Marathon Pundit: Upper Peninsula Upventure: Copper Harbor Lighthouse

At the northern end of Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula, you'll find the unincorporated town of Copper Harbor. During the early days of Upper Peninsula's copper mining era, it was a port for shipping that metal. Tourism is now the town's main industry.

The Copper Harbor Lighthouse is not accessible by car--private property blocks access. A ferry ride is the only way to visit the lighthouse--unless of course you have your own boat. As you can see by the picture, I arrived there late in the day--too late for the ferry.

The lighthouse was built in 1866, automated in 1919, and decommissioned in 1933.

I took the photograph from Fort Wilkins State Park, quite some distance from the lighthouse, hence the graininess of the picture.

Horace "Go West, Young Man" Greeley, the editor of the New York Tribune and the Democratic nominee for president in 1872, visited Copper Harbor in June of 1847. According to an historical marker in the town, Greeley wrote that the harbor was frozen away from the shore.

In June? Copper Harbor is way up north, but not that far.

Next: Grand Island Lighthouse

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Eagle Harbor Lighthouse

Copper Harbor sunset

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