150 years ago,
Michigan City, Ind. was a bustling fishing and lumber port, second only to
Chicago. Tens of thousands of
tourists and locals gathered on weekends to ride the roller coaster at
Washington Park, wade in the cool waters of Lake Michigan and hike the giant
Hoosier Slide sand dune. Now, it’s
an industrial town. Giant pipes
from the mills dot the skyline and the faint sound of whistling machinery
echoes over the lakefront. The
Hoosier Slide has long disappeared, the tourists have dwindled significantly
and one of the only living relics of the once busy port is the lighthouse.
The Michigan City
lighthouse, which is still in use today, has been around nearly 200 years and
withstood numerous occupants, blistering winters and even abandonment. Though it began to deteriorate and was
almost destroyed, the lighthouse was transformed into the Old Lighthouse Museum
and remains a glimpse into Michigan City’s shining history.
“The lighthouse
was built in 1837 and was a small, white building at the shoreline,” said Laura
Shields, 64, director of the museum.
“In 1858, this building was built to replace the old one, which wasn’t
sturdy and was built for only one keeper.” In 1904 the lighthouse was renovated once more to
accommodate the head keeper and their assistant. It was lived in until 1940 when the lighthouse service was
disbanded and the keepers vacated the property. “At that time no one did anything to preserve the outside. It was falling apart,” said Jackie
Gliden, 82, assistant treasurer of the Michigan City Historical Society
(MCHS).
The lighthouse sat
for years, slowly becoming dilapidated.
Seen as an eye sore, plans were made to tear it down and build a new attraction.
However, in the mid 1960s the MCHS decided to fight to save and preserve the
lighthouse, hoping to transform it into a museum. . “A lot of people didn’t understand the importance of this
building, especially to Lake Michigan history,” Gliden said. “ So the MCHS
found people in the local government that felt the same way and they saw the
advantages to leaving it up.”
History prevailed, and the MCHS received enough donations to reinstate
and protect the lighthouse, eventually converting it into a museum in
1973. “It took eight years to
restore the building and $80,000, which was a fortune back then,” Gliden
said.
The Old Lighthouse
Museum, open from November to April, is filled with incredible artifacts from
Native American arrowheads to real Fresnel lenses used in the 1800s to objects
from shipwrecks to home furnishings from the Victorian era and photos and
objects from Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train. “Everything in the museum has been donated. It truly is a community depository,”
Shields said. “I would call this
the people’s museum. People go,
oh, I have this cool thing and it’s important, what do I do with it? So they
bring it here.”
The Old Lighthouse
Museum is a small inspiration that shows the past continues on to be part of
the future and memories of the historical significance that once was is
treasured. “It’s all in the eye of
the beholder,” Shields said. “But
it’s heartwarming sometimes to see how much people care about this place.”
