Qualla: New Presque Isle Light

New Presque Isle Light: Introduction

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chris Light, CC BY-SA 4.0. Abraham Lincoln appointed Patrick Garraty to keep the old light at Presque Isle. Garraty never left. When a taller, grander tower rose beside the old one in 1871, he became its first keeper too, and his family would tend the beacon for the next six decades. The New Presque Isle Light stands on Michigan's northeastern shore, one of 149 lighthouses scattered along the state's coastline, more than any other state in the nation. But this particular tower earned a distinction beyond longevity: its design was so admired that it became the pattern for lighthouse construction across the Great Lakes.

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Image: Chris Light | CC BY-SA 4.0

New Presque Isle Light: A War Engineer Turns to Light

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Myron Reynard, CC BY 2.0. Major Orlando M. Poe had served as General William Tecumseh Sherman's chief engineer during the famous March to the Sea. After the Civil War, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers put Poe's talents to peacetime use on the Great Lakes. He drew plans for the new Presque Isle tower with ...

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Image: Myron Reynard | CC BY 2.0

New Presque Isle Light: Bending Light Across the Water

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, CC BY-SA 2.0. At the tower's summit sat a six-foot-tall third-order Fresnel lens, manufactured by Henry LePaute Cie. of Paris. The Fresnel lens represented a revolution in lighthouse technology. Earlier systems, like the one designed by former sea captain Winslow Lewis, used parabolic reflecto...

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Image: NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory | CC BY-SA 2.0

New Presque Isle Light: The Garraty Dynasty

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chris Light, CC BY-SA 4.0. Patrick Garraty ran the new station with his wife Mary serving as assistant keeper. A sixteen-foot covered passageway connected the tower to their two-story dwelling, a necessity when Lake Huron blasted the peninsula with winter gales. A full cellar beneath the house stored perso...

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Image: Chris Light | CC BY-SA 4.0

New Presque Isle Light: Steam, Coal, and Fog

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Peterpahl8, CC BY-SA 3.0. As Great Lakes shipping expanded, the station grew with it. In 1889, Congress funded a steam fog signal: a loud horn that could pierce weather too thick for any light to penetrate. The problem was preparation time. Firing a boiler and building steam pressure could take forty-five...

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Image: Peterpahl8 | CC BY-SA 3.0

New Presque Isle Light: From Keepers to County Park

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Riis2602, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Lighthouse Service transferred to Coast Guard control in 1939. Indoor plumbing and electricity arrived at last, and the fog signal building came down. In 1970, the Coast Guard automated the light and boarded up the keeper's quarters. The station that had known human voices fo...

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Image: Riis2602 | CC BY-SA 4.0