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Ontonagon Light was built to guide shipping into the growing Lake Superior port of Ontonagon, where demand for a navigational aid led to federal funding in the late 1840s and early 1850s. The first wooden lighthouse was completed in 1853, equipped first with Lewis lamps and then a fifth-order Fresnel lens in 1857. After the structure deteriorated, a new brick lighthouse and keeper’s dwelling were finished in 1867, with later practical additions in 1889 and 1890. The light was discontinued in 1963 and closed in 1964. Restored after the Ontonagon County Historical Society acquired it in 2003, it now preserves an important part of Michigan’s maritime history.
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Ontonagon, Michigan · United States
