North Manitou Shoal Light Station is a rare offshore Great Lakes lighthouse built in open water on a concrete crib in Lake Michigan southeast of North Manitou Island. Before the permanent station was completed in 1935, the shoal was marked by a succession of lightships beginning in 1910 as plans and funding slowly came together. The compact steel structure housed generators, living quarters, and a tower, and was staffed by a three-man crew until automation in 1980, when it became the last manned offshore light in the Great Lakes to lose its keepers. Now restored by a nonprofit, it remains both a navigational landmark and a notable example of twentieth-century offshore lighthouse engineering.