Name and Location

The Pilot Island Lighthouse, officially known as the Pilot Island Light, is located at the western tip of the Porte des Morts (“Death’s Door”) passage in Liberty Grove, Town of Washington, Door County, Wisconsin, USA. The coordinates are 45°17′04″ N, 86°55′10″ W (decimal: 45.28442, –86.91956).

2. Construction and History

The Pilot Island Lighthouse was established in 1858 with the first light station being built. The current tower, erected in 1858, is a conical brick lighthouse made from locally made brick over a rubble foundation, with a cast-iron lantern room. The keeper’s dwelling, an adjacent 1½-story brick house, is now a roofless ruin.

3. Architecture and Materials

The lighthouse tower stands at 46 ft (14 m) above its base and has a focal plane of approximately 68 ft (21 m) above lake level. The original lens was a fourth-order Fresnel lens installed in 1858, while the current optic is a modern solar-powered beacon.

4. Light and Navigation

The lighthouse serves as an aid to navigation, marking the north side of the treacherous Death’s Door channel between Washington Island and the Door County peninsula. The nominal range is approximately 16 nautical miles (white), with a characteristic of flashing white every 10 seconds (Fl W 10 s).

5. Accessibility and Visiting

The lighthouse and surrounding area are closed to visitors, with no public ferry or dock available. Landing on the island can be dangerous in rough weather. There is no museum use or maintained dock or landing.

6. Notable Views and Landscape

• The surrounding environment features a rocky, windswept island with sparse vegetation, part of an archipelago at the mouth of Lake Michigan.
• The landscape includes nesting gulls and cormorants frequently roosting on and around the derelict keeper’s house.

7. Anecdotes and Folklore

Local folklore tells that the Death’s Door passage earned its name after numerous wrecks near Pilot Island, earning it the nickname “Graveyard of the Great Lakes.” The story goes that former keeper John Rowe reportedly drowned offshore in 1879 while returning from nearby Washington Island, with local legend holding that his ghost still tends the lantern on stormy nights.

8. Technical and Operational Details

The lighthouse was automated in 1962, and the foghorn was decommissioned by mid-20th century. There are no ancillary aids such as AIS or radar installations on site; navigation aid is solely via light. The U.S. Coast Guard manages the lighthouse as a federal property.

9. Further Information

For further reading and information, visit Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot_Island_Light, Great Lakes Lightkeepers Association at www.gllka.com/pilot.html, or Lighthousefriends.com at www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=255.