The "only choice"

This armchair traveler is headed to Michigan's Upper Peninsula to visit a spot once known only to Native Americans and French fur traders. A blog reader fortunately brought it to my attention--and I do love adapting lighthouses which hold special meaning for those of you kind enough to follow my needlepoint adventures!

Seul Choix Point lighthouse stands watch over a small harbor on Lake Michigan on the south shore of the Upper Peninsula approximately 60 miles west of the Straits of Mackinac. The location was dubbed Seul Choix, or "only choice," by the French as it was the only safe refuge for canoes heading toward the straits across Lake Michigan's rough waters. The lighthouse is the one bright spot remaining in what once was a thriving fishing community in the 1800s.

Completed in 1895, the conical brick tower stands almost 79 feet high and housed a third order Fresnel lens which was subsequently automated. Its two-story keeper's house, large enough to house two families, was restored and furnished to look the way it did in the early 1900s. A small, enclosed corridor leads from the house to the tower itself.

As is true of so many lighthouses, tales of ghostly inhabitants surround Seul Choix Point lighthouse. Could footsteps sounding on the tower stairs, items moved within the keeper's house exhibit, and the strong smell of cigar smoke be signs of a former keeper still at work?

Designated a National Historic Landmark, the lighthouse is now operated by the Gulliver, Michigan, Historical Society and is open to the public from Memorial Day to October.