Big Sable Point Light Station

Built in 1867. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

From the record

“Big Sable Point Light is a lighthouse on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located within Ludington State Park just north of the city of Ludington.”
Wikipedia article Big Sable Point Light, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 10 National Register listings published here for Mason County · listed in 1983 · category: Building · built in 1867.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 5 buildingss, 1 structure as contributing to the listing.
Still standing. The Park Service records this property as extant.
Address. Big Sable Point, Mason, 49411
When was it listed? August 1983
Category. building
Also known as. U.S. Coast Guard Lighthouses and Light Stations on the Great Lakes TR
When was it built? 1867
National Register reference number. 83004296 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

12 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 12 fires within 5 miles of Big Sable Point Light Station between 1998 and 2020, burning about 5 acres in total. None started naturally. 2 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Recreation and ceremony	5
Debris and open burning	3
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2
Arson/incendiarism	2

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
20 September 2003	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Huron-Manistee National Forest	NURNBURG ROAD
30 July 1998	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Huron-Manistee National Forest	NORDHOUSE DUNES
9 June 2020	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Huron-Manistee National Forest	NORDHOUSE
5 May 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	HAMLIN TOWNSHIP FD 0000080 - 2019
22 May 2009	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Huron-Manistee National Forest	NURNBERG
6 April 2008	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Huron-Manistee National Forest	DAVIDSON
15 November 2002	Arson/incendiarism	2.0 acres	Huron-Manistee National Forest	DUNE
9 October 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	not named

Every fire recorded in Mason County

Mines and quarries near this property

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Big Sable Point Light Station: 1 producer, 1 past producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Silica. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Ludington Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
	Ludington Site	Silica	Past Producer	Sedimentary

Every working recorded in Mason County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Lake Michigan Beach House, Ludington State Park	1.7 miles	2013
Haskell Manufacturing Company Building	7.2 miles	2020
Ludington North Breakwater Light	7.5 miles	2005
William A. and Catherine Cartier House	7.9 miles	2014
Mason County Courthouse	7.9 miles	1988
East Ludington Avenue Historic District	8.0 miles	2022

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 83004296 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Mason County	All 10 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.