Fort Gratiot, Michigan's oldest lighthouse

At the spot where Lake Huron narrows and pours into the St. Clair River, in the Fort Gratiot neighborhood of Port Huron, stands the oldest lighthouse in Michigan. In a state with more lighthouses than any other, that’s no small title.

The story starts in 1825, when the federal government put up Michigan’s very first lighthouse here to guide ships into the river. It was a flop: poorly built and badly placed, it cracked, leaned, and finally toppled in a fierce storm in 1828. The replacement, the tower you see today, went up in 1829, built by Lucius Lyon, a surveyor who would later become one of Michigan’s first United States senators. In the 1860s crews raised the tower to its present height of more than eighty feet, the tall white cone that still marks the river mouth.

Nearly two centuries on, the light is still working, watching over one of the busiest shipping channels in the world as freighters thread the narrows between Michigan and Ontario. The Coast Guard handed the station to the county, and these days it is restored and open to visitors. The tower climb is part of a guided tour and depends on the weather. At the top, you can look across the Blue Water Bridge, the river, and the Canadian shore. Check the current Port Huron Museum schedule before making the trip.