Big Bay Point Light

A 20-by-15-foot (6.1 m × 4.6 m) brick fog signal building was constructed. It contained two 10-inch (250 mm) steam train whistles that stuck out of the roof of the building and were operated by steam boilers. In 1928, the steam whistles were replaced by a modern air diaphone.[16]

There were also two small brick privies, a brick building with a metal roof and a door for storing oil for the lens.[16]

On October 20, 1896, the 3rd-order fixed Fresnel lens went into service. It was "fitted with a three-wick burner same as a 2nd order light and consuming the same quantity of oil". To increase the steady white light, partially screened rotating panels were installed, creating "a brilliant white flash every twenty seconds".[16] This lens is considered to be sufficiently significant that models have been made and marketed as technological "diamonds"—"a superior example of mathematical dimension and extraordinary beauty. . . . With its magnificent series of concentric glass prisms, the light would reflect back through the central lens—a perfect example of a 'catadioptric system."[17]

An office was on the tower's lower level, and it was accessible only from the head keeper's side. Each dwelling had six rooms, including on the first floor a kitchen, parlor and dining room, and on the second floor three bedrooms. Each side had a basement cistern to collect water from the roof eaves and a pump in the kitchen to get water from the cistern to the sink for washing dishes. When paint contamination of the cisterns was discovered, water was fetched from the lake in five US gallons (19 l; 4.2 imp gal) buckets.[16]

The aid to navigation was deactivated and sold to private owners. In 1990 the original Fresnel lens was recovered and reinstalled, and is on exhibit.[3]

In 1961, the lighthouse, and 33 acres (13 ha) were sold by sealed bid to Jon Pick, a plastic surgeon from Chicago. The purchase price was $40,000 (equivalent to $267,341 in 2019[18]). Six years of abandonment meant that most of the roof was missing, windows broken and the walls were denuded of most of the plaster. Layers of paint needed to be scraped. Pick's attempt to turn it into a summer home encompassed 17 years of construction and renovation, including upgrading or installing inside plumbing, electricity and a modern heating system. Many rooms were re-plastered. The duplex was integrated into one large building. Period antiques and travel mementos were placed.

In 1979, in his 80s and in poor health, the Pick sold the dream keeper's house to Dan Hitchens of Traverse City. Hitchens added bathrooms and executive meeting rooms, intending to convert the place to a bed and breakfast.[16]

Five years later, Hitchens sold the lighthouse to an investment group of whom the managing owners were Norman Gotschall, and his wife. Bed-and-breakfast amenities were added, the fog signal building was reopened, additional acreage acquired, and hiking trails opened. The new bed-and-breakfast opened in 1986.[16]

Nearing retirement, the Gotschalls and their partners decided to sell, and in March 1992 the lighthouse was purchased by the fourth and present (as of 2015) owners, three avid preservationists from the Chicago area. John Gale, Linda Gamble, and Jeff Gamble had been guests at the B&B and fell in love with the lighthouse and the tiny hamlet of Big Bay on their first visit.[16]

The light was built in 1896[19] at a cost of $25,000 (equivalent to $680,085 in 2019[18]) and automated in 1944.[20] In 1961, the lighthouse was sold to Pick. Pick had it restored and furnished with antiques. It was set up originally as a duplex, so it would have quarters for two keepers and their families. It has been a bed and breakfast[4] since 1986.[21]

Access to the grounds and tours of the light (and fog horn building) are available.[22]