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Skeletal tower from south

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 Headlines:

Northport Lighthouse
& Maritime Festival

First Trip of
the season

Board Meeting of
May 12, 2009

New plan of the
Light Station

The MLAP Grant
explained

 
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 site 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 2008
Summer 2008: Overgrowth removed, walkways dug out, lantern room protected, metal structures painted after rust removal. Damaged roofs got sealed and chimneys got capped.
 

 

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 1/2 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 just 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.

We look ahead to 2009 with great anticipation for yet another successful year in achieving our lofty yet attainable goal to save this once lonely light! With the many good things that have come to happen, we feel more encouraged than ever before. However, more volunteer workers, donations and grant fundings are needed continuosly - please come help.

Contact

Fox Island Lighthouse Association
PO Box 452
Northport, MI 49670

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

and / or Sandy Bradshaw, co-founder,
at 231-271-0171

 

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

Please click here to download an order form!

Print it, fill it out and send it to
FILA
PO Box 452
Northport, MI 49670

 

 


Latest update: June 28, 2009