During the summer of 1838, Lieutenant James T. Homans sailed 1,825 miles on Lake Huron and Lake Michigan inspecting existing lighthouses and selecting sites for newly authorized lighthouses. As part of his trip report, Homans recommended a light near Mackinaw to mark the narrowest part of the Straits of Mackinac : A beacon-light, near the town of Mackinaw, has my strongest recommendation; the large amount of commerce passing through the straits near there, calls for the protection and safeguard such a light would render. The narrowest part of the strait is opposite this point; of course increases the dangers to the navigation just there, especially in the night. My own experience, in many voyages through them, has acquainted me with the difficulty of finding this narrow pass, or entering the harbor of Mackinaw in the dark, without some such guide as a beacon, properly located, would afford. In 1837, Lieutenant Pendergrast had selected a site for the construction of Waugoshance Lighthouse to mark the western approach to the straits, but this lighthouse wasn’t completed until 1851, the same year Cheboygan Lighthouse was built to help mark the straits’ southeastern entrance. The Lighthouse Board noted in 1865 that a lighthouse was needed near Fort Michilmackinac and selected McGuplin Point, a site two miles west of the fort, for its erection. McGulpin Point Lighthouse was placed in operation on June 18, 1869, but in 1888, the Board requested $25,000 to move the McGulpin Point Lighthouse to a site just east of Fort Michilmackinac, stating that there the light would be “visible to vessels approaching form either direction.” Construction of a light and fog signal at Old Point Mackinac was authorized by Congress on March 2, 1889, but only $5,500 was provided for a steam fog signal. A deed for the fog signal site was obtained in June 1890, and construction materials were landed on the point that same month. Work on the fog signal began on July 1 and was completed October 9, 1890. Installed in duplicate, the ten-inch steam whistle commenced operation on November 5, 1890. Congress provided $20,000 for building a lighthouse on Old Mackinac Point on March 3, 1891, and bids for supplying the metalwork and constructing the tower and dwelling were solicited. A contract for the metalwork was made on October 10, 1891, and the material was delivered to the lighthouse depot in Detroit on January 17, 1892, but no bids were received for erecting the tower and dwelling. This work was readvertised on March 19, 1892, and the lowest of six bids, $13,722 by John P. Schmitt of Detroit, was accepted. A fourth-order, revolving, Sautter, Lemonier & Co. Fresnel lens was installed in the lantern room and produced a red flash every ten seconds. The lens had ten flash panels and was revolved by a clockwork mechanism powered by a suspended weight that had to be wound up every three hours. The light was placed in operation on October 25, 1892. After the station was finished, the Lighthouse Board noted that the fog signal was too close to the dwelling and needed to be moved fifty feet east. As the fog signal building was just 7½ feet from the station’s eastern property line, this move required the acquisition of additional land. Mackinaw City owned the desired parcel, which it planned to use as a public park and refused to give it up. Condemnation proceedings were initiated in 1899, and three commissioners appointed to the case ruled that Mackinaw City should be awarded $400 for the land. Objections were filed in December 1900, and the court took until 1904 to rule that the $400 award was fair. Congress provided the compensatory $400 on March 3, 1905, and work on a new brick fog signal building began in May 1906. The boilers and whistles were transferred from the old building in time to be placed in operation in 1907. The old fog signal building was moved behind the new one and used for storage. The signature of Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse was changed from flashing red to flashing white on September 1, 1913, the same time an incandescent oil vapor lamp was substituted for one that burned kerosene. These changes increased the light’s candlepower from 1,100 to 26,000. In 1929, the illuminant was changed from oil vapor to electricity. A Cunningham air whistle was installed in the fog signal building in 1933, and in 1937 a raidobeacon was placed in commission at the station. Old Point Mackinac Lighthouse was purchased by the Mackinac Island State Park Commission in 1960 and incorporated into Michilmackinac State Park. After $70,000 in restoration work, the lighthouse was opened in 1972 as the focal point of Michilmackinac Maritime Park. Budget constraints and falling attendance led to the closure of the lighthouse in 1990. A fundraising effort was launched in 1996 to raise $2.2 million to restore the lighthouse and reopen it to the public. One key member of this effort was Jim Belisle, whose great-grandfather, John P. Schmitt, built the lighthouse. In 2004, the lighthouse was reopened as a “restoration in progress,” and the following year the station’s barn, which had been moved to a maintenance area in the 1960s, was returned to its rightful place behind the lighthouse.
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