The lighthouse was thought up by William Bray as a way to mark his harbor as well as the entrance to the Fox River.

[1] In 1909 Bray found an architect who drew up the plans but he died in that year before he could carry through with the work.

Later after commercial traffic picked up in the port the government realized the importance of the light so they paid some of its expenses.

In the 1920s the lighthouse was operated by the Cook & Brown Lime Company which shipped goods along the Fox River.

[1] At some point the lighthouse was deactivated as the structure no longer appears on the Coast Guard's official Light List.