Location | Ile Parisienne Ontario Canada |
---|---|
Coordinates | 46°38′43″N84°43′26.4″W / 46.64528°N 84.724000°W |
Tower | |
Constructed | 1911 |
Construction | concrete tower |
Height | 16.6 metres (54 ft) |
Shape | hexagonal tower with balcony and lantern |
Markings | white tower, red lantern |
Power source | solar power |
Heritage | recognized federal heritage building of Canada |
Light | |
Focal height | 16.1 metres (53 ft) |
Lens | modern optic, emergency, seasonal [1] |
Range | 25.75 kilometres (16.00 mi) [1] |
Characteristic | Fl W 10s. |
The Ile Parisienne Light was built in 1911 on the southern tip of remote Ile Parisienne in the middle of Whitefish Bay on Lake Superior on a major shipping lane for ingress/egress to the Soo Locks. [2] [3] [4] [5] It is now a well-known landmark to shipping traffic and pleasure craft. The light is automated and remains seasonally active.
The Ile Parisienne Light Station was established on the southern tip of the Ile Parisienne [6] in 1911 after construction of the Soo Locks increased upper Great Lakes shipping traffic and the need for navigational aids. [7] The white tower is a well-known landmark to lake traffic and pleasure craft. The tower's cast-in place concrete, hexagonal structure was built with 6 tapered exterior wall buttresses, flared ribs at the platform, a gable roofed entrance, small windows, and a prominent, 10-sided, red lantern topped with a beaver weathervane. [7] [8] It is considered a good example of early modern, functional design. [7]
The first recorded shipwreck on Lake Superior was off Ile Parisienne. During a fur trading feud in August 1816, Lord Selkirk ordered the arrest of key Northwest Company leaders at Fort William. Selkirk sent the arrested Northwesters by Montreal canoe to eastern Canada for trial. The canoe commanded by Lieutenant Fauche capsized off Ile Parisienne drowning, by varying reports, 9 or ll people. [9]
At least one shipwreck and the rescue of one castaway near the island shores is owed to the light station's location in the middle of Whitefish Bay on the major shipping lane upbound and downbound from the Soo Locks. [10] The steamship Panther sank 26 June 1916, following a collision during fog with the James H. Hill, off Parisienne Island in Whitefish Bay, with no loss of life. [11] [12] When the steamship Myron sank 23 November 1919, the Vermilion lifesaving crew searched Lake Superior in a raging gale for survivors all the way from their station to Ile Parisienne, but found nothing. The captain of the Myron was rescued 20 hours afterward, found near death drifting on wreckage near Ile Parisienne, his clothes frozen to his body. [13] In July 1920, three bodies washed ashore Ile Parisienne from the shipwreck John Owen that foundered off Stannard Rock on 12 November 1919. The bodies were buried on Ile Parisienne. [14]
Life at the Ile Parisienne Light Station was lonely and perilous. On April 18, 1922, the small Canadian buoy tender Lambton set out to deliver the lighthouse keepers for the upcoming shipping season to Caribou Island, Michipicoten Island, and Ile Parisienne in Lake Superior. The Lambton disappeared during a heavy northeast gale on Whitefish Bay on April 19, 1922, taking the lives of all 16 hands and 5 lighthouse keepers, including John Douglas, Ile Parisienne lighthouse keeper, and his assistant keeper, John Kay. [15] [16]
The Ile Parisienne light tower was listed on the Canadian Register of Historic Places in 1991 as "a Recognized Federal Heritage building because of its historical associations, and its architectural and environmental values." [7] The light station is owned by the Canadian Coast Guard. The light is now a seasonal, automated, solar powered modern optic. [8] The light is not open to the public because it is located in an area of very high volume shipping traffic and it is considered a critical aid to navigation. [17] The light can be viewed by boat or plane tours. [8] [18]
The light tower of Ile Parisienne was petitioned for designation as a Heritage Lighthouse of Canada on or before 29 May 2015. [19]
Whitefish Bay is a large bay on the eastern end of Lake Superior between Michigan, United States, and Ontario, Canada. It is located between Whitefish Point in Michigan and Whiskey Point along the more rugged, largely wilderness Canadian Shield of Ontario. The international border runs through the bay, which is heavily used by shipping traffic northbound from and southbound to the Soo Locks.
Point Iroquois Light is a lighthouse on a Chippewa County bluff in the U.S. state of Michigan. Point Iroquois and its light mark the division line between Whitefish Bay and the western end of the St. Marys River, the connection between Lake Superior and other Great Lakes.
Marblehead Lighthouse in Marblehead, Ohio, United States, is the oldest lighthouse in continuous operation on the American side of the Great Lakes. It has guided sailors safely along the rocky shores of Marblehead Peninsula since 1822, and is an active aid to navigation.
The Two Harbors Light is the oldest operating lighthouse in the US state of Minnesota. Overlooking Lake Superior's Agate Bay, the lighthouse is located in Two Harbors, Minnesota. The construction of the lighthouse began in 1891 and was completed the following year, with the light being lit for the first time on April 14, 1892. The first Two Harbors keeper was Charles Lederle and there were normally three keepers assigned to make sure the light was lit every day. The Lighthouse was built to provide safe passage into the Agate Bay Harbor during the early 20th century, as Two Harbors was a major shipping point for the iron ore of the Mesabi Range.
