The Need for a Lighthouse
at DeTour Passage

The Michigan Scene

Shortly after Lewis Cass, the governor of the Michigan Territory, returned from his famous exploration of the Lake Superior basin in September of 1820, “Michigan Fever” struck the settlers from the East.  The confluence of aids to immigration and the promise of cheap land and riches flowing from natural resources such as copper and timber fueled this fever.  The first steamboat, the Walk-in-the-Water, had appeared at Mackinac in 1819 and the Erie Canal opened in 1825.  By 1836, 2,000 immigrants per day were arriving in Detroit.  In the period 1830 to 1840 the population of Michigan rose from 31,460 to 212,267, a gain of almost 700%.  The development of Michigan’s Great Lakes frontier was in full swing.

The Lake Superior Basin Scene

In this period, the Lake Superior basin remained largely unchanged.  The primary exports of this region were furs, whitefish and maple sugar.  These products were brought by water over Lake Superior to Sault Ste. Marie and portaged around the rapids of the St. Mary’s River, an arduous and expensive task.  However, Sault Ste. Marie, which had been settled in the 17^th century, was awakening.  With the close of the War of 1812, key Indian treaties were negotiated and by 1822, Fort Brady at the Sault was garrisoned with regular troops.  As early as 1798, the British had established a canal (actually a ditch) with a lock on the north shore of the Sault rapids to allow loaded canoes and bateaux to pass to the St. Mary’s River and onward to Lake Huron.  The American Fur Company, in 1823, built a tramroad on the Michigan side, which used horses to haul the cars around the rapids.  Although these were improvements, the fall of St. Mary’s remained largely insuperable.

The Pull of Natural Resources and the Push of Immigration

The presence of copper in the Lake Superior basin had been known from the earliest days of exploration.  The first mining operation was started by Alexander Henry in 1771 at Ontonagon but failed the same year.  Official news of extensive copper deposits in this region was contained in a report to the Michigan Legislature by state geologist Douglas Houghton in 1841.  This sparked the first great mining rush in the U. S. with 1843 to 1846 being boom years.  The region around the Keweenaw Peninsula became flooded with prospectors, speculators, adventurers, miners, neophyte geologists and immigrants of all types.  Mining fever in the region increased with the discovery of iron ore in 1844 near Negaunee, Michigan.  The rapids at the Sault remained an obstacle to the economical transportation of these ores to the industrial cities on the lower lakes.  Although the Michigan Legislature had approved the building of a canal with locks at the Sault in 1837, disputes over jurisdiction between the State and Federal government delayed actual construction.

The Road to Establishing a Lighthouse

Clearly, ship traffic was as essential to the development of the Lake Superior basin as the covered wagon was to Denver and Salt Lake City and as the steamboat was to St. Louis and New Orleans.  Opening the Sault Canal would be the critical step in this development and marking the entrance to the DeTour Passage with a lighthouse was fundamental to the success of maritime commerce between Lake Huron and Lake Superior.

Recognizing this, the Legislative Council of the Territory of Michigan made the first proposal for a lighthouse at DeTour Passage in a petition to the US Congress on July 30, 1830.  In their words, “Your Memorialists (the Council) solicit your attention to the Straits of St. Mary, connecting Huron with Superior: And they respectfully ask, that an appropriation may be granted for the erection of a Light House at Point DeTour or Drummond Island, as one or the other position may be deemed most eligible.”  It took 17 years for Congress to appropriate funds and finally on April 3, 1847, President James Polk decreed that a reservation be set aside for the lighthouse.

The light at Point DeTour was first shown in the spring of 1848 and DeTour Passage finally had a beacon that marked “The Gateway to Superior”.  In 1855 the Sault Canal was opened and the light at Point DeTour guided an ever-increasing flow of vessels through the DeTour Passage.  The great economic development of the Lake Superior basin was underway.