South Manitou Island Lighthouse Relighting Ceremony

KAScott_20081011_8056_trailsb, photo by Ken Scott Photography

This Saturday (May 30) the National Park Service invites you to officially celebrate the relighting of the South Manitou Island Lighthouse. Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore installed a replica third-order Fresnel lens in the completely refurbished lantern room of the lighthouse last fall, a historic event was made possible by a partnership between the park service, Manitou Islands Memorial Society, Manitou Island Transit, and Electro-Optics Technology, Inc. The light was tested then, but it was too late in the season for the a formal ceremony.

Starting at 9:00 PM at the Maritime Museum in Glen Haven, a National Park Service ranger will present a half-hour interpretive program about the history of the Manitou Passage and the shipwrecks that made it necessary to install a lighthouse to guide mariners through its hazardous waters. Following the program, Superintendent Dusty Shultz and representatives from the partner groups will provide brief remarks and recognize the numerous donors who made this project a reality. Light refreshments will be served and when it’s dark enough, the light will be illuminated.

Ken’s photo of the South Manitou Island Light features a collection of 350, 30 second still images stacked to create startrails. Check it out bigger in Ken’s sky stuff slideshow.

This image is available for purchase as a fundraiser to help pay off the relighting renovation bills. Contact Ken at Ken Scott Photography for more information.

More about the relighting of the South Manitou Light…

• Light from the South Manitou Lighthouse (includes a cool slideshow)
• A Time-lapse of the relighting by Ken Scott
• South Manitou Light Shines Again (with photos of installation)
  
• A new light for the South Manitou Lighthouse (photos of the lens)
• South Manitou Island Lighthouse Project (details and donations!)