Muskegon Breakwater Light stands at the end of the south breakwater at the mouth of the Muskegon Channel, marking the entrance to Muskegon Harbor. Muskegon’s first lighthouse was a wooden tower built on land in 1851, but harbor lighting moved outward as the breakwater expanded, with a steel tower erected there in 1871 and the light serving from 1879. The present red steel structure was created with a new caisson in 1928, a superstructure in 1929, and first illumination in 1930, with new navigational equipment added in 1939. It reflects a long effort to guide shipping safely through waters that have also seen accidents such as the grounding of the SS Henry Cort in 1934.