Visitors to Put-in-Bay and The Ohio State University’s Stone Laboratory on nearby Gibraltar Island are often greeted by a picturesque brick lighthouse on South Bass Island’s southern shore.
While the South Bass Island Lighthouse tower is no longer in operation, Ohio Sea Grant and Stone Laboratory still use the lighthouse and its grounds for regular tours and education and outreach events, like weekly Put-in-Bay Science Days and the annual Lake Erie Awareness Day.
What’s the history of this unique structure? Situated between lighthouses on neighboring Green Island to the west and Marblehead Peninsula to the east, the South Bass Lighthouse provided guidance along Lake Erie’s south shipping passage for many decades. Its story paints a rich portrait of life on the lake in years past.
“Incorporating the history of the lighthouse into our programming is very important because we’re a part of the island community,” said Sue Bixler, education and outreach specialist at Stone Lab. “It lets us keep all that history in place while extending our outreach programming to tourists and visitors and partnering with community organizations.”
Booming Business Drove Lighthouse Demand
The lighthouse’s journey began in the mid-1800s, when commerce was booming on the Great Lakes, particularly along Lake Erie’s southern shore. On South Bass Island, entrepreneurs gathered timber, limestone, and cordwood and then ferried them to the mainland to be sold.
Ship captains followed the Southern Passage, a popular navigational route that required traveling through a narrow stretch of water between Marblehead Peninsula, Kelleys Island, and South Bass. As commerce grew, so did commercial boat traffic on the passage.
The South Bass Island lighthouse was in service as a key navigational point on Lake Erie from 1897 to 1962.
To navigate these waters safely, ship captains relied on lighthouses to mark the entrances to different ports. While the east end of Marblehead had been illuminated by the Marblehead Lighthouse since 1821, for many years no lights marked the passage between Catawba Island and South Bass Island.
Demand for a new lighthouse increased as tourism flourished on the islands with vineyards, wineries, and other attractions. An estimated 15,000 people visited South Bass in 1859, and by the 1890s the island reached the height of its popularity, marked by the opening of the massive Hotel Victory in 1892. The South Passage became congested with public passenger and private leisure vessels, and traffic problems were brought to the attention of the U.S. Lighthouse Board.
On Feb. 15, 1893, the board approved construction of a lighthouse on South Bass Island and appropriated $8,000 for the project. The U.S. government purchased the two-acre property, located at the extreme southwest corner of the island, from owners Alfred and Mary Parker on May 18, 1895, for a total of $1,000. Construction on the lighthouse was completed in 1897, and it went into service as a key navigation point on Lake Erie.
Features of the Lighthouse
In contrast to many familiar lighthouse designs with a huge tower and small detached keepers’ quarters, South Bass Island Lighthouse contained two and a half stories of living space, a full basement, and an attached tower.
The lighthouse was equipped with a fourth-order Fresnel lens from the French manufacturer Sautter, Lemonnier & Cie. Its bright red beam stretched for miles across the lake.
The Queen Anne style home had many modern amenities, including a laundry room, kitchen range, hot water reservoir, furnace, cistern, and hydraulic force pump. This style allowed the lighthouse’s keeper and their family to live comfortably, while maintaining constant watch of the light. Additional structures on the site include a square iron oil storage building and a large wooden combination garage and barn.
“The lighthouse is very picturesquely situated,” The Sandusky Register said of the lighthouse in July 1897. “Its numerous apartments are ample and airy. They are handsomely finished with gold-tinted wallpapers and gilded moldings, lovely carpets, and rich upholstered furniture. The mantels are beautifully inlaid, bronzed and carved, and everything about the place, above and below, is just as nice as can be.”
The 60-foot tower was fitted with a fourth-order Fresnel lens (pronounced “fray-nel”) that cost $1,500. Fresnel lenses were the standard in lighthouses because the design allowed a smaller lens to reflect and refract more light – providing a bright beam over longer distances.
The lantern at South Bass Island emitted a fixed red light that was visible for 13 miles. Today, the lighthouse’s 10-sided, iron-and-glass lantern, which housed the lens, still sits atop the tower. The lantern is reported to have come from Gibraltar, Michigan, and the Fresnel lens from France.
Keepers of the Light
The South Bass Island Lighthouse was first lit on July 10, 1897, under the care of Harry Riley, the lighthouse’s first keeper. The lighthouse, which contained no fog signal, operated daily from early March to late December each year, helping ships navigate Lake Erie’s South Passage. Originally, oil was used to light the lamp, which was later converted to run on electricity. Inside the tower, a “weight way” and equipment provided a rotational mechanism for the lens.
Charles B. Duggan, one of the South Bass Lighthouse’s 10 keepers, tended the lighthouse from 1908 to 1927 alongside his wife, Bertha, and son, Lyle.
South Bass Island Light was tended by 10 different keepers between 1897 and 1962.
