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Mission Point Light

1870 establishments in Michigan2008 establishments in MichiganHouses completed in 1870Houses in Grand Traverse County, MichiganLighthouse museums in Michigan
Lighthouses completed in 1870Lighthouses of Lake MichiganMuseums established in 2008Museums in Grand Traverse County, MichiganTransportation in Grand Traverse County, MichiganUse American English from September 2025Use mdy dates from March 2025
Mission Point Light (Oct 2020)
Mission Point Light (Oct 2020)

Mission Point Light is a lighthouse located in Michigan at the end of Old Mission Point, a peninsula jutting into Grand Traverse Bay 17 miles (27 km) north of Traverse City. It was built in 1870 as an exact copy of the Mama Juda Light (now destroyed), which was built on the Detroit River in 1866. The foundation is natural and emplaced. The wooden structure is painted white with black trim. The square tower is attached to a dwelling. A fixed white Fifth Order Fresnel lens was installed. The building was only one and a half stories tall. However, its placement on a sand bank 14 feet above the lake's surface created a lens focal plane of 47 feet (14 m). It was visible from 13 miles (21 km) at sea. It has been an ongoing struggle to maintain the dune and protect it and the lighthouse from erosion. The light served to warn mariners about the shoals off the point for 63 years. It was a working lighthouse from 1870 to 1933, when it was decommissioned. However, new techniques in offshore construction and the automation of lighthouse illumination made it possible to build a navigation aid on the shoal itself. In 1938, work was completed for the new stationary buoy light in 19 feet (5.8 m) of water, about 2 miles (3.2 km) northwest of Mission Point. The light runs on batteries. It is on a 36-foot (11 m) tall tower, and its focal plane of 52 feet (16 m) makes it visible for 13 miles (21 km). It has a 30-second dwell time between flashes, in order to conserve power. It is still maintained by the Coast Guard today and only shines North. Famously, the lighthouse stands a few hundred yards south of the 45th parallel north, halfway between the North Pole and the Equator. It was deactivated in 1933 and purchased by the State of Michigan. There are a pair of signs that denote its location on the parallel, one of 29 places in the U.S. with such signs.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Mission Point Light (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Mission Point Light
Old Mission Loop,

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Latitude Longitude
N 44.991305555556 ° E -85.479472222222 °
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Old Mission Point Lighthouse

Old Mission Loop
49673
Michigan, United States
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Mission Point Light (Oct 2020)
Mission Point Light (Oct 2020)
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