HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
The Great Lakes' last manned lighthouse, where assistant keeper Minnie Cochems died in 1928 and is said to linger still
Sherwood Point Road, Sturgeon Bay, WI 54235
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Tours operated by Door County Maritime Museum; check website for current tour availability and fees
Access
Limited Access
Rural road access; lighthouse grounds may have uneven terrain
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1883 · Last Manned Lighthouse on the Great Lakes (staffed until 1983) · National Register of Historic Places · Minnie Hesh Cochems 30-Year Keepership · Door County Maritime Museum Partnership
Sherwood Point Lighthouse was completed in 1883 to guide vessels entering the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal from Green Bay. The lighthouse occupies a rocky promontory on the western side of Door County, Wisconsin, accessible by a private road that winds through dense second-growth woodland. The original structure — a 35-foot brick tower attached to a two-story keeper's dwelling — survives intact.
The station's principal distinction is its operational longevity. While the U.S. Coast Guard automated most Great Lakes light stations in the 1960s and 1970s, Sherwood Point remained staffed. The last keeper departed in 1983, making it the final manned lighthouse on any of the five Great Lakes. That record has made it a landmark in Great Lakes maritime history, independent of any paranormal reputation.
Minnie Hesh Cochems served as assistant keeper at Sherwood Point for approximately thirty years, a tenure that gave her an unusual standing in the lighthouse's history. She died of a heart attack in an upstairs bedroom at the keeper's dwelling in 1928. Her death was an occupational fact of lighthouse keeping — keepers and their families lived on-site for extended periods, and births, illnesses, and deaths at light stations were not uncommon.
The lighthouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). The Door County Maritime Museum, based in Sturgeon Bay, now partners with the Coast Guard on interpretation and limited public tours. A family descendant photographed what appeared to be a human silhouette in one of the lighthouse windows in 1984, the year after the station was finally vacated — the photograph has circulated in Door County paranormal and local history publications since.
Sources
Sherwood Point's paranormal reputation took a specific shape in 1984 when a family descendant photographed what appeared to be a human form leaning from one of the lighthouse windows, one year after the station was finally vacated. The photograph, taken by someone with personal family connection to the lighthouse's history, has been reproduced in Door County local history and travel writing since then. Whether the image is a reflection, a figure, or something else is not resolved.
The phenomena reported by people who have been inside the building — on tours or during museum operations — converge on a few recurring categories: voices in empty rooms, the sound of teacups or china clinking, and a figure on the main staircase. Travel Wisconsin has documented these accounts in its coverage of Door County's lighthouse-associated ghost stories, attributing the presence to Minnie Hesh Cochems.
Cochems is described in these accounts as a friendly, non-threatening presence — consistent, perhaps, with a woman who spent thirty years of her working life in the building and died there. There are no accounts of aggressive phenomena, no reported apparitions in distress, and no folklore attaching tragedy or grievance to her presence beyond the ordinary fact that she died in the building.
Travel Wisconsin and local Door County publications treat the Cochems attribution as part of the lighthouse's appeal for visitors, pairing it with the historical distinction of Sherwood Point's last-manned-lighthouse status.
Notable Entities
Door County Maritime Museum periodically operates tours of Sherwood Point Lighthouse, the last lighthouse on the Great Lakes to be staffed by human keepers. The 1883 brick lighthouse sits on a wooded peninsula in Green Bay. Check the Door County Maritime Museum website for current tour dates — access is limited due to the remote road approach.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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