Isle Royale Light Station-Menagerie: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Isle Royale National Park

Regions 3, 4, & 5 Park Cultural Landscapes Program

Inventory Unit Description: The Isle Royale Light Station landscape is located on Menagerie Island which is a part of the wilderness archipelago forming Isle Royale National Park located in Keweenaw County, Michigan in the northwestern corner of Lake Superior. Menagerie Island lies a couple miles to the south of Isle Royale and is the most easterly of the small islands at the opening of Siskiwit Bay. The lighthouse and outbuildings form a strong linear pattern laid out along the northeast/southwest oriented spine of Menagerie Island. The Isle Royale Lighthouse and outbuildings illustrate the evolution of lighthouse design and construction in response to the changing requirements of Great Lakes shipping as the volume of traffic increased, routes changed, and the size and the speed of ships increased. The lighthouse was first used during the second copper mining rush on Isle Royale from 1873-1881 (Franks 1999, 8-10). The keeper’s dwelling was occupied from 1875 until 1939 at which point the lighthouse was automated. In the wilderness legislation boundary description for Isle Royale National Park, Menagerie Island was reserved as an exclusion from wilderness, due to the existing use. The Isle Royale Light Station is included in a multiple property National Register nomination called “United States Coast Guard Lighthouses and Light Stations on the Great Lakes”. The period of significance for the nomination begins in 1832 when lighthouse construction on the Great Lakes was booming and ends in 1919 at a point when illumination by kerosene and other oils was transitioning to electrical illumination which was predominant in the 1920’s. The Isle Royale Lighthouse is the second at Isle Royale to aid navigation of mine freighters at Siskiwit Bay and to warn Lake Superior’s mounting water traffic of the Isle’s south shoals and reefs. The Isle Royale Lighthouse is significant for its role as part of a collection of navigational aids on the Great Lakes, more specifically Lake Superior, during a time of expanding commerce. The lighthouse served as a beacon of warning to those navigating in the region especially during the second copper mining boom on Isle Royale during which it was constructed. The existing structures which include the lighthouse and attached keeper’s quarters, a privy, an oil building, a storage vault, an outbuilding, a foundation ruin, and various connecting pathways all largely date to the period of development of the site and illustrate the architecture and evolving technologies of lighthouse design and operation.

Isle Royale Light Station-Menagerie: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Isle Royale National Park

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