With the South Passage now acting as the primary navigational route not just for commercial vessels but for passenger and leisure boats as well, there was growing concern about the safety of the waterway. Rocky reefs lay hidden in the shallow waters, and sailing through the area could prove treacherous in the late fall when sudden storms could wreak havoc on Lake Erie. The United States Lighthouse Board requested $8,600 for a lighthouse on South Bass Island in 1890, but the requested amount was not appropriated until August 18, 1894. This wasn't the first time money had been set aside for a lighthouse on the island. When Lieutenant Charles T. Platt was examining lighthouses and proposed lighthouse sites on Lake Erie in 1838, he noted that an appropriation of $3,000 had been made for a lighthouse on South Bass Island. To his surprise, the lighthouse was to be placed on the northwest tip of the island instead of the southwest corner where Platt and others thought it should be. So sure was Platt of the superiority of the southern location that he surveyed the island's southwest cape and carved the letters "LH" into a tree to indicate where the lighthouse should be erected. A lighthouse was established on nearby Green Island in 1855, but South Bass Island would have to wait a few more decades to receive its lighthouse. The federal government purchased two acres at Parker’s Point, the extreme southwest tip of the island, from Alfred and Mary Parker in May 1895 for $1,000. A contract was made in 1896 for constructing the lighthouse, but the winning bidder failed to execute the required bond, and the work had to be readvertised. All of the bids received in the second round exceeded the available funds so the work was performed by hired labor with materials purchased on the open market. Unlike the day's typical design of a large lighthouse with a small, detached keepers dwelling, South Bass Island Lighthouse consisted of a large, two-and-a-half-story, redbrick dwelling with an attached, twelve-foot-square tower. The tower stood forty-five feet tall when finished and was crowned with a fourth-order, L. Sautter & Cie., Fresnel lens that produced a fixed red light through the use of a ruby chimney in its lamp. South Bass Island Lighthouse was lit for the first time on July 10, 1897, by Keeper Harry H. Riley. Under his care, the lighthouse would perform its duty daily during the shipping season, which typically ran from early March through late December. Riley's time on the island was cut short, however, when on September 1, 1898, he was taken into custody by Sandusky police because of problems associated with his mental health. Keeper Riley was convinced he owned a fast racehorse and was inviting everyone to the fairgrounds to see the horse go for a record. Riley passed away the following March at a state hospital. Mrs. Riley took charge of the lighthouse during her husband's illness. Keeper Charles B. Duggan arrived at the lighthouse in 1908, after having served five years at West Sister Island. Besides caring for the light, Duggan also cultivated twenty acres of land. A vineyard occupied eight acres, and the rest was devoted to a peach orchard and general farming. In 1915, he helped a crew of eight from the burning steam barge Isabel Joyce land at the station and then and cared for them. Keeper Duggan fell to his death from a forty-five-foot cliff on the western end of the island in April 1925. Twenty-year-old Lyle Duggan cared for the light in place of his father until the following year, when Green Island Lighthouse was automated, and its keeper, William F. Gordon, was transferred to South Bass Island Lighthouse. The characteristic of South Bass Island Lighthouse was changed at the opening of navigation in 1926 to alternating red and white flashes, the former characteristic of Green Island Light. On September 7, 1929, the intensity of the light was great increased through the installation of electricity as the illuminant. The white flash went from 1,800 candlepower to 32,000, while the red flash increased from 540 to 9,600. A total of eleven keepers served at the lighthouse, the last being Paul F. Prochnow, who departed the island in 1962 after fifteen years of service. Keeper Prochnow's lightkeeping career almost ended prematurely in 1959, when his Model A Ford went through the ice near Green Island. Prochnow and a friend had to swim thirty feet to the surface from where the car ended up "parked" on the bottom of Lake Erie. By the time Prochnow's days as keeper on South Bass Island were drawing to a close, technology had changed dramatically. When he retired, the living quarters were put up for rent, and the Coast Guard replaced the lighthouse with an automated electronic light mounted atop a steel tower. With the automation, the Fresnel lens became a piece of the island's past and was placed in the Lake Erie Island Historical Museum, where it can still be viewed today.
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