When the materials arrived at the Detroit depot, they were loaded aboard the lightship, Amaranth, and arrived at 40 Mile Point on July 5, 1896. Plans and specifications for the station were approved in February 1896 and contracts for the ironwork for the large fog whistles were awarded soon afterwards. The property, over 22 acres in all, was purchased for $200.00. Adams, Eleventh District Engineer selected and surveyed a site approximately 40 miles southeast of Old Mackinaw Point and 40 miles northwest of Thunder Bay. The Lighthouse Board requested funding in its 1894 annual report and Congress authorized the funds as part of the Sundry Civil Appropriations Act. Congress finally authorized the project in 1893, but failed to provide the necessary appropriation. In 1889, the Lighthouse Board recommended that $25,000 be appropriated for construction of a new light and fog signal near Hammond Bay on Lake Huron. Tickets are available at the museum store. The tour offers a unique opportunity to walk to the top of the tower for a spectacular view of Tawas Point. The lighthouse is open for tours on weekends Memorial Day through Labor Day. The Tawas Point Lighthouse museum store is located on the lighthouse grounds and is open May-October. In 1991 the Coast Guard built a new station just outside the park entrance and decommissioned the old station. Although it has been remodeled several times, the station serves as the sole representative of a true Victorian-era style station built on the Great Lakes. The Coast Guard station adjacent to the park on Lakeview Drive was also built in 1876 and is the only surviving example of the First Series Life Saving Stations built on the Great Lakes. The lighthouse stands 70 feet above Lake Huron and the walls at the base are 6 feet thick. It replaced the original Ottawa Point Lighthouse located near the present campground playscape. The Tawas Point Lighthouse, built in 1876, is equipped with a Frensnel lens built in Paris in 1880. The lighthouse tower is open to climb periodically throughout the summer season. The keeper's house is now a maritime museum which is open to the public on weekends from Memorial Day to Labor Day Weekend. The Fresnel lens is still in the tower but is no longer in operation The Coast Guard does monitor a LED light to assist recreational watercraft. The light is a 3.5 order Fresnel lens made in Paris, France. The tower is 70 feet, 9 inches tall and is 16 feet in diameter at its base. The lighthouse is of masonry construction on a limestone block foundation. Almost all of the work was done by volunteers, directed by Floyd Benghauser. The interior of the keeper's house was completely restored, and the buildings were painted. In 1982 the Alcona Historical Society leased the lighthouse and began a three - year restoration project. The Coast Guard buildings were subsequently destroyed, however, the lighthouse itself survived but was severely vandalized. The lighthouse was electrified and automated in 1939 and the last personnel left in 1941. Coast Guard in 1915, Sturgeon Point became a Coast Guard station. This station provided around-the-clock rescue capability for vessels in distress. Life Saving Service established a Life Saving Station at the Sturgeon Point Lighthouse. The station was placed on the National Historic Register in 1984, and sat empty and subject to the worst that Lake Huron and vandals could throw at it until 1996. The station was automated in 1983, and the Coast Guard crew reassigned. The light station was managed by the US Lighthouse Service until 1939, when responsibility for the nation's aids to navigation was transferred to the US Coast Guard. The steam fog signal building was established in 1893. The present keeper's dwelling, which was erected in 1868, stands 28 feet by 43 feet in plan, and is connected to the tower by a covered walkway. The tower was raised ten feet in 1857 to improve its visibility, and the focal plane increased to sixty-three feet above lake level. The original tower was constructed of stone, stood forty feet tall, with a diameter of twenty-one feet at the base and over eleven feet at the top. Jesse Muncy was the station's first keeper, and he kept the light to warn mariners of the dangerous limestone reef extending from the island to the north point of Thunder Bay. The first light tower established on the island was constructed in 1832, making it the second oldest light tower still standing on Lake Huron. At this time, 160 inhabitants called the island home, and operated a fleet of 31 fishing boats. In 1846, the first store in Alpena County was built on the island to support a fishing community, which harvested twelve thousand barrels of fish.
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