Grand Haven Lighthouse Opens

‘Bringing the Inside Out’

Walking the south pier in Grand Haven: popular for tourists as well as locals who feel like tourists.

And now, walking the pier is better than ever. The short, squat lighthouse at its end, officially the Grand Haven South Pierhead Entrance Light, is open to visitors. On a limited basis now – mostly Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday afternoons – but the plan is to expand hours with additional volunteers.

It’s taken a while. The Grand Haven Lighthouse Conservancy (ghlighthouse.com) was created in 2009 to not only save the lighthouses – there are two on the pier – but also to share them with the public.

Lighthouses belonged to the federal government. The National Lighthouse Preservation Act has given them, at no cost, to local municipalities or non-profits. The Conservancy works with city government, nonprofits, businesses, residents and visitors to “Keep the Lights On.”

Dave Karpin of Grand Haven, a Coast Guard veteran who was stationed in Grand Haven when he retired, is all about that. He’s chairman and president of the Conservancy. After more than 15 years of planning and working, the entrance light is now open.

Visitors can find interpretive signs, including blueprints, on the main floor. Admission is free; a small fee is charged to climb to the upper level which has remnants of the original wood catwalk. “When the waves were crashing over the pier, he (the keeper) would walk on the catwalk so he wouldn’t get washed off the pier,” Karpin said.

The refurbished lighthouse has a kitchen wood stove like one that would have been in the building. An old rowboat that could take the keeper to shore has been restored.
The centerpiece of the room is a Fresnel lens.

Souvenirs in the gift shop include T-shirts made especially for this year. “It’s our second fundraiser,” Karpin said. Earlier sweatshirts read “I helped save the catwalk.”

This year’s option is the “Inside Out” fundraiser because, Karpin said, “We’re bringing the inside of the lighthouse out to the public.”

Additional items include sweatshirts and notecards, with more items coming throughout the season. Popular are “passports” from the United States Lighthouse Society. Each passport is $16; it’s good at well over 1,000 lighthouse sites throughout the country, including more than 100 in Michigan. A suggested $2 donation will get your passport stamped at any of the sites. Passports are available at the lighthouse, the Grand Haven Area Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Tri-Cities Historical Museum.

Jasper Little, in guest services at the museum, said visitors, especially those with children, stop to have their passports stamped and to play in the museum’s maritime exhibit, opened last year. It is a kid-size replica of the pier’s lighthouse and catwalk that invites kids in to play. Admission is free.

Marci Cisneros, executive director of the Grand Haven Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, added, “We assist thousands of visitors each year wanting more information about our maritime heritage. What a treat it is to offer a show-and-tell type of experience of our historic, iconic lighthouses.”

Closest parking to the pier is part of the state park; it requires a “passport” on your Michigan license plate or a fee paid at the park entrance booth.

The history of Grand Haven’s lighthouses began in the late 1830s when the first light was built on the beach. It had a house for the keeper and a separate light tower. The location wasn’t good; weather caused their collapse in 1852.

A second lighthouse was built on a bluff above the beach. In 1905 its Fresnel lens was moved to a tower added to the pier. That tall, skinny tower, officially the Grand Haven Pierhead Inner Light, remains on the pier.

In the 1920s, the foghorn building was moved to the pier end. That is today’s entrance light.

In recent months the Conservancy has led work to clean up both of the lighthouses. Karpin’s wife Kathleen said that last year an elderly woman walked into the entrance light when it was open one day. The woman said her husband, who had died, would have done anything to have been able to be inside the lighthouse.

“We (the Conservancy) are doing the right thing,” Kathleen Karpin said. “The people of Grand Haven deserve to get into their lighthouses. They’re beloved.”