Qualla: Rock of Ages Light

Rock of Ages Light: Introduction

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jeff the quiet, CC BY-SA 3.0. On May 27, 1933, Captain George Johnson and First Mate Art Kronk could hear the foghorn. They knew exactly where the Rock of Ages Light stood -- off the western tip of Isle Royale, on a reef that had already swallowed two ships. They kept the steamer George M. Cox at full lake speed anyway. The fog was too thick to see through, but the foghorn told them they were close, and Kronk had plotted a course he believed would clear the rocks. It did not. The Cox struck the reef and sat amidships on the shoal, her bow jutting into the air while her stern flooded. Lighthouse keeper John Soldenski raced to the scene in a gasoline-powered boat, towed the life rafts back, and somehow squeezed 127 passengers and crew into the lighthouse and onto the surrounding rocks for the night. The ship that had carried them was unsalvageable. It broke apart in an October storm and sank on top of two other wrecks already resting on the same reef.

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Image: Jeff the quiet | CC BY-SA 3.0

Rock of Ages Light: A Tower on a Sliver of Rock

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided, Public domain. The reef off the western end of Isle Royale had been killing ships for decades before anyone built a light there. The Cumberland wrecked in 1877 and was abandoned after efforts to pull her from the rocks failed. She broke in two and sank. Twenty-one years later, the Henry Chishol...

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Rock of Ages Light: Steel Core and Spiral Stairs

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided, Public domain. The engineering was remarkable for its time and location. Workers erected a steel cylindrical wall on the blasted rock and filled it with concrete, creating a pier 25 feet in diameter. From the bedrock up, a central steel core runs through the entire structure, serving as its mai...

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Rock of Ages Light: One Can of Tomatoes

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jeff the quiet, CC BY-SA 3.0. Keeper duty at Rock of Ages was among the most isolated postings on the Great Lakes. A crew was landed on the station each spring at the beginning of the shipping season, stayed through the entire season, and was evacuated in the fall. Between those dates, they lived on the rock....

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Image: Jeff the quiet | CC BY-SA 3.0

Rock of Ages Light: The Night 127 People Slept on a Rock

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jeff the quiet, CC BY-SA 3.0. The George M. Cox had an unusual history before she met her end at Rock of Ages. Built in 1901 as the SS Puritan, she served briefly in the U.S. Navy transporting troops home after World War I, then was purchased by George Cox in 1933 and renamed. On her fateful Lake Superior cru...

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Image: Jeff the quiet | CC BY-SA 3.0

Rock of Ages Light: Solar Power and Preservation

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jeff the quiet, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1978, the Coast Guard automated the Rock of Ages Light, ending nearly seven decades of human habitation on the reef. The keepers left, and the lighthouse became a machine tending itself. In 1985, the original Fresnel lens was removed when the light was converted to solar power...

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Image: Jeff the quiet | CC BY-SA 3.0