Stannard Rock Lighthouse is known as “the loneliest place in the world” located on the north side of Lake Superior, off the Keweenaw Peninsula in the state of Michigan, USA. Built in 1882, this lighthouse has a visibility of up to 24 miles (about 38.6 km) and is located on a large reef.
According to Amusing Planet, the closest land to Stannard Rock is Manitou Island, about 40km northwest of the lighthouse. This is probably the reason that makes Stannard Rock the most remote lighthouse in the US in particular and the world in general.
Location of Stannard Rock Lighthouse on the map.
The reef where the lighthouse is located today was discovered in 1835 by Captain Charles C. Stannard. Stannard was amazed to see an unidentified obstruction far from shore in the midst of clear water. The rocky beach was only about 1.2m below the water surface, the captain realized the danger from this invisible mountain to ships passing here.
As maritime traffic in this area becomes more congested, the potential danger of coral reefs also increases. The U.S. Lighthouse Administration thinks navigational lights are needed for the area, but it’s not certain if any structures can stand in the middle of the world’s largest freshwater lake, known for ferocious storms like Superior.
In 1868, for testing, this unit placed a stone slab with a diameter of about 3.6m in the shallowest part of the reef, above which a daytime beacon 6m high was erected. A few years later, when they saw that this structure could still stand after storms and snow, the engineers were confident they could build a lighthouse on the reef that Charles C. Stannard discovered. go out.
The tower was finally completed and lit for the first time in 1882.
It took five difficult and arduous years for the engineers to complete the construction of this lighthouse. Each spring, they return to the reef to repair what last winter’s storm destroyed. At times, the workers lament that over the course of five years they have repaired more than they have built. In the summer, work is often delayed because of bad weather. During the period from 1878 to 1879, the construction team could only work 61% of the time because of the storm.
The tower was finally completed and lit for the first time in 1882. It is 23.7m high, with 7 floors, including kitchen, bedrooms, library, observation room and telescope… Total 240,000 tons of steel and stone were used, so the new lighthouse could last for hundreds of years.
Life in this remote outpost was extremely lonely and harsh.
Life in this remote outpost was extremely lonely and harsh. The keepers of the Stannard Rock lighthouse are mostly single young men without a wife or girlfriend on the mainland to relieve homesickness. This place is so remote that the US Coast Guard still whispers to each other today: “If you cause trouble bad enough, they will banish you straight to Stannard Rock”.
Louis Wilks, lighthouse keeper from 1936 to 1956, set a record of 99 consecutive days living on Stannard Rock. It is a feat that no one has been able to overcome, because each person is only allowed to come ashore once every three weeks.
Extreme loneliness is what the lighthouse keepers must face.
Extreme loneliness is what the keepers of this lighthouse must face. Every day they just hang around on the watchtower, not seeing the land and only the seagulls screaming, surrounded by the crashing waves. One man once threatened to swim to shore himself, if no boat came to pick him up right away. There was even a rumor that one person had gone mad and had his hands and feet tied when he was taken away.
Violent storms create waves up to 9 m high that hit the tower, strong enough to knock things off wooden shelves and dishes from tables. If they had to go out when it was windy, the lamp-keepers had to tie themselves with ropes so they wouldn’t be blown away.
There was no land to be seen here, not even the seagulls howling.
When spring came, the lighthouse keepers had to use large axes to break the thick snow and ice. In 1913, the entire tower was covered in ice more than 3.6 meters thick. It took a 12-man rescue team a week to rescue the guards trapped inside.
However, the real tragedy happened at Stannard Rock on the night of June 18, 1961. Around 9:30 pm, more than 3,700 liters of gasoline stored for the generator exploded, causing the whole tower to shake. The explosion ignited the propane gas chamber and coal bunker so strongly that part of the limestone near the lighthouse melted.
This place is closed for sightseeing, visitors can only observe from the boat or plane.
A 35-year-old engineer was killed and three others were injured in the line of duty. The three men hope to be rescued soon. But it was not until two days later that a passing Coast Guard patrol boat realized that the beacons were not working and could not communicate via radio with the watchers. Upon reaching the lighthouse, the coast guard found three survivors. These people broke the door to climb out to the windy balcony, taking an old tarp to cover.
A year later, the lighthouse was automated. This place is closed for sightseeing, so visitors can only observe from the boat or plane over here.
