Little Traverse Light (Harbor Point Lighthouse), photo courtesy Archives of Michigan

One of the many Michigan lighthouses at Seeking Michigan is the Little Traverse Light (decommissioned 1963). The Little Traverse Light page at Terry Pepper’s Seeing the Light says:

For centuries the area around Little Traverse Bay had been the home of Ottawa Indians. Around 1700, French Jesuits arrived in the area and constructed a mission at the famous L’Arbre Croche village, a huge native village which stretched from Cross Village to Harbor Springs. Dependent on agriculture, fishing and trapping in 1847, the village of L’Arbre Croche was home to the largest concentration of natives people in what would become the state of Michigan.

…As was frequently the case, treaties with the native Americans were frequently and expeditiously “modified” after their original signing, and with the passage of treaty limitations in 1875, the land around Little Traverse Bay was opened-up for settlers, and the flood gates opened. Harbor Springs was formally incorporated as a village in 1880. After the opening of land availability, land lookers moved through the area, claiming huge tracts of forest for their respective companies, with lumbering operations following quickly on their heels. Simultaneously with this commercial boom, word of the beauty of the bay, its sunsets, clean air, cool breezes and clear water spread throughout the Midwest, and an ever increasing number of moneyed individuals, their pockets bulging with the bounty of the industrialization of the southern Michigan cities began pouring into the area, building summer cottages, mansions and hotels.

With this unprecedented boom in commercial and recreational activity, there was a massive increase in vessel traffic in Little Traverse Bay, and local interests again began petitioning for the construction of the lighthouse recommended almost ten years previously.

Read on and see pictures and get more from Wikipedia’s Little Traverse Light entry. The West Michigan Tourist Association has a cool article on Elizabeth Whitney, who was a keeper at the Little Traverse Light that you might enjoy as well.

Get more shots of the Harbor Point Lighthouse from seekingmichigan.org, including a better shot of the fog bell tower (the structure to the left of the photo).