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Photograph of Big Bay Point Light
Photograph by rossograph, CC BY-SA 4.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Big Bay Point Light Station

Built in 1896. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

From the record

“The Big Bay Point Light is a lighthouse which stands on a tall bluff over a rocky point near Big Bay, Michigan, approximately 24 miles (39 km) northwest of Marquette on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Today it is one of a few operational lighthouses with a bed and breakfast.”

Wikipedia article Big Bay Point Light, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 40 National Register listings published here for Marquette County · listed in 1988 · category: District · built in 1896.

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

The listing

  • Address. 3 Lighthouse Rd., Big Bay, 49808
  • When was it listed? October 1988
  • Category. district
  • Township. Powell township
  • When was it built? 1896
  • National Register reference number. 88001837 - 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

8 since 2005

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 8 fires within 5 miles of Big Bay Point Light Station between 2005 and 2020, burning about 67 acres in total. 2 started naturally. None was 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined3
Debris and open burning2
Natural2
Equipment and vehicle use1

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

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
3 September 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesPOWELL TOWNSHIP FD 2020017 - 2020
12 September 2011Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesSALMON TROUT
10 September 2008Naturalunder an acreMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesSULLIVAN CREEK
9 August 2005Natural2.2 acresMichigan Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
2 August 2007Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMichigan Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
1 August 2007Debris and open burningunder an acreMichigan Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
4 May 2007Missing data/not specified/undetermined3.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
29 April 2007Missing data/not specified/undetermined60 acresMichigan Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Every fire recorded in Marquette County

Mines and quarries near this property

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Big Bay Point Light Station: 1 producer. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Copper. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Kona DolomiteCopperProducerChalcocite, Pyrite, Malachite, Chalcopyrite, Bornite

Every working recorded in Marquette County

Storms near this property

15 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Big Bay, the town this property stands in, in 15 storm reports between 1997 and 2024: 9 thunderstorm wind, 4 hail, 1 flood, 1 heavy rain. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
May 2006FloodBig Bay$100,000no account filed
August 2024Thunderstorm WindBig Bay$2,000Multiple power outages reported north of Halfway Village and in Big Bay as noted on the utility outage map. Time of the report was estimated from radar.
July 2020Thunderstorm WindBig Bay$2,000There was a report of a pontoon boat pushed over and a dock flung up onshore on Lake Independence. The time of the delayed report was estimated from radar.
July 2020Thunderstorm WindBig Bay$1,000There was a public report from a campground in Big Bay of lots of broken tents and awnings, downed branches and small trees. Most branches were 4 inches in diameter. The largest one was 12 feet long and 12 inches in diameter. Time of the damage was estimated from radar.
June 2006Thunderstorm WindBig Bay$1,000A few 4-5 inch diameter trees down.
May 2022HailBig Bay-This was a MPING report from Big Bay of penny-sized hail.
September 2022HailBig Bay-A thunderstorm dropped penny-sized hail just northwest of Big Bay in the early morning of the 21st.
September 2020Thunderstorm WindBig Bay-The Big Bay Lighthouse GLOS station measured sustained thunderstorm winds to 47 mph for 15 minutes with a peak wind gust to 62 mph.
June 2012Heavy RainBig Bay-Locations from Michigamme northwest to Big Bay measured between 1.5 and 2.0 inches of storm total rainfall.
July 2012Thunderstorm WindBig Bay-The wind gust was measured at the Big Bay GLOS site.
June 2005HailBig Bay-Hail lasted for 20 minutes.
September 2002Thunderstorm WindBig Bay-Large tree branches were broken off.
July 1998Thunderstorm WindBig Bay-70 mph wind gust.
July 1997Thunderstorm WindBig Bay-12 inch diameter tree downed.
July 1999HailBig Bay-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Marquette 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.

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 88001837 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Marquette CountyAll 40 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.
  • Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.