Photo courtesy of the State Historic Preservation Office This photograph of the Gull Rock Lighthouse illustrates the rock and its isolation. A boathouse that once stood near the house has disappeared.

LANSING — The Gull Rock Lighthouse is one of two Michigan historic lighthouses to receive a historic preservation grant from the State of Michigan Historic Preservation Office (SHPO). The other is the Charlevoix South Pier Lighthouse, on Lake Michigan.

Gull Rock Light, east of Keweenaw Point, on Lake Superior, was awarded $46,466 through the Michigan Lighthouse Assistance Program (MLPAP).

According to a Tuesday release from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), the Gull Rock Lightkeepers will hire a contractor to clean and re-stain the cedar roof of the lighthouse, which was constructed in 1867. The lighthouse is undergoing restoration and maintained as an active aid to navigation. Funding will also be used to clean and repaint eaves and the exterior of the lantern room, deck, and railing, as well as install historically compatible doors at exterior entries.

Gull Rock Lightkeepers Association President Jeremiah Mason said the MLAP has been a major funder of all the renovation that’s happened at the lighthouse to date, so the nonprofit organization is excited to receive another grant.

Mason said in addition to maintenance on the roof, the funding will also fund restoration of exterior doors.

“Both of the historic doors, the front door and the back door, are missing,” Mason said. “The back door is bricked up with cinder block, so that’s going to be taken out, and a new, historically appropriate frame is going to be installed along with a door and a storm door.” The front door is modern, Mason said, so it will be replaced with a historically appropriate door and storm door, as well.

Gull Rock is an outcropping of conglomerate rock sticking up about 12 feet above the water. Roughly 250 feet long and 100 feet wide, the rock was a frequent cause of complaints from captains and shipping companies. In 1863, a Lighthouse Board committee responded to those complaints regarding the rock, located about half mile west of Manitou Island. After studying the complaints and the area, the committee recommended the placement of a light on Gull Rock. Three years later, in July 1866, Congress appropriated $15,000 for the construction of a lighthouse on the rock.

The Gull Rock lighthouse was bad luck from the beginning. The project foreman, William Tunbridge, who led the construction crew on Gull Rock in the spring of 1867, drowned while working on the rock, and his death delayed the project’s completion until nearly the close of the shipping season.

The lighthouse keeper’s dwelling was one-and-a-half stories, consisting of seven rooms, and was attached to the 45-foot tall, square light tower. Both the brick dwelling and the light were built on stone foundations. The fixed light, which was red, became operational on the night of November 1, 1867.

The lamp was lit by the Gull Rock light’s first keeper, Thomas Jackson. His assistant was Henry Letchen, but for undisclosed reasons, both were removed the following spring, probably at their request. They were replaced by Stephen Cocking, a veteran of the Civil War, along with an assistant. Cocking would retain the post for the next 11 years, but he seems to have had difficulties keeping assistant keepers. Several resigned during his tenure on the rock, and his wife, Mary, eventually became his assistant.

Over the next 60 years, the Gull Rock light would have no less than 20 keepers, the last of whom was Herbert Crittenden. Crittenden served from 1901 until the light closed in 1927.

Gull Rock’s light was automated in June,1913, and the lighthouse was de-staffed. Maintenance of the light was transferred to the responsibility of the keeper at nearby Manitou Island lighthouse, which was where Crittenden was transferred when the Gull Rock light was automated.

Mason said the lighthouse is not “officially open,” because it is extremely difficult to reach it.

“We don’t actually encourage people to try to land on Gull Rock, you can do it with a kayak, but it is a very dangerous crossing from Keweenaw Point, and there isn’t really a way to land a larger boat on the rock, because of the shoal that it’s built on, and there are a lot of rocks and boulders that surround the rock also,” Mason said. He added “if you have a bigger boat, you have to anchor somewhere offshore and use a kayak or whatever to cross, and we don’t encourage people to do that.”

Mason said Funding for this grant program comes solely from the sale of specialty Save Our Lights license plates available from the Michigan Secretary of State. To date, the Michigan SHPO has awarded more than $2.9 million in matching funds to help rehabilitate and preserve dozens of lighthouses for tourists and residents alike to explore and appreciate.

Mason said anyone who wants to learn more about Gull Rock and its history can visit the Gull Rock Light website at www.gullrocklighthouse.org