Lighthouse Voyage - Part 6

[Tannerman]

Muskegon South Pier
Muskegon, MI - Lighthouse 5 of 15

For our final lighthouse trip of the day, we drove 20 miles up the coast to Muskegon, MI, home of the Muskegon South Pier lighthouse and its companion breakwater light.


Muskegon was one of the few locations were we could not walk all the way up to the lighthouse. The South Pier light was actually on U.S. Coast Guard property, so we could not access the pier. We did find it interesting that all the signage that used to say that the Coast Guard reported to the Department of Defense had been covered with stickers showing they now reported to the Department of Homeland Security. This was a creepy contrast... the maritime beacons of yesteryear against the terror alertness of today.


The first light in this harbor was constructed in 1851 and included a keeper's dwelling. In fact, the lighthouse then was land-based. However, with completion of the harbor pier in 1902, a 53-foot red round steel tower, equipped with a fourth-order Fresnel lens, was erected in 1903, replacing the original beacon. The new light was erected on a pier that jutted out into Lake Michigan between two breakwaters at the mouth of Muskegon Lake.


Later in 1930, a 70-foot breakwater light tower was built. Yet another red tower, this one square-shaped, sits on a pier south of the main lighthouse. There is some confusion at this location as to whether the breakwater light should be considered an "official" lighthouse or not. In many books, it's not even listed or is considered a minor aid to navigation. Whatever the case, we were allowed to walk up to this light, which had a rather distinctive shape.


Muskegon's breakwater light has the distinction of being on the longest pier we had to walk to get to the actual beacon. Just when you think you are nearing the end of it, it turns on an angle and you have to continue walking for a longer distance. Since the sun was setting around this time, however, it was worth the trek.


During our walk, we were following a local cop who was heading out to meet up with another officer farther up the pier. When we got this this location, we realized what all the fuss was about. A small catamaran had collided with the breakwater, smashing into pieces. There was no one around it, so we assumed that those on board bailed out before the collision. Still, it was pretty impressive to see how mashed up this craft was.


Also during out walk we got to see a rather huge barge enter Muskegon's harbor. This thing was 10-times larger than the one we saw in Holland. You really loose a sense of perspective when we first saw it in the distance (where it was quite small) and then having it right next to us (where we found out it wasn't small at all). Good stuff.


After we had taken our photo together in front of this second lighthouse, we walked to the very tip of the breakwater. There an attractive young woman with two kids (either cousins, children, friends, who knows?) were drawing together on paper. Shortly thereafter these two guys showed up at the end of the pier as well. One of them sat next to the woman and said "Hi sweetheart," to which she replied "are you talking to me or the kids?" Ouch... shot down.

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