After serving in this capacity for six years, the structure was threatened in 2004 when MDOT decided to rebuild the welcome center and demolish the tower.

Over a two-year period, the redundant structure was cut apart, trucked to St. Ignace, and re-erected, this time as a functional aid to navigation with a working light.

Serendipitously, while attending a conference for municipal officials, St. Ignace civic leaders learned of its availability.

[3][7] The civic leaders successfully applied to serve as the new location of the structure, and the lighthouse was disassembled into five pieces and trucked more than 330 miles (530 km) from Monroe to East Moran Bay in St. Ignace, Michigan.

[3] As Morris explained to the St. Ignace News, "his lighthouses were to be designed as museum-quality attractions at welcome centers ... to make an imposing first impression on visitors."

The lighthouse is now an official United States Coast Guard privately maintained aid to navigation, USCG 7–12608, on Lake Huron.

[2] The chosen location for the rebuilt lighthouse was the former St. Ignace railroad pier, originally built in the 1800s as the home port of a train ferry.

Operated by a joint venture that included St. Ignace's Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway, the ferry shuttled railroad cars across the Straits of Mackinac.

Designed by Frank E. Kirby and built by the Toledo Shipbuilding Company, the Chief "carried as many as 28 rail cars per trip between Mackinaw City and St.

"[6] The ferry boat, in turn, had been named in honor of a leading Straits of Mackinac local resident of the 1700s, the Odawa clan leader Wawatam.