August 8 was National Lighthouse Day, and the thirteen-member Grand Haven Light House Conservancy Board chose that day for the official grand opening with a ribbon cutting ceremony.  The grand opening is the culmination of years of work by Conservancy members in cooperation with the City of Grand Haven and the United States Coast Guard.

A member of the board told the story of a 70-year-old man who made the comment that he’d lived here all his life and is finally fulfilling his wish to get inside the lighthouse. Then there was the 7-year-old girl who made that same comment, all her life she had wanted to see the inside of the lighthouse. No matter the age, 7 or 70, the interest is the same.

There is something majestic about lighthouses. Known as sentinels on the seas, they are watchmen, always standing guard giving sailors guidance to safe harbor.

An Army Corps of Engineers officer who came to inspect the pier before it was resurfaced stated that water is the most powerful force on earth, and for those who have watched towering waves crashing over the Grand Haven pier, there is little doubt that this is true. Powerful storms attract crowds of people to the beach and photographers try to catch the fury of the water as it crashes over the pier.  

Grand Haven has two lighthouses on the South Pier. The inner light, the big red conical light, is the one most often photographed as Grand Haven’s lighthouse. The structure on the end of the pier also has a light, but more importantly, this is where the foghorn was located. When the fog house was first built in 1875, the house and the pier were made of wood. In 1922, the fog house was lifted and put on the concrete base, as it sits on the pier today, and is covered with corrugated steel plates.  

I remember the distinctive sound of the foghorn. It’s a rather mournful sound and once heard you don’t forget it. You could hear it all over town. I don’t remember the year, but I was on the pier once when the foghorn went off and it was bone rattling.  

In the 1970s, the Coast Guard switched the air horn system to an electronic signal which can be accessed by boaters on the lake. The lights on the two lighthouses make a range light system for boat captains.  When to begin entering the harbor, a boat captain lines up the two lights vertically to follow the safe path in.

Interestingly, the importance of the foghorn was evident on August 8, the day of the ceremony. it was a clear day on land, but a thick fog blanket lay on the water from the water’s edge out and completely hid the pier from view. Fortunately, it burned off by the time the ceremony took place.

How The Light House Conservancy Got to Where It Is Today

In 2009, the federal government first made it possible for local governments and nonprofit groups to acquire what the Coast Guard considered “excess light houses” through the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act.

It’s important to understand the entities involved in any work taking place on the pier—the Army Corps of Engineers, the Coast Guard, and the City. The piers are under the control of the Army Corps of Engineers and considered federal government navigation aids. The lighthouses are maintained by the Coast Guard. And the catwalk was built and is owned by the City, so the lighthouse keeper could have safe passage in inclement weather.  Anything that is done on the pier involves these entities working together.  

David Karpin, United States Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer, retired, has long had a passion to acquire the lighthouses. He and his wife Kathleen, worked to establish and incorporate the Grand Haven Lighthouse Conservancy and take on the challenge to raise funds to acquire and maintain the lights and the catwalk. Application was made through National Park Service, and Karpin completed a Condition Assessment Report in cooperation with the City of Grand Haven.

In 2010, the Light House Conservancy opened an endowment with the Grand Haven Area Community Foundation. The Foundation challenged the Conservancy with a $100,000 matching grant toward the rehabilitation fund. The donations received made it possible to apply for a variety of matching grants to do the work to restore and preserve the structures.

Grand Haven has always had a special relationship with the US Coast Guard. In 2012, Lieutenant Sean Brady was commander of Coast Guard Sector Field Office Grand Haven, and it was on his watch that the City took possession of the Light Houses. Care of the structures was transferred from the Coast Guard to the City in dramatic fashion. The night of the City Boards and Commissions Dinner, Brady made quite entrance with a brief case shackled to his wrist. When the seal of the briefcase was broken and the contents revealed, the City received the papers and the key and became the official owner of the lighthouses on the South Pier.  

With the deed transfer, a Historic Structures report needed to be completed to evaluate the condition of the structures and prioritize the things that needed to be done. Grants were received in 2014 and 2017 to get the work started. This included removing lead paint and installing historically correct windows.

In 2019, the US Army Corps of Engineers decided it was time to do the much-needed job of resurfacing the South

Pier. The work could not be done with the City-owned catwalk in place. The catwalk was part of the iconic look of the Grand Haven pier, so the Save the Catwalk Committee was formed. Over a million dollars were raised locally and across the country to save and return the iconic structure to the pier once it was repaired.

Since the pier resurfacing has been completed and the catwalk is back in place, work on the lighthouses has made steady progress.

From 2021 on, the Lighthouse Conservancy has received several grants from the Michigan Coastal Management Program and Michigan Lighthouse Assistance Program to repair and replace with historically correct fixtures as well as to paint the inner and outer lights. There is an interpretive center in the Outer Light House which features a miniature Fresnel lens and a US Lighthouse Service rowboat which was restored by the Chief Petty Officers Association. There is a small gift shop.

There Are More Projects Coming

The 2026 grant from MLAP will be used to finish the interior of the outer lighthouse. The intent is to have the work completed by Memorial Day, 2027.

The outer lighthouse is open to the public, weather permitting, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, from 10:00 am till 5:00 pm. There is a sign at the beginning of the pier to indicate if the doors will be open depending on the conditions on the pier and the mood of Lake Michigan. There are three levels to the lighthouse. Admission is free for level one and two. There is a $5.00 charge to climb the stairs to the third level to see the view from the lighthouse keeper’s perspective.  

The website is GHLighthouse.com, and there is an email to contact the Conservancy if you would like to volunteer.

‍