Located at the mouth of the Manitowock River at Manitowock,
WI, stands the Manitowock Breakwater Light. Some people have said this lighthouse
reminds them of a wedding cake.
The original lighthouse, built nearby here in 1839, had a 1 1/2
story brick keepers dwelling built a few yards from a 30-foot brick tower.
Because the structures sat on a hill, off picture, the focal plane of the light was 63 feet
above the water. In 1859, the top ten feet of that tower was torn down, and then
rebuilt adding one additional foot. Purpose of the rebuild was to accommodate a
larger lantern room and a fifth-order Fresnel lens. That lighthouse operated
until 1877 when it was discontinued. Eventually, it was torn down after
construction of the breakwater light.
In 1918, this breakwater lighthouse was constructed of
concrete. The light tower itself is erected atop a single story structure which
rises out of a lower level fog signal building which in turn is mounted on a
massive crib. All of this stands 52 feet tall above Lake Michigan. In 1971 the
light was automated. Then in 2002, the fifth-order Fresnel lens was removed and
placed in the Wisconsin Maritime Museum. (I visited this lighthouse in 2002 and it was still active at the time.) In 2009, the Coast Guard declared the
lighthouse excess, and it was eventually sold at public auction to a private
citizen. Click on the above picture for a closer view of the lighthouse.
