Michigan's oldest surviving lighthouse on Lake Huron — first keeper Peter Shook drowned in 1849, making him the first Michigan keeper to die in service; his widow Catherine became Michigan's first female keeper.
7320 Lighthouse Road, Port Hope, MI 48468
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Grounds and park access free; museum admission fee applies for interior tours. Check the official site for current pricing.
Access
Limited Access
Grounds are accessible; lighthouse tower has steep spiral stairs. Cliff overlook areas require care on uneven terrain.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1847 · First Michigan Lighthouse Keeper to Die in Service (Peter Shook, 1849) · Michigan's First Female Lighthouse Keeper (Catherine Shook) · 1857 Tower Reconstruction · National Register of Historic Places
The lighthouse at Pointe aux Barques — French for 'point of small boats' — marks the northeastern tip of the Michigan Thumb peninsula where Lake Huron's open water bends west into Saginaw Bay. The geographic transition creates one of the more hazardous passages on the Great Lakes, with conflicting seas, shoals, and rapidly shifting weather. Federal lighthouse construction at the site began in 1847.
Peter Shook was appointed the station's first keeper upon its establishment. In March 1849, less than two years into his service, Shook drowned during a supply run between the mainland and the lighthouse — an incident that earned him the grim distinction of being the first Michigan lighthouse keeper to die in service. His wife Catherine did not wait for a federal appointment. She continued operating the light, keeping the lens burning to protect passing vessels, and was subsequently recognized as the official keeper — making her Michigan's first female lighthouse keeper.
The current 89-foot tower dates to an 1857 rebuild on the original site; the keeper's dwelling adjacent to it has been preserved and converted into a museum operated by the Pointe aux Barques Lighthouse Society in partnership with Huron County. The grounds are part of Lighthouse County Park, and the complex is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Paranormal investigators from the South East Michigan Paranormal Society have conducted documented investigations of the keeper's dwelling, producing accounts of a rocking chair that moved independently, heavy footsteps recorded in the empty tower stairway, and the apparition of a woman in mourning clothes observed on the cliffs. The apparition is attributed in multiple accounts to Catherine Shook or, alternatively, to Peter Shook's spirit remaining near the site of his death.
Sources
Paranormal investigators from the South East Michigan Paranormal Society conducted a formal investigation of the Pointe aux Barques keeper's dwelling and produced documented accounts of three recurring phenomena. A rocking chair in one of the interior rooms was observed moving on its own. Heavy footsteps were recorded in the tower stairway when no one was present. On the cliffs above Lake Huron, an apparition of a woman in mourning clothes has been reported by multiple witnesses.
The mourning-clothes apparition is almost universally linked to Catherine Shook, the keeper's widow who maintained the light after her husband Peter drowned in 1849. A parallel interpretation holds that the presence is Peter himself, reluctant to leave the station where he served so briefly before his death. The two interpretations coexist in local lore without resolution.
Regional writing on Michigan lighthouses notes that the isolation of the Thumb peninsula, the proximity of Peter Shook's drowning site, and the decades of human habitation at the keeper's dwelling provide the kind of dense historical layering that tends to generate persistent haunt accounts. The investigation findings have been referenced in multiple Michigan-focused paranormal sources and in regional press coverage.
Notable Entities
Guided tours of the keeper's dwelling, now a museum, cover the 1847 founding, the 1849 drowning of Keeper Peter Shook, and Catherine Shook's subsequent tenure as Michigan's first female lighthouse keeper. Tower climbs available when staffed.
Self-guided exploration of the grounds, cliff overlooks over Lake Huron, and the exterior of the lighthouse complex in Huron County's Lighthouse County Park.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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