October is the season for haunted hayrides, haunted houses and in Leelanau, a haunted lighthouse. Each year in October the Grand Traverse Lighthouse Museum is open on weekends for Ghost Tours and one special weekend as a haunted lighthouse (October 16 & 17, 2010).  Touring a haunted lighthouse is one thing, but how about living in the lighthouse for one or two weeks?

Live a Lighthouse Keeper’s Life

From April through December anyone with a sense of adventure can spend one or two weeks as a lighthouse keeper and live in the lighthouse.  Each day the resident lighthouse keeper has duties to perform to maintain the lighthouse and its programs. Some of the duties include running the admissions desk, managing The Tower, working in the gift shop and maintaining the building and grounds.

Lighthouse keepers stay in the cozy and comfortable lighthouse keeper’s quarters. There is a kitchen, two bedrooms, a bath and a living area. There is a fee to stay in the lighthouse and there are required work hours, but there is plenty of time in the evenings for sight seeing or relaxation.  For information on how you can become a lighthouse keeper, contact the Grand Traverse Lighthouse Museum Keeper Program.

Lighthouse History

For over a hundred years ships traveled through the Manitou Passage on their way to the Straits of Mackinac or to Grand Traverse Bay. The tip of the Leelanau Peninsula is a critical navigational marker ensuring safe passage of freight and passenger ships. In 1850 congress appropriated $4,000 to erect a lighthouse to guide ship’s captains and navigators through the often treacherous waters of Lake Michigan.

The lighthouse was built out of rubble stone and was completed in 1852. The first lighthouse keeper was hired that year. After five years in operation the lighthouse structure began to crumble as the land under it eroded. In 1858 the original tower was demolished and a new one was built on higher ground. The new building included two-story living quarters as well as a lighthouse tower.  The tower was equipped with a lantern fueled by lard and sperm oil.

As the traffic on the Great Lakes increased, so did the need to provide mariners with a whistle to safely guide them through thick fog that often blanketed Grand Traverse Bay. In 1899 a building was erected to house the fog whistle. A wood-burning boiler provided the power needed to keep the whistle blowing during heavy fog. Thirty-four years later the boiler and whistle were replaced with more modern technology. Diesel engines powered a new diaphone fog signal until 1953 when air compressors took over the job. In 1972 the tower light was retired and a new steel tower was erected. Once the automated light was installed there was no need for a lighthouse keeper and the lighthouse building was closed.

The lighthouse building remained vacant for 15 years until a local group organized and formed the Grand Traverse Lighthouse Museum and reopened it for the public in 1987.

The lighthouse is currently set up as it would have looked when a lighthouse keeper lived in the 1920’s and 1930s. Maritime and local history exhibits are located in the lighthouse and outbuildings on the property.

The museum is open to the public daily through October and on weekends in November. The museum is closed from December through April. Contact the museum for Ghost Tours and Haunted Museum times.

For location and directions, see Google Maps.

Happy Haunting!

Blog by Ileana Habsburg-Snyder