Squaw Island Light
Day 2 (cont) Voyage to Squaw Island
The lighthouse was constructed of dark red brick with white wood trim. The roof was steeply peaked. Although beautiful on the outside, the bats and carpenter ants had taken their toll on the inside of the lighthouse. A caretaker was employed by the lighthouse’s owner. The caretaker and his son were feverishly working to save the lighthouse, but nature and vandals were slowly taking their toll. They showed us the path that a tornado had followed only a few years earlier. Missing the lighthouse by only 15 feet, the tornado picked up a small wood water pump shed and carried it 100 feet. The shed landed right side up with little damage. Later the caretaker carried the shed back to its spot over the water pump. The hand operated water pump yielded water from a well. After spending days drinking warm water purified from Lake Michigan, this fresh, cool well water tasted better than the finest wine.
This abandoned lighthouse is located on Squaw Island, Lake Michigan.....a tiny island barely a mile wide, north of Beaver Island. I discovered this amazing lighthouse in an aerial photograph, and I made it my mission to one day paddle to the island.
If you go to the location I marked on the Flickr map, then switch to satellite view, and zoom all the way in, you can see an aerial view of this lighthouse.
photo used; weburbanist.com/2009/02/11/abandoned-lighthouses/