Touring Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse

Open May 11 - October 8, 2023
$9.75 admission $7 ages 5-12

Lighthouses of the Straits of Mackinac

Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse

Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse was built in Mackinaw City, Michigan in 1892. It remained in operation until 1957, when the construction of the nearby Mackinac Bridge made it no longer necessary. The property was purchased by the Mackinac Island State Park Commission in 1960.

In the early 1972, the entrance to Fort Michilimackinac was moved from near the fort to beneath the foot of the Mackinac Bridge and the shoreline from the Mackinac Bridge to Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse was fenced off as a new Michilimackinac Maritime Park, which was included with admission to the Fort. The maritime park included a small shipyard where a 55' replica of the 1774 armed sloop Welcome was constructed over several summers and a museum was located in the first floor of the lighthouse. The tower was off limits to the public, but a TV camera was mounted at the top and it could be operated by people going through the museum.

In the late 1980s, the lighthouse museum was closed, the fences were removed from east of the Mackinac Bridge and public access to the shore resumed. But in 2000 the fog horn building was reopened as a new visitors center & gift shop, and major conservation and restoration of the lighthouse began. Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse reopened in 2004 with much of the first floor looking like it did when the light was in operation. The tower was finally opened to the public and costumed docents take small parties to the lantern room at the top of the tower.

The first building which used as a fog horn building, and later used for storage, is currently being reconstructed to house a new Straits of Mackinac Shipwreck Museum sometime in the summer of 2014.

Straits of Mackinac lighthouses

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Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse fog signal building

The second fog signal building (opened in 1907) service as a gift shop and admission building today.

Lighthouse keeper's kitchen - Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse
Lighthouse keeper's kitchen restored to the style of the 1910s.

Lighthouse keepers quarters aqt Old Mackinac point Lighthouse - Mackinaw City, Michigan
Lighthouse keepers quarters with period furniture.

Mackinac Bridge on the Great Lakes
The Mackinac Bridge as seen from the lantern room at the top of the lighthouse tower.

American flag - Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse
American flag, fog horn building and the Riviera Motel.

Old mackinac Point Lighthouse museum
Rather than restore the assistant lighthouse keeper's quarters, that apartment houses a museum.

Old Macknac Point LIghthouse Fresnel lens
This 4th order Fresnel lens was one of at least three which served at Old Mackinac Point between 1892 and 1957.

Straits of Mackinac Shipwreck Museum at Old Mackinac Point Light Station

Allow an extra 30 minutes just for the Straits of Mackinac Shipwreck Museum

Cedarville shipwreck exhibit in the Straits of Mackinac Shipwreck Museum
The 640' Cedarville, which was lost along with 10 of the crew members on May 7, 1965.

Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse barn - Mackinaw City, Michigan
Original barn which had moved away and was moved back to Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse in 2006.

Straits of Mackinac shipwreck video and maps
The 15 minute program Shipwrecks of the Straits plays continuously in the barn..

Map to the Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse

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