South Fox Island Lighthouse

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 Headlines:

The Flag Goes Up
– the photos

Artists' Cruise
to South Fox

A great weekend
on South Fox

MLA Conference
in Traverse City

First work weekend
of the 2008 season

Board meeting
of May 13, 2008

Promising youth: a
4th-grader's model

 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.

Thanks for visiting us.
 

 

FOX ISLAND LIGHTHOUSE ASSOCIATION
( FILA )

Old lighthouse & dwelling
The historic lighthouse, built 1867 (right)
and keepers' dwelling, built 1910 (left), years
before FILA's preservation efforts began.
Photo shot by Phil von Voigtlander, Northport.

 

Announcement

The Inland Seas Education Association (ISEA) is celebrating their
INLAND SEAS HOMECOMING EVENT
 July 19, 2008, 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
at the ISEA Education Center in Suttons Bay.

Please visit their Web site by clicking here
(opens in a separate window)


Lighthouse Vote

  JELD-WEN Windows & Doors, a company in Oregon, is doing a promotion by asking people to select a lighthouse from a list of twelve, of which they think it deserves to win new windows and doors donated by JELD-WEN. The only lighthouse in Michigan listed on the ballot is the Grand Traverse Lighthouse at the Leelanau State Park, our big sister, so to say.

Please visit the JELD-WEN Lighthouse Initiative web page
by clicking here and vote for the
Grand Traverse Lighthouse Museum
(opens in a separate window).

 

A lighthouse speaks to our Inner Light.

Probably one of the prettiest islands of the Great Lakes, South Fox Island, lies about 16 1/2 miles north-northwest of Lighthouse Point in Leelanau County, Michigan, making it the most isolated island in Lake Michigan.

To view a map of the Grand Traverse 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. Even today, when visiting the state land on the island, dockage can be risky! But sometimes a ship could hide behind the island from approaching storms. 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, the Fox Island Lighthouse Association (FILA), founded 2004, was given a boat way beyond our wildest dreams. However, ideas are needed along with a way to raise financial support and willing volunteer workers. Please see our Membership information by clicking here.

2006 saw a lot of progress. Much work was done at the lighthouse and the cooperation with the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the Grand Traverse Lighthouse Museum was greatly improved. In summer 2007, FILA's boat was launched, and a lot of work has been done on the buildings of the light station to prevent further decay. Technical problems of the boat engines were solved over winter to get us ready for the 2008 summer season full of rewarding work.

We feel more encouraged than ever before. However, our efforts are still based on a very low budget. Donations and grants are needed to cover our expenses.

Contact

Fox Island Lighthouse Association
PO Box 452
Northport, MI 49670

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

and / or Sandy Bradshaw, Vice-President,
at 231-271-0171

 

We are renewed with each and every person visiting the S. Fox Island Web site. The light and adjacent buildings need all of our support. Please let's all gather willing spirit and strive to save this historic light, in so much need of our help - and as one project together we can make it happen.

 

 

 


Latest update: July 4, 2008