Photo: ODNR, I. Brolis

In 1819, the 15th U.S. Congress set aside $5,000 in appropriations to build the second lighthouse on Lake Erie, the first being a lighthouse built a year earlier in Erie, Penn. Throughout the entire Great Lakes, only a handful of sentinels had been built. The oldest surviving is the Gibraltar Point Lighthouse built in Toronto in 1808, and the first on the Great Lakes appears to have been a lighthouse built near Niagara in 1804. The Marblehead Lighthouse is the oldest continuously operating lighthouse on the Great Lakes, operating since 1822 overlooking Sandusky Bay.

Photo: ODNR, I. Brolis

The builder, William Kelly, and two assistants completed the lighthouse in just eleven weeks. It is constructed of limestone quarried nearby. The base of the lighthouse is 25 feet in diameter with 5-foot-thick walls to withstand Lake Erie's beatings. The top narrows to 12 feet in diameter with two-foot-thick walls. Another 15 feet was added to the lighthouse in 1903 till the lighthouse reached its present height of 65 feet. Thirteen whale oil lamps had to be ignited by the lighthouse keeper. Their flames were broadcasted across the lake by a 16-inch reflector of cut glass. In 1858, a Fresnel lens was added. The lighthouse was converted to electricity in 1923, and the last lighthouse keeper left his post in 1946.

Photo: ODNR, I. Brolis

Fifteen men and women served as lighthouse keepers at Marblehead, including the first female keeper on the Great Lakes. Lighthouse keeping was one of the first federal non-clerical jobs permitted to be handed over to women. Most of the female keepers took over for their husbands following retirement or death, as is the case of Rachel Wolcott who manned the lighthouse in Marblehead. A keeper's house is located at the Marblehead Lighthouse State Park and is open as a museum. Nearby, the Wolcott Keeper's House (the home to Rachel Wolcott and her husband) is also open for tours.

In 2008, tours are offered on weekday afternoons from 1 to 4:45 p.m., May 27 through Aug. 29, and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the second Saturday of the month May through October. Sixty-seven spiral stairs lead to the top of the lighthouse where you can witness spectacular views of Sandusky Bay, Marblehead, and the Lake Erie Islands.

Directions:
The Marblehead Lighthouse can be reached by taking Route 2 to Route 269 (Lakeside-Marblehead exit) and heading left. Follow Route 269 till it deadends at Route 163. Turn right and follow through the Village of Marblehead till you reach the peak of the peninsula. Just past the Russian Orthodox Church on the left, you'll see the sign for the Marblehead Lighthouse State Park.

• Birding Hot Spots
• Lake Erie Lighthouse Touring
• Visiting Historic Sites or Museum

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