Gull Rock Lighthouse

1. Lighthouses are very important to Michigan. Many people enjoy visiting the lighthouses. Each lighthouse has something unique about it. The light helps ships go to shore safely. I think they are very interesting to learn about.


2. Lighthouses have an important place in our history. The main purpose of these lighthouses is to warn of danger. Some of the conditions might be that the weather conditions are bad or that the ship is getting close to rocky, shallow shorelines. Some other purposes are to serve as location points for sailors and to mark the harbors for them. Lighthouses in general help guide ships safely from one place to another.


3. In the beginning, lighthouses were huge bonfires on top of hills that needed to be watched carefully so that fire would not spread. It was in 290 B.C. that Colossus lighthouse, at the entrance of Rhodes, was built by Chares of Lindos. Unfortunately, it was destroyed by an earthquake 80 years later. On the Island of Pharos, in 299 B.C., a lighthouse was built by the Egyptians and Sastratos of Knidos. It marked the entrance of Alexandria and it too was destroyed by an earthquake. The very first North American lighthouse was built in 1716, known as the Boston Light. It was located on Little Brewster Island.


4. If you were to travel to Gull Rock Lighthouse from Okemos, you would need to go northwest. The latitude is 47.4169˚ north and the longitude is -87.6639˚ west. The city closest by this lighthouse is Copper Harbor, Michigan.


5. Gull Rock is on an island with rough, rocky soil. The soil is not suitable for any kind of planting. The lighthouse is on Lake Superior. The climate is cool to cold all year round. It is pretty old. The lighthouse has only 2 materials. The materials are brick and masonry. The brick can be seen. The lighthouse has a 46 foot tower. There are 2-story keepers’ quarters. The length of the island is 250 feet. The length is 100 feet.


6. Gull Rock has many special features. First, it has a square tower. It also has a spiral iron staircase, attached keeper’s quarters-integral, and a tower capped with an octagonal cast iron lantern. These are special features. Gull Rock had the Fourth Order Fresnel Lens. It was red. The Fresnel lens was constructed in 1867. There was no fog signal at this. Augustine Fresnel was a French inventor. He wanted to strengthen beam of light. So, he took a curved piece of glass, cut it to make many prisms. The prisms were stacked, shaped, and positioned. In the mid 1800s, all American lighthouses had one.


7. Lighthouse keepers were on duty all night. The lights had to be lit on time at sunset and kept burning until sunrise. They had to make sure the equipment worked, painted the lighthouse, watched weather and watched for ships in trouble. The keeper kept a journal or daily log. They kept supplies in the lighthouse such as food, fuel, paint, and soap.


8. A unique story is that Lake Superior is famous for violent November storms. In 1892, a schooner barge “G.M. Neelon” broke away from its tow and struck the rock in heavy seas. The vessel was abandoned.


9. Right now, it is in use and the entire lighthouse exists today. People are restoring the station to serve as a retreat for writers and artists. Gull Rock keepers’ goal is to open it to the general public so people can visit it. Gull Rock should not be saved. There are dangerous reefs in the area, so it’s not safe for people to go there. It is closed to the public. None of the land is suitable for planting either.


10. Lighthouses are very interesting to learn about. When you research a lighthouse, you will learn many things that you never knew. I think that lighthouses are very important to Michigan and they definitely helped save lives and ships. I hope you will be interested about Lighthouses, and visit there one day.