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Skeletal tower from south

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 Headlines

The Light Station reduced
to dry figures

HSR Tour completed

Team Lee --
The Sequel

Inland Seas
Music Festival

Island Picnic with
the Firestones

Special Board Meeting
of July 1, 2010

Two boats, twice
the work!

Board Meeting
of June 14, 2010

 

 

 

 
Award: Web Site of the Year 2005
 

If you have ideas to share, please use our guestbook. We need suggestions, positive feedback and support to keep our morale high in tackling this pretty difficult task. So please feel free to sign our guestbook even if you just want to say Hello or wish us good luck.

Please check back occasionally. Our Web site is updated fairly frequently.

Please click here
to visit the Website
of our partner, the
Grand Traverse Lighthouse Museum.

Thanks for visiting us.

 

 

FOX ISLAND LIGHTHOUSE ASSOCIATION


1867 lighthouse 2006
The 1867 lighthouse in summer 2006, with heavy overgrowth and the lantern room exposed to the elements. Roofs are leaking, trees are growing out of some chimneys.

ditto 2010
Summer 2010: Overgrowth removed, walkways dug out, lantern room protected, metal structures painted after rust removal. Damaged roofs got sealed and chimneys got capped.
 

Dear visitor,

2010 is a very important year for our project. An Historic Structures Report (HSR) is being carried out, a costly undertaking but absolutely necessary for the successful continuation of our plans.

The HSR is an important step in the stabilization and preservation of the historic buildings of the South Fox Island Light Station. This professional engineering and architectural report will document in specific detail the required measures needed to save the two lighthouses and other buildings.  

The survey work at the station has been done in July, but the report proper will be several months in the making. However, the HSR team has already prepared a list of structural problems that ought to be solved this season, such as roof leaks, water drainage, air circulation and protection of the upper stairway section on the 1934 tower. The work can be done by volunteers but financial support is needed.

We need everyone who loves this special island to step forward and contribute with a check mailed to our P.O. Box 851 in Traverse City, Michigan 49685 USA,  or via Pay Pal below.

Please give these old buildings a new life.
Thank you in advance for your support.  

 

 
 

A Lighthouse speaks to our Inner Light.

The South Fox Island lighthouse certainly  has spoken to many a person's "inner light" over the course of many years, and that despite being located far off shore. It was in the fall of 2004 that a small group got together to discuss how to save this remote life-saving complex. With no funds, no boat, and not exactly knowing how or what to do, they had a singular desire: to save the light station. Thus the Fox Island Lighthouse Association (FILA) began its purposeful mission.

South Fox Island, probably one of the prettiest islands of the Great Lakes, lies about 16 nautical miles north-northwest of Lighthouse Point in Leelanau County, Michigan, making it the most isolated island in Lake Michigan. The State of Michigan owns one third of the island, which includes the lighthouse complex under the jurisdiction of the Department of Natural Resources (DNR).  

To view a map of the area please click here.

The island is crescent shaped and has 11 1/2 miles of shoreline and 2,100 acres of nearly unspoiled wilderness. There is some evidence that French explorers visited North and South Fox Islands in the early 1600s. South Fox has no natural harbor. A lighthouse was erected in 1867 on the southern tip of the island. It was abandoned and left to decay in 1959.

Help is needed to save this light. The biggest obstacle, the island's remote location, has become less intimidating since our group was given a boat way beyond our wildest dreams. However, saving a lighthouse is no easy feat by anyone's standards. The island's remoteness and the cost of boat maintenance, repairs and gas -- needs are indeed great. Will you join in helping?  

Please see our Membership information by clicking here.

In just a few short years much progress has been made. We have grown from a small group to an increasing number of like-minded persons unified in preserving this historic part of Great Lakes maritime history. FILA has partnered with the DNR and also with the  Grand Traverse Lighthouse Museum in Northport, where a visual link to the light station is on display via a live web cam.

Volunteer workers, donations and grant fundings are needed continuously - please come help.

Contacts

Fox Island Lighthouse Association
P.O. Box 851
Traverse City, MI 49685

You may contact John McKinney, co-founder and President of FILA,
at 231-947-1926

and / or Cathy Allchin, Vice-President
at 231-883-7645

South Fox Island Lighthouse T-shirts and hoodies
designed and made by Team Nickerson
are available!

Please click here to download an order form!

Print it, fill it out and send it to the address above.

 

Latest update: August 22, 2010