Long Tail Point Light
The third light in the 1940s (USCG)
LocationSouthern end of Green Bay
Coordinates44°35′45″N 87°59′01″W / 44.5959°N 87.9835°W / 44.5959; -87.9835[1]
Tower
ConstructionFieldstone (first tower)
Wood frame (second and third)
Automated1936[2]
ShapeConical tower (first)
Square house with lantern on roof (second and third)
Light
First lit1848 (first)
1859 (second)
1899 (third)[2]
Deactivated1973[2]

The Long Tail Point Light, also known as the Tail Point Light, was a lighthouse in Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA. Long abandoned but still standing, it was succeeded by two further structures, both since destroyed.

History

Long Tail Point is a sand bar lying at the southern end of the bay; as it lies adjacent to the channel into the city of Green Bay, a lighthouse was constructed in 1848. The structure was built from fieldstone collected at Bay Settlement on the opposite shore,[3] and was originally lit with an array of oil lamps.[2] These lamps were replaced with a Fresnel lens in the 1850s,[2] but soon the light was surrounded by water, and it was abandoned in 1859 in favor of a new house a short distance to the north.[2] The new lighthouse was an integral frame dwelling with the old lantern placed on its roof; it employed a fourth order Fresnel lens.[3] In 1899 the light's distance from the newly dredged channel prompted the construction of a third light, this time on a concrete pier resting on a wooden crib offshore;[2] the fog bell was moved to the Sand Point Light in Michigan.[4] This new crib house was much smaller than the second house, and the keepers continued to live in the latter until automation of the light in 1936.[2] A storm in 1973 washed this structure away and it was replaced by a skeleton tower.[2]

The second house was sold to a private interest on the understanding that it would be moved; however, during the attempted relocation, the structure fell through the ice and was destroyed.[5] The defunct first tower was given away in 1870, to be torn down.[2] The tower's massive stone walls, however, defeated the new owner's attempts to destroy it, and the truncated tower still stands on the sandy spit.[2][3]

Diagram of the light's location on the sand bar

Diagram describing observations made in 1976.

References

  1. ↑ "Long Tail Point, WI". LighthouseFriends. Retrieved 2011-01-07.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "Historic Light Station Information and Photography: Wisconsin". United States Coast Guard Historian's Office. Archived from the original on 2017-05-01.
  3. 1 2 3 Wardius, Ken; Wardius, Barb (2003). Wisconsin Lighthouses: A Photographic & Historical Guide. Black Earth, Wisconsin: Prairie Oak Press. p. 48. ISBN 9781879483606. Retrieved 2011-01-07.
  4. ↑ "Sand Point Lighthouse". Terry Pepper. Retrieved 2011-01-07.
  5. ↑ Harrison, Tim; Jones, Ray (2000). Lost Lighthouses: Stories and Images of America's Vanished Lighthouses. Guilford, Connecticut: Globe Pequot Press. pp. 158–159. ISBN 9780762704439. Retrieved 2011-01-07.
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