South Manitou Island Light Station: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

Regions 3, 4, & 5 Park Cultural Landscapes Program

Inventory Unit Description: South Manitou Island, which comprises 5,030 acres of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, lies seven miles northwest of Sleeping Bear Point and fifteen miles southwest of Leland, Michigan. The island is approximately three miles long and three miles wide, and has a fairly circular shape with the exception of a crescent shaped bay that is cut into its eastern shore. It has 12.6 miles of shoreline, and is the southern most of the archipelago that occupies the northeastern portion of Lake Michigan. The period of significance for the landscape is 1858-1958. Settlers first came to the island to cut wood for the steam ships that were increasing in number on Lake Michigan after the Erie Canal in 1825 opened a throughway to New York City. South Manitou Island became a refueling stop due to its dense hardwood forests, location along the heaviest shipping route and the natural deep harbor for the ships. Because of the high number of ships travelling in and out of Lake Michigan and the sometimes violent weather conditions, Congress appropriated funds in 1838 for the construction of a lighthouse on the southeast corner of the island. The lighthouse was finished in 1840, and was replaced by a new one in 1858. A new light tower was built in 1871 with a high powered lens and was connected to the existing structure by an enclosed passageway. As ships converted from wood to coal fuel, residents of the island turned to farming and fishing for sustenance. By the 1930’s most of the year-round residents had begun to leave the island, due to the increasing reliance on coal, the railroad, and the difficulty of transporting goods grown on the island farms. The US Coast Guard finally closed the lighthouse in 1958, and Congress established the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore which included South Manitou Island in 1970. The South Manitou Island Light Station is the only extant lighthouse in the Lakeshore, and is a significant reminder of a utilitarian yet very important profession which no longer exists in the United States. It is a testament to the historical role of the lighthouse keeper and a distinct way of life. A comparative analysis of information from the site history with the existing conditions data reveals the presence of character-defining landscape features and qualities related to the significance of the South Manitou light station. Significant cultural landscape characteristics are inextricably associated with the development and operation of the site. The site's overall landscape organization and patterns of spatial organization, response to natural features, views and viewsheds, historic land uses and activities, and the actual buildings and structures and their cluster arrangement inform the current understanding of the site and its historic function as a major Great Lakes light station.

South Manitou Island Light Station: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

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