Lighthouse of the Week, March 22-28, 2020: St. Joseph Pier, Michigan

Having just featured four Fresnel lenses, I promised to feature the lighthouses that either house them or housed them at one time.   Since I missed a week, this post is a two-for-one;  the St. Joseph Pier Inner and Outer Lighthouses.

First, a link with a cool 360-degree video.  The title is about the outer lighthouse, but both of them are shown in both the still picture and the video.

St. Joseph North Pier Outer Lighthouse

Now, it's not unlikely that you've seen pictures of these, coated in ice (and I've got one picture like that included below).  That's because these lighthouses are frequently coated in ice created by the cold waves and freezing spray of Lake Michigan, as they are located on the coast of Lake Michigan in the state of Michigan and all.

For a general location without looking at the map, they are on the Michigan southeastern coast of Lake Michigan,  just about the same latitude as Evanston north of Chicago.

So, now, let's learn about them.

I'm going to be brief;  there's a lot of information here.  They are the first two lighthouses on the page.

The Outer:

"1906. Active; focal plane 31 ft (9.5 m); white light, 3 s on, 3 s off. 30 ft (9 m) round cast iron tower built at the end of the pier. The original 5th order Fresnel lens is on display at the St. Joseph Heritage Museum in St. Joseph. Lighthouse painted white, lantern and gallery black."

So now you know where the picture of the Fresnel lens came from.

The Inner:

"1907. Active; focal plane 53 ft (16 m); continuous white light. 53 ft (16 m) octagonal steel tower mounted on square 1-story cast iron fog signal building, built midway in the pier; 4th order Fresnel lens. Lighthouse painted white, lantern and gallery black; fog signal building roof is red."

Both of the lighthouses were restored in a project starting in 2013 and finishing in 2016.

So now, the pictures.  I'm sure there are videos too, but this time finding them is left to the reader.