Lansing Shoals Light Station stands in northeastern Lake Michigan at the northern end of a narrow shipping passage near the Straits of Mackinac, where growing iron ore traffic made navigation increasingly important. Before the fixed lighthouse was built, the hazardous shoals were marked by lightships, first LV55 and later LV98, but icy conditions showed the limits of ship-based lighting. Congress approved a permanent station in 1926, and it was first lit on October 6, 1928. Built for an exposed offshore setting, the reinforced concrete structure remained staffed until 1976, when it was automated, and it still guides vessels through a difficult stretch of the upper Great Lakes.