The Tallest Climbable Tower on the Great Lakes
4500 East Grand Lake Road, Presque Isle, MI 49777
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Small per-person fee to climb the tower; modest museum admission. Grounds and park access are free.
Access
Limited Access
Grass and paved paths; 130 steps inside the tower
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1870 · Tallest Climbable Great Lakes Lighthouse · 1870 Third-Order Fresnel Tower · Presque Isle Township Park
The first lighthouse at Presque Isle, on the Lake Huron coast of Michigan's Lower Peninsula, was completed in 1840 to mark the natural harbor formed by the peninsula. By the late 1860s shipping traffic had grown to a level that required a taller and more powerful light. The U.S. Lighthouse Service completed a new station roughly a mile north of the original in 1870, with a 113-foot brick tower carrying a third-order Fresnel lens.
The new station included keeper's quarters, a fog signal building, and supporting outbuildings. Keepers and their families lived continuously on the site until the light was automated in 1970. The Coast Guard transferred the property to Presque Isle Township in subsequent decades, and the Presque Isle Township Museum Society now operates the keeper's house as a museum and the tower as a public-access climb.
The tower's 113-foot height and 130 interior steps make it the tallest lighthouse open for public climbing anywhere on the Great Lakes. The 1905 keeper's house has been carefully restored to its working-era appearance. The lighthouse anchors a 99-acre township park with nature trails and lakefront access.
Sources
The Presque Isle lighthouses sit in pair, the older 1840 station to the south and the 1870 station to the north. Most of the paranormal lore in the area attaches to the older lighthouse, particularly to a former caretaker named George Parris who is locally said to return after death to light the disused lamp.
The new station has its own quieter folklore. Visitors and museum volunteers occasionally describe the sound of a woman's voice or weeping in the upper rooms of the keeper's house, attributed in local tradition to a keeper's wife whose long isolation on the Lake Huron coast affected her health. The historical particulars of this story are not well-documented, and the museum treats the account as folklore rather than fact.
The two lighthouses together appear regularly in regional Halloween coverage and have been featured in 99WFMK's Haunted Michigan series and on Up North Live. The interpretive program at the new station remains primarily maritime; visitors interested in the paranormal lore should treat the accounts as part of Lake Huron folk culture, presented with appropriate restraint.
Media Appearances
Climb the 130 steps to the top of the 1870 tower, the tallest publicly climbable lighthouse on the Great Lakes, then tour the restored 1905 keeper's house museum. Exhibits cover Lake Huron maritime history and the daily lives of the keepers and their families.
Walk the 99-acre Presque Isle Township Park surrounding the light station, with nature trails, a picnic area, pavilion, and views of Presque Isle Harbor and Lake Huron.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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