West side story: Big Sable Lighthouse
A view out one of the portholes on the way up the top of Big Sable Lighthouse. Photos by Bryan Laviolette
This is the second installment in a series of stories about West Michigan tourist destinations.
LUDINGTON — For more than a century, shipping captains counted on lighthouses and their keepers to keep the light shining, warning them of dangerous shallow spots throughout the Great Lakes.
All of Michigan’s lights have been automated for decades, but most of them continue to serve, only with a completely different purpose.
Today, while many of the lights continue to serve as beacons, all of them offer a window into the past, teaching visitors how folks lived in the “old days.”
While visiting Ludington State Park this week, we toured Big Sable Lighthouse, a 1967 structure lovingly restored by the Sable Points Lighthouse Keepers Association, which also maintains the Little Sable Point Lighthouse at Silver Lake and the Ludington North Breakwater light at the mouth of the Pere Marquette River.