The Rock of Ages Light is a U.S. Coast Guard lighthouse on a small rock outcropping (50 by 200 feet (15 m × 61 m))[9] approximately 2.25 miles (3.62 km) west of Washington Island and 3.5 miles (5.6 km) west of Isle Royale, in Eagle Harbor Township, Keweenaw County, Michigan (see map below).

Even as the United States Civil War and its aftermath slowed construction, a dozen new lights were still lit in that decade.

[12][13] As the new century began, on the Great Lakes the Lighthouse Board operated 334 major lights, 67 fog horns and 563 buoys.

In the 1870s, so as to raise lights to a higher focal plane, conical brick towers, usually between eighty and one hundred feet tall, were constructed.

To that time, Light ships were the only practical way to mark the hazards, but were dangerous for the sailors who manned them, and difficult to maintain.

For 1925, the Board had under its auspices around the Great Lakes: 433 major lights; ten lightships; 129 fog signals; and about 1,000 buoys.

On October 18, 1898, the Henry Chisholm, which was built in Cleveland, Ohio in 1880, ran on the rocks while steaming at 9 knots (17 km/h).

The construction crew established a base at Washington Harbor and used the lighthouse tender Amaranth to ferry men and materials to the site.

When the tower was enclosed, a bunkhouse, mess hall, and galley were built on a timber platform on the rock.

Relative to a sixth-order Fresnel, it was 11.54 times brighter, and would have a useful range of up to 20 nautical miles (37 km; 23 mi).

This ship served briefly in the U.S. Navy to transport troops back home at the conclusion of World War I.

On a cruise of Lake Superior with a contingent of special guests, First Mate Art Kronk plotted a course expected to take the Cox well clear of the rocks and reefs.

Captain George Johnson and First Mate Kronk could hear the foghorn of the Rock of Ages Light.

The Cox sat amidships on the shoal with her bow jutting into the air while her stern flooded with water.

[17] The Rock of Ages Light Station was named to the National Register of Historic Places on August 4, 1983, No.

[28] It was also documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey, because it was a "major engineering feat in an isolated location.

[23] The wrecks of the Cumberland, the Chisholm, and the George M. Cox were independently named to the National Register of Historic Places.

However, it may be viewed from ferries to Isle Royale from Grand Portage, Minnesota,[29] or from Keweenaw Excursions boat tours.

The Sea Hunter III travels daily between Grand Portage, Minnesota to Windigo, on the western end of Isle Royale.

[32] Working as a partner of the National Park Service, the Society plans to open the light to the public upon completion of the project.