The Toledo Harbor Lighthouse is a lighthouse in Lake Erie near Toledo, Ohio, in the United States. The light replaced the 1837 lighthouse on Turtle Island at the mouth of the Maumee River. It is an active aid to navigation.
Crisp Point was one of five U.S. Life-Saving Service Stations along the coast of Lake Superior between Munising and Whitefish Point in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The lighthouse is within McMillan Township in Luce County.
Because it was positioned near the busy shipping lanes of the mid-19th century, a lighthouse was built on Granite Island in 1868 by the U.S. Lighthouse Board and commissioned in 1869.
The Chequamegon Point Lighthouse is a lighthouse located on Long Island, one of the Apostle Islands, in Lake Superior in Ashland County, Wisconsin, near the city of Bayfield.
Kenosha Light is a lighthouse and keeper's house on Simmons Island north of the channel into Kenosha's harbor in Kenosha County, Wisconsin, USA.
Grand Traverse Light is a lighthouse in the U.S. state of Michigan, located at the tip of the Leelanau Peninsula, which separates Lake Michigan and Grand Traverse Bay. It marks the Manitou passage, where Lake Michigan elides into Grand Traverse Bay. In 1858, the present light was built, replacing a separate round tower built in 1852. The lighthouse is located inside Leelanau State Park, 8 miles (13 km) north of Northport, a town of about 650 people. This area, in the Michigan wine country, is commonly visited by tourists during the summer months.
The Whitefish Point Light is a lighthouse located in Chippewa County in the U.S. state of Michigan. Located on the southeastern shores of Lake Superior, it sits at the edge of Whitefish Point leading to Whitefish Bay. Constructed in 1849, it is the oldest operating lighthouse in the Upper Peninsula. All vessels entering or exiting Lake Superior pass near Whitefish Point. The area is infamously known as the "Graveyard of the Great Lakes" due to the high number of shipwrecks in the area, most famously the SS Edmund Fitzgerald.
The Alpena Light, also known as the Thunder Bay River Lighthouse or Alpena Breakwater Light, is a lighthouse on Lake Huron near Alpena, Michigan. Standing on the north breakwater of Alpena Harbor, the light marks the entrance to the Thunder Bay River from Thunder Bay. The current lighthouse, built in 1914, replaced earlier wooden structures which had been in use since 1877 and 1888. The current light is a weather-protected structure on a steel frame. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006, and the state inventory list the same year.
Au Sable Light is an active lighthouse in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore west of Grand Marais, Michigan off H-58. Until 1910, this aid to navigation was called "Big Sable Light".
The Milwaukee Breakwater lighthouse was built in 1926 in the harbor of Milwaukee in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin to mark the entrance to the harbor. One of the last fully enclosed breakwater lighthouses in the Great Lakes, the structure was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2011.
The Peninsula Point Light is a lighthouse located at the southern tip of the Stonington Peninsula in Bay de Noc township in Delta County, Michigan. United States Coast Guard historical documents have over the years listed the name of the site as both Peninsula Point and Point Peninsula.
The Rock of Ages Light is a U.S. Coast Guard lighthouse on a small rock outcropping approximately 2.25 miles (3.62 km) west of Washington Island and 3.5 miles (5.6 km) west of Isle Royale, in Eagle Harbor Township, Keweenaw County, Michigan. It is an active aid to navigation.
The Gros Cap Reefs Light is a lighthouse located at the entrance to St. Mary's River from Whitefish Bay of Lake Superior. The light was completed in 1953 and replaced a lightship stationed there since 1923. The lighthouse, owned by the Canadian Coast Guard, is located on the southwest edge of the Gros Cap Reef.
The Stannard Rock Light is a lighthouse located on a reef that was the most serious hazard to navigation on Lake Superior. The exposed crib of the Stannard Rock Light is rated as one of the top ten engineering feats in the United States. It is 24 miles (39 km) from the nearest land, making it the most distant lighthouse in the United States. It was one of the "stag stations", manned only by men, and had the nickname "The Loneliest Place in the World".
The Gull Rock Light Station is an active lighthouse located on Gull Rock, just west of Manitou Island, off the tip of Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula in Lake Superior. The light was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, even as its condition deteriorated, resulting in its placement on the Lighthouse Digest Doomsday List.
Ile Parisienne is an uninhabited island in the province of Ontario in Canada. It is located in Whitefish Bay in Lake Superior. Its name is derived from French and means "Parisian island." The Ile Parisienne Light located on the southern tip of the island is a critical aid to navigation on a major shipping lane in Lake Superior. The lighthouse was designated a Recognized Federal Heritage Building in 1991 and it is on the petitioned list for designation as a Heritage Lighthouse of Canada. The Ile Parisienne Conservation Reserve was created in 2001 to protect the island's pristine geology, habitat, and wildlife.