Seul Choix, Michigan
Harbour Lights #349

This magnificent lighthouse is located on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in Gulliver Michigan.

In the 1880’s the volume of maritime traffic on the eastern shores of Lake Michigan, Green Bay and the Straits of Mackinaw was growing beyond expectations.

While mariners entering the Straits from the east were under the protection of the Saint Helen Light Station, they were forced to navigate blind along the treacherous, unlit 100 miles of the peninsula coastline on the western end.

After much study and debate the Lighthouse Board revised earlier findings and in 1885 made a request for funding for a new light 20 miles to the west of Point Patterson, Seul Choix Point. Congress agreeing with the Board passed a $15,000 appropriation on August 4,1886.

As the title searches for the selected site were being conducted; the plans for the new Light were being drawn up, completed and approved. When the first bids came back another difficulty arose. Contractors had made bids $3,000. over the original appropriation of $15,000 and a second bidding process was necessary. The second round of bidding produced the same result, with no alternative, the Lighthouse Board was forced to go back and seek additional funding. Realizing the importance of the Light, a second decision had been made to seek funding for a “first class fog light’” at a cost of $5,500. A bill seeking an additional $9,000 in funding was requested and finally approved.

Ninth District Construction Superintendent, Todd with his crew and materials left Detroit Harbor heading for Seul Choix on August 29, 1891.Todd and his crew suffered some immediate setbacks. First the rubble stone that was to be used for the cellar was too soft and flaky, causing a virtual “shut down” of the project. While they waited for concrete to be shipped the weather was also an obstacle in the Fall of 1891, being stormy and cold.

To stay within compliance of the appropriation, Ninth District Engineer Major William Ludlow authorized the construction of a temporary Beacon at a cost of $850, ensuring a Light would be in place for the 1892 season.

On June 22, 1892, Colonel Orlando Roe took over the Seul Choix project only to learn that cost overruns and poor planning plagued the entire project. Poe had no alternative to close down the project and recommend that an additional $6,500. appropriation be sought.

In the summer of 1893 with no funding in sight, an inspection of the site found deterioration of the completed work and it be came necessary to start over.

With the US economy failing and the Congress short of funds, Poe began to look into other Ninth District Projects looking for any unexpended funds that could be directed to Seul Choix. Poe recommended that the $5,000 appropriation for the relocation of the Saint Mary’s River Range Light, that had not been started be redirected to Seul Choix.

Construction began at a high pitch and by June the Keeper’s dwelling was re-plastered, the oil house completed and the Tower had been raised to 54’4” in addition, the brick fog signal building was finished.

In 1925, Seul Choix was electrified and the fog station replaced by a two-tone diaphone. In 1939 the Coast Guard manned the station until 1972 when Seul Choix was automated. In 1973 the Coast Guard left the station unmanned until it sale to the State of Michigan Department of Natural Resources in 1997.