story and fourth story have 3-foot wide steel doorways on the eastern facade. These provided access when this part of the structure stood by itself from 1912 to 1932. Both doors are presently sealed.

The lighthouse's sixth story is its 8-foot diameter, ten-sided lantern. It is centered on a 12-foot square gallery platform atop the tower. The lantern has a 3-foot tall parapet section that includes ten cast iron panels, each embossed with two pointed arches. Every other panel has a small air vent. One panel contains a 2.5-foot tall metal door. The lantern's upper section has ten single-pane, rectangular windows mounted in cast iron mullions. The lantern's original window glass has been replaced with Lexan. The lantern gallery is bounded on all four sides by a steel pipe handrail. A modern fog signal and fog detector are mounted on the gallery's north side outside the lantern. The fog signal sounds one 3-second blast every 30 seconds, and operates from April to November.

The interior of the first story is a single room measuring 14 feet square. Its floor, walls, and ceiling are concrete. There are two, 12-inch by 38-inch rectangular, steel-frame window openings on each wall. All are closed with steel plates. There is a concrete platform in the room's southeast corner. Electric panel boxes for the lighthouse's electrical system are mounted on the floor. A steel double-rung ladder provides access to the second story through an opening in the ceiling.

The second story is also a single room measuring 14 feet square with a concrete floor. Its ceiling is 12.3 feet above the floor. The walls are concrete and steel. The concrete portion rises to 7.8 feet above the floor. Above this, the walls have a 4.5-foot section made of steel plates with wooden studs. The ceiling has wood beams extending north and south, and steel beams running east and west. These beams support plywood flooring for the story above. There is a large, water-tight door on the eastern wall with a steel plate covering it. There are two rectangular, steel-frame window openings on each wall. These measure 12 inches by 38 inches, and all are closed with steel plates. In addition, the upper steel portion of the north wall has a round port-light opening covered with a steel plate. This room contains electric panel boxes. A steel double-rung ladder provides access to the third story through an opening in the ceiling.

The third story is a single room. It is 12 feet 10 inches square with a 12-foot ceiling and crown molding around the top of the walls. The four walls are covered with pressed tin paneling. Each wall contains two round port-light openings with hexagonal wooden frames. There is a riveted steel door on the east wall that is welded shut. A steel double-rung ladder provides access to the fourth floor through an opening in the ceiling.

The fourth story is a single room 11.5 feet square. It has a wood floor painted grey, and wainscotted wood walls painted white. The walls slant inward towards the top. There is one, 16-inch diameter, round port light on each wall. The southeast wall contains a riveted steel door that is welded shut. The door's vertical moldings are two inches deep at the top and six inches deep at the bottom, due to the slanting walls. A steel double-rung ladder provides access to the fourth floor through an opening in the ceiling.

The fifth story is a single room measuring 10.5 feet square. It has a grey-painted wood floor and wood wainscotted walls painted white. The northern half of the floor is higher than the southern half, which is one step down. The west wall has a sealed opening where the horn for a fog signal was formerly installed. The other three walls have one round port-light each. The ceiling is made of 2-inch wide wood slats painted white. A steel, double-rung ladder leads to the lantern room through an opening in the ceiling.

The sixth story is the lighthouse's 10-sided lantern. The lantern room is 8 feet in diameter. The lighthouse's optic is positioned in the center of the floor, mounted on its original stand. This optic is a fourth-order Fresnel lens manufactured by Barbier, Bernard and Tirenne of Paris, France. It was first mounted in this lantern in 1912 when the Lake Betsie North Pier lighthouse was built. At that time the optic was illuminated with an oil lamp vented through an overhead hood. The original overhead oil lamp hood remains in place in the lantern.

When this lighthouse was first constructed in 1912, its oil lamp-illuminated optic had a focal plane of 46 feet with a visible range of 12 miles. In 1919 the light's illumination was upgraded to a 1,900 candle power electric lamp with 14-mile visibility. When the north pier lighthouse was relocated to the north breakwater in 1932, it was set atop a 25-foot, two-story tall concrete and steel base. This raised its focal plane elevation to 72 feet. The light's illumination was upgraded during the same year to a 17,000 candlepower incandescent electric lamp visible for 16 miles in clear weather. It is presently lighted with a 250-watt electric lamp powered by local commercial power transmitted by cable. The lighthouse's characteristic since 1961 has been a flashing white light with a visible range of 16 miles, which it remains today.

Changes to the Frankfort North Breakwater Light since its construction in 1912 have been limited. The most significant change was the relocation of the lighthouse from the north pier to the north breakwater in 1932. In this work, the steel tower from 1912 was installed atop a 25-foot tall concrete and steel base. This increased the lighthouse's overall height to 67 feet above the surface of its supporting pier. Other changes that have been made include sealing unused doors and windows to prevent unauthorized entry and water leakage, and replacing the lantern's glass windows with Lexan. Repairs have been made when necessary to stop leaking water from deteriorating the structure's concrete and steel. Sections of its steel fabric have been replaced to repair corrosion damage. In addition, the lighthouse's original mechanical equipment has been replaced or upgraded.