A contract for an iron-pile lighthouse for Whitefish Point was entered into in 1860, and this tower was finished in the spring of 1861, along with similar ones built at Manitou Island on Lake Superior and Detour Point on Lake Huron. The new lighthouse stands seventy-eight feet tall and consists of four levels of bracing around a central, cylindrical shaft that runs from the top of the first level to the watchroom, situated just below the lantern room. The braces of the first level are vertical and placed at the corners of a twenty-six-foot square, while the upper three levels slope inward. The second floor of a new dwelling attaches to the tower via a covered passage. A spiral staircase inside the central shaft provides access to the decagonal watchroom and lantern room, each of which are encircled by a gallery. The characteristic of the light at Whitefish Point was changed on June 15, 1893 from fixed white to fixed white varied every twenty seconds by a red flash, through the installation of flash panels that revolved around the lens. A circular iron oil house was added to the station in 1893, and the color of the tower was changed from brown to white in 1895 in order to serve as a more prominent daymark. At the opening of navigation in 1896, the characteristic of the light was changed to a white flash every five seconds. On October 12, 1900, the light’s characteristic was changed to a white flash every ten seconds and then to a white light that was alternately on one second and off one second on May 2, 1919. The intensity of the light was increased on September 5, 1913 by changing the illuminant from oil to incandescent oil vapor. The Lighthouse Service was absorbed into the Coast Guard in 1939. The Coast Guard closed its lifeboat station at Whitefish Point in 1951 and removed the remainder of its personnel from the site in 1970, following the automation of the lighthouse. In 1983, the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society (GLSHS) leased the station from the Coast Guard.
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