Digest>Archives> Mar/Apr 2014

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Old Mission Point is not in Missouri

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Unless you take notes when you are on vacation, you might not remember the exact name of the place you visited, as was the case with this old photo when the people wrote “Old Missouri Lighthouse” on the photo. The image is actually a photo of the Mission Point Lighthouse on Grand Traverse Bay in Michigan. Unfortunately the folks never wrote down the names of the two ladies and the gentlemen who are in the photo.

What makes this photo extremely interesting is that under close examination of the actual photo with a magnifying glass, the 5th order Fresnel lens is still in the lantern room. To this day no one knows what happened to the lens. Apparently it disappeared sometime between 1933 and 1948. It may have been removed by the Bureau of Lighthouses, or perhaps in later years by the Coast Guard, or it may have been stolen after the lighthouse was discontinued in 1933.

Also known as Old Mission Point Lighthouse, it is located on the 45th parallel, halfway between the equator and the North Pole, and is now available for a keeper caretaker program to qualified individuals.


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