Marquette Tourist Camp - Part Three

rvtramm75

Jul 18, 20222 min read

Downtown Walk

We planned on touring the lighthouse at 11:00 am. However, when we arrived, the tour was full. We decided to come back for the 1:00 pm tour. To kill time, we went to downtown Marquette for a walkabout and a snack.

We had coffee, banana/strawberry bread, and a macaroon at a place called Babycakes. Everything in their shop looked very good. I did have to buy at least one souvenir.

Going back to the Lighthouse, we passed this row of condos facing Lake Superior. Just to be nosy, I searched Zillow for the price. One of the condos showed a price of over $700,000. I don't think we'll be putting in an offer just yet.

Lighthouse Tour

The original lighthouse was built in 1853 and thanks to time and storms, has been rebuilt many times. The brick structure seen now was completed in 1910. The lighthouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

There were three lighthouses in Marquette and three lighthouse keepers. This tells me the large amount of shipping trade that used to go through the harbor.

On this point was located the life-saving boat service, the lighthouse, and the fog house.

In 1939, President Roosevelt merged the US Lighthouse Service into the US Coast Guard. The lifeboat service was also merged into the Coast Guard Service.

There is a ghost story to go with the lighthouse. While painting the interior, footprints appeared in the wet paint. The story goes about a young girl who lived in the house.

There was also the story of the shipwreck off of the point from the lighthouse. The fog horn required 45 minutes to warm up. The ship wrecked before the fog horn was available. We watched a video of a visit to the wreck. The cold, salt free water has left the wreck fairly intact. There is a buoy off the point showing the location of the wreck.

When the fog horn house existed, the keeper walked a long catwalk to operate the horn. The catwalk still exists and makes for wonderful views of Lake Superior.