Point of Little Boats: A Visit to Huron County

If you connect the dots of all the places we visited while criss-crossing the Thumb, our travel path would likely resemble a spider web. There was a lot to discover. Cute little towns planted in the rolling farmland, antique shops jammed with treasures, friendly locals, great eats, and miles and miles and miles of craggy coastline. You’re probably wondering if I’ll ever blog about anything other than lighthouses, but hey … this is Michigan. It’s a peninsula. With miles and miles and miles of lakeshore we’re gonna have lots and lots and lots of these coastal beauties. We ended our weekend tour the way we began.

There are differing opinions as to how Huron County was named. Most agree it was an altered form of the French word Hure, “head of a wild boar,” for the untamed appearance of a tribe of Native Americans. (Ironically, the tribe never adopted this name; they instead called themselves Wendat (Wyandotte), “dwellers on a peninsula”). The county, which is located at the tip of the Thumb, has over 90 miles of Lake Huron beaches and more shoreline parks than any other county. We were headed to one in particular.

Located in Lighthouse County Park, the Pointe aux Barques Light ranks among the ten oldest lighthouses in Michigan. Its name means “point of little boats” and characterizes the shoals and reefs that lurk beneath the shallow waters presenting a hazard to the watercraft that rounds the Thumb from Lake Huron into Saginaw Bay.

The U.S. Lighthouse Service built the first beacon on this site in 1847 after President Polk appropriated $5,000 for its construction; Peter Shook was its first light keeper. His wife Catherine took over after he drowned in 1849 and became Michigan’s first female light keeper (while simultaneously raising eight small children!). There were a total of ten different light keepers of the Pointe aux Barques Lighthouse.

In 1857 the lighthouse and dwelling were replaced with the present 89-foot tower and attached house. A brick assistant keeper’s house was added in 1908. When the last keeper retired in 1939, the Coast Guard converted the tower to an unmanned lighthouse.

By the time we arrived the winds were whipping and the ominous skies threatening to burst. But this type of weather is exactly why lighthouses were built. Bring it on! We poked around the keeper’s dwelling, which today houses a museum containing memorabilia of the lighthouse, its history and keepers, as well as many ship wrecks that lie under the local waters. You can also climb 103 steps to the top of the tower, but it was too late in the day for us to do so. That’s probably a good thing with my fear of heights.  Though I would have (eventually) made the effort, I was just as happy to enjoy this one from the ground.

This stop proved to be a great end to a great weekend! Let’s see what else Michigan has to offer …