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Recognizing the value of lighthouses to the area, the West Michigan Tourist Association (WMTA) Board of Directors has endorsed Mackinaw City, Michigan, as home of the National Lighthouse Museum.
"Mackinaw City is the crossroads of the Great Lakes with more than 20 lighthouses within a 15 miles radius," said Brad Jones, executive director of the Mackinaw Area Tourist Bureau. "Michigan, with 116 lighthouses, and the Great Lakes with more than 350, have more lighthouses than the east and west coasts combined," he said.
Jones, along with Richard Moehl, president of the Great Lakes Lighthouse Keepers Association, heads the 16 member Mackinaw City National Lighthouse Museum Committee.
The proposed site includes a 50,000 square foot museum on the end of the Old State Ferry Dock. A 126 foot high beacon would feature an observation platform, giving visitors a bird's eye view of the Straits of Mackinac, the Mackinac Bridge, and Mackinac Island. The estimated cost of the project is between $15 and $25 million dollars.
"This museum means billions of dollars to Michigan's tourism industry," Jones said.
Originally, 30 site-plan proposals were submitted for consideration for the museum. Other finalists in the running appear to be Staten Island, NY, site of the old Lighthouse Depot; Hull, Massachusetts, in the view of America's first lightstation in Boston Harbor; and, possibly, Point Judith, RI and Rockland, Maine.
This story appeared in the April 1998 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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