Martin Reef Light
By Dave Wobser and Colt Edin

Located at the north end of Lake Huron, between the St. Mary's River and the Straits of Mackinaw, about 7 miles south of the Les Cheneaux Islands to warn boaters of shallow water. The light also marks the entrance to Port Dolomite.

The station is a duplicate Poe Reef Lighthouse, except for the paint job, which was built in 1929. Poe Reef is painted with black and white horizontal stripes. The crew that built Martin Reef moved to Poe Reef and constructed that light the following year.

The white 25-foot square, 3-story, 38-foot high, steel-plated building sits on a 60-foot square concrete platform 17-feet above the water. The lantern sits on a small, square 10-foot high tower crowned by a white railing with a focal plane 65-feet above the lake.

The lantern originally held a Third Order Fresnel lens that was made by Sautter and Company of Paris. Today a Fouth Order lens produces light.

The Martin Reef light can only be viewed by private boat or airplane.

Click on images to enlarge

Photograph by Dave Wobser

A 2008 view by Dan Vernier