Sand Hills Lighthouse

Michigan.org

Sand Hills Lighthouse south of Eagle River. Now a B&B, it's one of the most unusual on the Great Lakes.

The dangerous shallow waters off this remote location south of Eagle River prompted the U.S. government to build its last and largest Great Lakes lighthouse here. The final straw, after various shipwrecks, was in 1910 when an ore carrier was stranded on shoals off-shore. A big U-shaped two-residence lighthouse was designed. Because there was no road to the site at the time, all materials were brought by barge. The facility was completed in 1919. A powerful foghorn supplemented the light 91 feet above Superior. The unusual Italian Renaissance design is brick, but not the typical white-painted brick. It's yellowish brown. It looks somewhat like a European manor, and the folks who turned it into an 8-room bed and breakfast decades later have played upon this rather ornate look. Check our lodgings for Eagle River for information on staying there.

The lighthouse is identical to the doomed 1940 Scotch Cap Light on Alaska's Unimak Island. In 1946, that light's 5-man crew perished when a massive tsunami struck the station, destroying it.

4 miles west of Eagle River on the shore road. Open year-round.
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