Location | Cheboygan County, Michigan, Lake Huron |
---|---|
Coordinates | 45°46′24″N 84°8′12″W / 45.77333°N 84.13667°W |
Tower | |
Constructed | 1874 |
Foundation | cofferdam/timber exposed crib[5] |
Construction | Monolithic limestone/iron bolts |
Automated | 1972 |
Height | 80 feet (24 m)[1] |
Shape | Frustum of a cone on a rectangular house |
Markings | natural with red roofs |
Heritage | National Register of Historic Places listed place |
Fog signal | HORN: air–diaphone[4] |
Light | |
First lit | 1874 |
Focal height | 86 feet (26 m)[2][3] |
Lens | Second-order Fresnel lens[6] (original), Solar powered 300 mm Tideland Signal acrylic lens (current) |
Intensity | 400,000 candlepower white; 80,000 candlepower red |
Range | 11 nautical miles (20 km; 13 mi)[4] |
Characteristic | Flashing alternately white every 60 seconds, red every 5 seconds. Operates year round. 100 candlepower white winter light which flashes every 5 seconds |
Spectacle Reef Light Station | |
Nearest city | Benton Township, Michigan |
Area | 0.9 acres (0.36 ha) |
Built | 1874 |
Architect | US Lighthouse Board: Colonel Orlando Metcalfe Poe, and Major Godfrey Weitzel |
MPS | U.S. Coast Guard Lighthouses and Light Stations on the Great Lakes TR |
NRHP reference No. | 05000744[7] |
Added to NRHP | July 27, 2005 |
Spectacle Reef Light is a lighthouse 11 miles (18 km) east of the Straits of Mackinac and is located at the northern end of Lake Huron, Michigan.[8] It was designed and built by Colonel Orlando Metcalfe Poe and Major Godfrey Weitzel,[9] and was the most expensive lighthouse ever built on the Great Lakes.[10]
Because of the challenges of building on a shoal, including laying an underwater crib, it is said to be the "most spectacular engineering achievement" in lighthouse construction on Lake Huron.[10] It took four years to build because weather limited work to mostly the summer season. Workers lived in a structure at the site; one of the limiting conditions. It ranks high as an engineering achievement among all the lighthouses built on the Great lakes.[10]
In 2020, The Spectacle Reef Preservation Society was formed and began to restore the lighthouse.