Kathleen Lavey

Lansing State Journal

The North Manitou Shoal Light is a landmark in Lake Michigan, its 63-foot tower warning boaters who pass about dangerous waters.

The White Shoal Light, 20 miles west of the Mackinac Bridge, is known for the distinctive red diagonal stripes it has worn since 1990.

Both are now for sale, along with two other offshore lighthouses, the Minneapolis Shoal Light at the entrance to Little Bay De Noc in Delta County and the Gray’s Reef Light, west of Waugoshance Island off of Wilderness State Park.

Opening bids are reasonable, from $10,000 to $15,000.

But you only own the light station, not the land under it. You have to give the Coast Guard access to keep the lights in good working order and, of course, you need a boat and decent weather even to get there.

And the costs and logistics of renovating are, well, a challenge.

Why buy one?

“It’s so cool,” said Ann Method Green, past president of the Detour Reef Lighthouse Preservation Society.

The Detour Reef Lighthouse opened to the public in 2004 after a $1.2 million renovation. It’s the only offshore lighthouse in Michigan that allows people to stay overnight in its “keeper” program. It also offers Saturday tours from mid-June through Labor Day.

“You can be out there and, all of a sudden, you hear this ‘whooof, whooof, whoooof' and there is this huge freighter that is starting to come across," Green said. "At night, if it’s really clear, you can see the Mackinac Bridge. And the stars are incredible.”

Like the lighthouses that are currently for sale, Detour Reef had some rust and peeling paint and very few remaining amenities.

“You talk to the Coast Guard guys who used to be assigned out here for three weeks straight and ask them what they did,” Green said. “Scraping and painting. Scraping and painting.”

The Detour Reef light is one of 119 lighthouses have been sold or transferred out of federal ownership, with 74 transferred at no cost to preservationists, and 45 sold by auction to the public, according to Cat Langel, spokeswoman for the Government Services Administration, which is conducting the sale.

In the past, new stewards and owners of lighthouses have turned them into maritime museums or used them for museum exhibits, learning institutions or classrooms, residences or even bed and breakfasts.

GSA’s lighthouse sales have ranged from $10,000 up to $986,000 for Graves Light Station in Boston Harbor, Langel said.

Lou Schillinger and others have spent endless hours of volunteer work since they received permission to occupy the Port Austin Reef Light off the tip of the Thumb in 1988. Their goal: get it into good enough shape so they can host visitors there.

“When we took it over, it didn’t have any roof or any windows,” he said. “There were 8 to 25 inches of pigeon manure," he said.

The volunteer group spent the first few years getting the structure weather tight. It’s an ongoing quest to find grant money to help pay for rehabilitation.

Schillinger’s group received the deed to the lighthouse in 2012.

“Now we've begun the aggressive process to completely rehabilitate it, so it can be used and exp­­­­erienced by the public as a working lighthouse,” Schillinger said.

This summer, they’re working on repair of the dock platform. The lighthouse, originally built in 1899, was made to accommodate a crew of six. When it’s finished, Schillinger said, they expect it to hold parties of 10 people or more.

The light is only about a mile and a half from shore, and the water around it is shallow and fairly warm.

“It could be an enjoyable way to spend an afternoon,” he said.

Schillinger said he hopes the Port Austin light will be ready for guests in two to three years, depending on when grant money comes in. He’s looking forward to the day when the renovation is complete.

“I've been working on it for 25 years, and I would like to get it finished before I'm too darned old to get up the ladder,” he said.

Contact Kathleen Lavey at 377-1251 or klavey@lsj.com.

How the sale works

Under the terms of the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act, the U.S. General Services Administration, the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Park Service work together to transfer lighthouses to qualified new stewards or make them available by auction.

After the Coast Guard reports that a historic lighthouse is no longer critical, the GSA solicits interest in the lighthouse from federal, state and local government agencies, as well as certified nonprofit organizations. If no qualified applications are received, the GSA can sell the property through a public auction.

Learn more about the sale at realestatesales.gov.