The lighthouse’s second keeper was Enoch W. Scribner, who briefly served from 1899 to 1900. Shortly after, veteran lighthouse keeper Col. J. (Orlo) Mason took over after being transferred from Ashtabula Lighthouse. Mason and his wife kept a good station and greeted many visitors in the summer months at the lighthouse, according to newspaper reports at the time. In the winter months, visitors and friends found “welcome and good cheer” at the lighthouse.
Isolated by location and unpredictable weather, life as a lighthouse keeper could be challenging. For many keepers, the job was a family affair, and everyone pitched in to keep the light shining. Keepers checked the light every three hours at night, logged daily weather conditions, cleaned the lens weekly, and maintained the lighthouse and grounds all year, until the U.S. Coast Guard informed them of the last boat off Lake Erie for the winter.
The lighthouse’s fourth keeper, Charles B. Duggan, began service at the lighthouse in 1908 and apparently enjoyed a good life there with his wife, Bertha. However, in 1927, he met an untimely death, falling 30 feet from a cliff on the west end of the island. Duggan’s son, Lyle, was assigned as the temporary keeper and stayed through Christmas.
“My mother played the piano a lot, and during the winter we would watch for the mail to arrive at the point every day. It was pulled across the ice in an ‘iron clad’ boat with runners,” Lyle later recalled about his life at the lighthouse as a child.
Paul F. Prochnow, the lighthouse’s final keeper, and his wife, Anna, lived on South Bass Island for 15 years until his retirement at age 70 in 1962.
Following Duggan, the next keeper was Capt. William L. Gordon, who was also placed in charge of the nearby Green Island and Ballast Island lighthouses. Serving until 1939, his salary range was between $1,320 and $1,560. He was followed by keepers Frank LaRose (1939-1941), Robert Jones (1941-1944), and Kenneth Nester (1944-1947).
The lighthouse’s final keeper was Paul F. Prochnow, a German immigrant who had been a civilian Coast Guard employee since 1930. During his tenure, he helped convert the lighthouse’s light to electricity. Prochnow had an excellent reputation and was one of a very few civilian keepers to be given a “Distinguished Service” award by the U.S. Coast Guard.
In 1962, after Prochnow’s retirement, the Coast Guard installed a steel tower with an automated light at South Bass. The lens was removed and can now be seen at the Lake Erie Islands Historical Society Museum in downtown Put-in-Bay at the north end of the island.
Recent Lighthouse History and Today
In 1967, the U.S. government transferred ownership of the lighthouse, its outbuildings, and the two acres of land it sits on to The Ohio State University. Since then, Ohio State has used the property in support of academic programs at Stone Laboratory on South Bass Island.
“Incorporating the history of the lighthouse into our programming is very important because we’re a part of the island community. It lets us keep all that history in place while extending our outreach programming to tourists and visitors and partnering with community organizations.”
Sue Bixler, Stone Lab Education and Outreach Specialist
In the late ‘60s and throughout the ‘70s, Ohio State researchers conducted a blackbird migration study on the grounds of the lighthouse, featuring a large walk-in trap where birds were collected and tagged. The director of Stone Lab, Dr. Charles E. Herdendorf, lived in the lighthouse’s quarters in the mid-70s, while the basement was used as the lab’s plankton laboratory in support of research at the nearby Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station. Crew of the Research Vessel (R/V) Hydra were often housed at the lighthouse as well during this time.
Throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s, many staff of Stone Lab resided at the lighthouse along with faculty members teaching courses on Gibraltar Island, guest lecturers, and visiting scientists conducting research on Lake Erie. The lighthouse was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990 and became part of the U.S. Lighthouse Society’s Passport Program in 2004.
The lighthouse went through extensive repair and upgrades starting in 2012 with a new roof, chimneys, windows, water service, and electrical and plumbing upgrades.
“The lighthouse was used extensively in support of Sea Grant education and outreach programs,” said Dr. Jeffrey Reutter of his time as the director of Ohio Sea Grant and Stone Laboratory from 1987 to 2015. “It remains a major asset of the program.”
Today, the lighthouse is primarily used for education and outreach by Ohio Sea Grant and Stone Laboratory. Its location on Lake Erie makes it a reminder of the area’s environmental and economic significance.
The U.S. Coast Guard operates an automated light from a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) tower next to the original lighthouse building. Sensors on the tower – officially called Station SBIO1 – collect weather data for the National Weather Service.
The South Bass Island Lighthouse grounds are open to the public from dawn to dusk, and Stone Lab offers free, guided tours of the lighthouse in the summer. For more information on tours, visit go.osu.edu/lighthouse.
Ohio Sea Grant is supported by The Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) School of Environment and Natural Resources, Ohio State University Extension, and NOAA Sea Grant, a network of 34 Sea Grant programs nation-wide dedicated to the protection and sustainable use of marine and Great Lakes resources. Stone Laboratory is Ohio State’s island campus on Lake Erie and is the research, education, and outreach facility of Ohio Sea Grant and part of CFAES School of Environment and Natural Resources.