Huron’s lighthouses have guided Great Lakes shipping since the early nineteenth century. The first of three Huron lighthouses was built in 1835, but because it was made of wood and poorly equipped to withstand strong Lake Erie winds, a fierce storm destroyed it in May 1854. A second, more secure lighthouse, fully enclosed and made of iron, was erected in 1857. The current white, pyramidal lighthouse was constructed in 1939 after the pier was extended to a point three-quarters of a mile offshore, and it was one of the first Lake Erie lighthouses to use an electrically powered beacon for maritime navigation; its light is visible across a twelve-mile radius. Lake Erie commerce was central to Huron’s development, especially through shipbuilding and commercial fishing. The city’s shipbuilding industry began in the first decades of the nineteenth century, with shipyards on the west bank of the Huron River and upstream at Fries Landing. Vessels built at Huron included the Great Western, built in 1838 as the first lake ship with above-deck cabins, and the Golden Age, which at 286 feet was the largest craft on the Great Lakes when built in 1886. As the nineteenth century ended, shipbuilding declined, and commercial fishing then became Huron’s economic cornerstone for more than fifty years through enterprises such as the Huron, Kishman, Scott, and Zimmerman fish companies. By 1950, polluted lake waters had devastated that once-lucrative industry, but both shipbuilding and commercial fishing had shaped the community’s growth for nearly two centuries.